General Assembly

STUDY GUIDE

THE VIEWABILITY PROBLEM

Digital media allows marketers to measure ad impressions on an individual level. The promise of
individual measurement is part of what makes digital so exciting — and part of what makes it such a
headache.

The History of Viewability

Back in the day, the number of ad impressions that a publisher served to an advertiser was counted — and
billed for — regardless of whether or not people saw them. This led to a problem. Advertisers would give
"last-touch" conversion credit to ads that were the last to have been served before someone converted,
even if there was no possibility that the impression could have had an impact on the conversion, because
nobody actually saw the ad.

In 2011, some of the top associations in the ad industry came together to "fix digital measurement" by
forming a project called "Making Measurement Make Sense" (3MS). Its agenda was to define a standard
for whether or not an ad served counted as viewable.

The 3MS viewability standards are non-binding — there are no viewability police who are going to make
sure you’re abiding by them and fine you if you’re not.

Viewability standards
» Desktop: Fifty percent of an ad’s pixels must be in view for at least one continuous second.
» Video: Fifty percent of a video's pixels must be in view for at least two continuous seconds.
» Mobile: While some in the industry have tried to enforce different standards for mobile environments
given the speed at which users scroll through their newsfeeds, viewability standards are the same as
desktop display.

There’s also the question of what percentage of ads served by a publisher should be viewable. Viewability
benchmarks of how many impressions you should expect to be viewable in a campaign can vary from
country to country, but many sources put that average between 40 and 80 percent. The joint IAB and 3MS
standard for "good" viewability rates is 70 percent of desktop display and video impressions being in view.

Playing by the viewability rules

Social media platforms have been behind the curve in adopting the 3MS mobile viewability standards.
Facebook’s definition of a view, for instance, requires neither 50 percent of pixels to be in view nor one
continuous second. The rationale is that user behavior differs in this environment and thus Facebook
should not be held to the same standard, although not everyone agrees.
Achieving Viewability
Some agencies and marketers have factored viewability into all of their buys, paying vCPM (viewable cost
per mille) or CPVM (cost per viewable mille), which are synonymous — basically saying they’re not paying
for any non-viewable impressions. You might choose to do this, but keep in mind that vCPM costs are
going to be higher than the rate CPM so that the publisher can make up for these lost impressions.

Some vendors are taking a more proactive stance when it comes to viewability, offering advertisers
viewable impressions as table stakes. This approach might accelerate the adoption of more meaningful
standards that everyone can agree on.

Viewability Vendors
Many vendors offer technology to help marketers better measure the performance of their ads. The
technology each company uses to measure viewability, whether it’s a single method or a combination of
multiple techniques and algorithms, is proprietary. What that means is, if you’ve engaged one viewability
vendor and your partner (whether advertiser or publisher) has engaged another, you might end up with
different numbers on your campaign. The IAB accepts a 30–40 percent discrepancy between viewability
vendors as the norm.

That discrepancy can come from...

* Methodology: The two general ways of measuring viewability are page geometry (performs geometric
triangulation to determine the position of the ad in relation to the browser window) and browser
optimization (monitors a browser's internal processes to determine if an ad is being rendered).
* When a view "starts"
* How measured impressions are calculated by comparing total impressions, eligible impressions, and
measured impressions.
* How non-human traffic is factored in.

Here are some popular viewability vendors:

* Moat: Best known for measuring viewability on video ads, but it also measures viewability of display ads
— all across desktop and mobile. It collects data to support measurement with respect to the strict
GroupM standard of having 100 percent of pixels in view, the sound on, 50 percent of the ad played, and
the play initiated by the user.
* Integral Ad Science (IAS): In addition to measuring viewability, IAS also offers advertisers tools to
measure for fraud and manage brand safety. It provides integration with most DSPs.
* Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings (DAR): Nielsen's Digital Ad Ratings product integrates with several vendors,
such as Moat and IAS. DAR offers advertisers a single tag for capturing measurements from multiple
vendors across multiple metrics, including viewability. It enhances its audience demographic
measurements with insight into whether or not ads were viewable by specific audience segments.
* Comscore vCE: Offers viewability measurement in the context of cross-media campaign targeting — not
simply whomever received impressions through a specific medium. It also considers targeted impressions
in terms of related metrics, such as brand safety and geography.

Questions to Ask Your Viewability Partners

» Ask each other:
What viewability standard do you adhere to?
 What vendors do you use to measure viewability, and are they MRC-verified?
» Ask a publisher:
What are your benchmarks for viewability rates?
Are there certain placements or creative sizes where you see better viewability performance?
How will non-viewable impressions be accounted for in my budget? (I.e., will the publisher offer
a make-good?)
» Ask an advertiser:
What is your most important success metric for this campaign?
How does viewability factor into your objectives?
What are your minimum requirements?