Optimizing ad campaign performance hinges on maximizing viewability, a key metric that measures whether ads are actually seen by users. Explore the challenges for both advertisers and publishers in achieving high viewability rates and solutions for improving ad visibility and revenue through real-time data and targeted strategies.
Author: Optimera
Enhancing the effectiveness of an ad campaign hinges on maximizing its visibility to a site’s visitors, a concept known as viewability. Viewability stands as a paramount concern for both publishers and advertisers. But what exactly does achieving viewability entail?
Viewability is a digital advertising metric that measures impressions that were seen by a human and is gauged by whether an ad on a webpage has a genuine opportunity to be visible within a browser window. The industry agreed standard as defined by the Media Rating Council (MRC) defines viewability as: 50% of an ad’s creative pixels must be in view for at least one second.
While ideally all ads on a webpage will be visible, factors such as ad layout, user behavior, loading times, or improper ad placement (ie: off-screen ads) can impede viewability.
Consequently, third-party measurement firms began tracking viewability key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure accurate ad measurement. Surprisingly, these viewability vendors discovered that a significant portion of online ad placements went unseen.
Consider the landscape of viewability during its initial measurement:
Best case scenario: Paying for 100% viewability, yet achieving only 69%.
Worst case scenario: Paying for 100% viewability, but only achieving 46%.
The Challenge for Advertisers
Depending on an ad’s placement on a webpage, whether it occupies prime real estate or lingers at the page’s periphery, and user behavior (it’s very common that the top leaderboard, often considered prime real estate, has low viewability) it’s all too easy for it to go unseen.
In the past, advertisers and publishers lacked the means to assess whether ad campaigns were seen/viewable. However, with access to viewability measurement vendors and metrics, both parties can now scrutinize ad performance. This newfound transparency prompts advertisers to question the value of their investments when confronted with low viewability rates.
From the advertiser’s perspective, paying premium rates for subpar viewability is undesirable. Thus, the question arises: How can advertisers ensure that they invest in high viewability placements?
The Challenge for Publishers
Advertiser expectations for viewability have surged while publishers grapple with inadequate solutions to meet these demands. Consequently, publishers suffer revenue losses from advertising. When advertisers withdraw campaigns due to poor viewability, it impedes publishers’ ability to generate quality content, often resulting in content recycling and diminished relevance.
Viewability: The Current Landscape and AdTech Solutions
For several reasons, outlined below, AdTech vendors cannot offer a definitive optimization for the sell side:
- Publishers cannot easily redesign and lift restrictions on websites
- Major players offer generic solutions that fail to satisfy individual publisher needs to achieve success for their advertiser partners
- Eliminating non-viewable inventory sacrifices impressions and revenue
- Lazy loading fails to guarantee viewable impressions and comes at a heavy cost to revenue
The question persists: How can publishers optimize campaign delivery to impressions that ad tech vendors will validate as in-view effectively, efficiently, and profitably?
The sell side needs publisher lens solutions
Only publishers can optimize!
Publishers need to rely on real-time, URL level data in order to signal to the ad platform to only deliver creatives if they will be measured as viewable. This process achieves the advertiser goal the first time, eliminates make-goods, and provides an easier path to renewals.
By avoiding over-delivery, compensating for underperforming campaigns, and optimizing inventory allocation, sellers surface impressions and optimize campaign delivery to inventory that will be measured as viewable, validated by third party vendors. This in turn aids publishers in surpassing buyers’ key performance metrics, simultaneously improving advertiser outcomes while driving publisher revenue growth.
Granular, real-time data from every pageview drives results for both publishers and advertisers.
Benefits for Direct Sold Campaigns and Private Marketplace Deals:
Direct Sold Campaigns
- Selectively access viewable inventory
- Create orders targeting specific viewability segments, e.g: 70%
- Validate through clients’ third-party ad measurements
- Preserve impressions
Private Marketplace Deals
- Identify buyers seeking viewable inventory
- Upsell from open exchange to Private Marketplace (PMP)
- Facilitate transition to Direct Sold
Open Exchange
While viewability measurement vendors including Active View measure for and cater to advertisers, publisher tech provides optimization solutions that enable publishers to achieve the goals of their advertiser partners.
View the original article here