A growing number of advertisers and their agencies are looking for 100% guaranteed viewability, as latest research confirms millions of pounds-worth of ad spend is being wasted because less than half of online ads in the UK are viewable. But, as Attila Jakab, managing director, Infectious Media writes, those brands most effectively overcoming the viewability challenge are doing so through subtler and more innovative strategic thinking.
This piece originally appeared in Exchange Wire here: https://www.exchangewire.com/blog/2016/11/15/act-smarter-win-world-reduced-visibility/
According to IAB recommendations, an ad is viewable when 50% of that ad is in view for at least one second for standard display or two seconds for a video, and 30% in view for one second for large-canvas formats.
Yet, despite attempts by publishers to redesign and declutter their sites to tackle low viewability, just 49% of online ads in the UK meet this criteria – a figure far lower than that in other European countries, new figures from ad verification firm Meetrics show. And according to Meetrics’ most recent estimate, this equates to around £615m wasted in the UK annually on non-viewable banner ads alone.
Viewability is just the first step towards value
The industry at large is trying to rectify this underperformance. Earlier this year, GroupM confirmed plans to guarantee display and video ads would be 100% in view on key placements or the advertisers concerned would not pay in an attempt “to help restore faith in the medium”. And Group M most recently joined forces with Twitter to launch Beta trials of its first 100% viewability standards on the social media platform.
However, with our analysts working with clients on viewability for many years, we realised this was the wrong approach.
Understanding who are the right customers – in other words, those most likely to buy – and ensuring that they have seen your ad is more important than across the board viewability. Advertisers must look for another way to measure success – one that takes into account the cost efficiency of showing a visible ad to the right audience and its impact.
But, to achieve this goal, an advertiser needs to better understand the impact of its display ads. Historically, display advertising has had trouble proving its value. We believe this is because last-event measurement is still being used as the benchmark for measuring display performance. We believe that display and all digital channels should be measured on their true value. We define this as an incremental sale: sales that would not have happened without the customer seeing the ad.
Read the rest of the article here, at Exchange Wire: https://www.exchangewire.com/blog/2016/11/15/act-smarter-win-world-reduced-visibility/
