Section Title Next-Generation Campaign Validation & Optimization:

A Sprint Case Study

Victor Silva Andrea Molette

In 2007, comScore’s First Post-Buy Analysis Across 8 Digital US Campaigns Showed Execution Left a Lot to be Desired …

Percent of Ad Impressions for 8 Campaigns

In US But Not Target Hit Target Frequency >=5

Hit Target Frequency <=4

Outside US0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

61%

8%19%

12%

X

Branding advertisers on TV are accustomed to audience guarantees and expect the same in digital

Source: comScore 2011

Cookies Are Not People

Cookie Proliferation

Accuracy of cookie-based digital plan delivery is problematic:

Cookie Deletion

Some Things We’ve Learned About Digital Media Plan Delivery

• The negative impact of cookie deletion– Cookie deletion inflates ad frequency and deflates ad reach by as much as a factor of 2.5X

• Targeting accuracy using cookies:– 70% for 1 demo (e.g. women)– 48% for 2 demos (e.g. women age 18-34)– 11% for 3 demos (e.g. women age 18-34 with kids) – 36% for behavioral targeting (e.g. people visiting travel sites)

Cookies Can’t Accurately Identify Who is Using a Computer at any Given Point in Time due to Multiple Users

Over 64% of home users share a computer with other users

30% of the time, someone other than the

Facebook logged-in person is actually using

the computer

Cookie Deletion is a Global Reality …and a Global Challenge

Ad Server Cookies

CountryPercent of

computers deletingAverage # of cookies per

computer for same campaign

Australia 37% 5.7

Brazil 40% 6.6

U.K. 35% 5.9

U.S. 35% 5.4

Accurately counting reach with cookies is not possible, yet is currently the method used in most ad servers and analytics systems

Arguably the Most Important Digital Advertising Initiative To Date: Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS) Mission

Reduce costs of doing business due to complexity of digital advertising ecosystem

‘Single Tag’ solution to reduce complexity

Improve reporting of ad exposure

Bolster confidence that ads delivered are actually visible

What is a vGRP?

• validated Gross Rating Points (GRP) based on validated impressions delivered to the Total Census Population for selected Geographic Market, or 100 * % Pop Reach * Average Frequency for the reporting period

• Comparable to GRPs used in television because it used the same calculations

• vGRPs must:– Deliver in the target geography– Not be fraudulent deliveries– Be in brand safe content– Be viewable– Hit the target audience

vGRP can provide more accurate analysis of campaign effectiveness in Marketing Mix Models

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GRP: Negative Corre-lation

vGRPSales

Month 1 Month 20

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vGRP: Positive Correlation

GRPSales

CHANGING HOW THE WORLD SEES DIGITAL ADVERTISING

vCE US Charter Study:12 Major Branded Advertisers Came Together to Lead & Learn

Allstate

18 campaigns2 billion impressions 400,000 sites

15 campaigns640 million impressions 213,000 sites

Charter Study replicated in Europe with similar results

Study Objective

Quantify incidence of sub-optimal ad delivery across key ad delivery dimensions…

… to better understand sources of waste and identify opportunities to extract more value for all players in the online advertising ecosystem

Importantly, all impressions in the study were delivered in iframes, including the notoriously difficult-

to-measure cross-domain iframes

website

adwebsite

ad

website

ad

Same-domain iframe(friendly)

61+% of iframed ads

use this method

Cross-domain iframe(un-friendly)

Directory on site

Across all campaigns, the average in-view rate was 69%, meaning 3 out of 10 ads weren’t seen

Percentage of Ads In-View by Campaign

vCE Charter Study: In-View Rates Need to Be Improved

Campaign In-View ad rates ranged from: US 55% to 93% EU 64% to 72%

US69% AVERAGE

67% AVERAGE

EU

In-view rates by site ranged from 7% to 100%, suggesting the importance of validation across all sites

Percentage of Ads In-View by Site

Large sites scored better than long-tail sites

Percentage of Ads Served In-View

77% 74% 70%61%

66% 63% 61% 55%

US EU

The Classic Leaderboard delivered the strongest in-view rates but there was significant variance across all sites with a range of

7% to 93% using this size

Percent of Ads Delivered In-View by Ad Size

one potential cause?

the relationship between ad sizes and their typical

placement on a web page

Digital Ad Economics: The Good Guys Aren’t Necessarily Winning

Low correlation of In-View Rates & CPM

An equally as weak correlation was also observed between CPM and ability to hit a primary demographic target

R²=0.0373

On a campaign-by-campaign basis, one performed flawlessly, while another delivered 15% of its impressions to

the wrong geography

Percent of Ads Delivered In Geography by Campaign

Sub-optimal geographic delivery is often a result of communication or human error, and it can be remedied

with in-flight alerting and blocking

Of those ads delivered outside of their target, a good portion of them landed in countries where English is

not even the primary language

% of Ads Delivered to Geographic Market Among All Impressions Delivered Outside of N.A.

Brand safety should be of the utmost importance to advertisers. Even one poorly delivered ad can leave a very bad impression

Percent of Campaigns with Impressions Delivered Next to Content Deemed “Not Brand Safe”

The Above-the-Fold Myth?

source: comScore vCE charter study

Above-the-fold in-view rates ranged from 48% to 100%

Some Below-the-Fold ads are actually premium inventory

Below-the-fold in-view ranged from 3% to 67%.

source: comScore vCE charter study

There is good news for advertisers and publishers

Analogous to TV audience guarantees Eliminating unseen online inventory supply results

in: More effective / efficient campaigns and less waste for

advertisers More accurate metrics for market mix models Better proof of digital ad effectiveness

Increased transparency/accountability means increased confidence in digital

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