X-Series: Metrics 2014: Measurability and Viewability

IAB X-Series:

Measurability & Viewability

Presented by: Ian Hewetson, VP Client Services

December 4, 2014

Quality, Transparency & Measurability

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“Think about what this means for us as an industry. When we're rejecting 75% to 85% of the impressions available, that's a problem.”Julie Fleischer, Kraft Foods

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The Basics

• IAB standard: 50% of the pixels of an ad must be in view for 1 second or longer

• …although, some advertisers are already demanding more (on Nov 10, AdAge reported that Unilever and Group M require 100% in view)

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Technical Standards

Originally, the viewability standard was meant to be transactional

As of now there are still big discrepancies between all of these 16 vendors certified by the MRC.

This means that budget reconciliation between publishers and advertisers remains a challenge.

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The two methods of measurement

1) Geometric – the position of the browser window on the page is compared with the position of the ad. This method is standardized across multiple vendors.

2) Browser Optimization – based on the processor activity as an ad comes into view of the browser. This method has multiple variations between vendors.

For this study, eyereturn used the geometric method.

Why look at Measurability + Viewability?

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Organic

Kale Chips

BBQ

Looking at Viewability alone is like looking at a nutrition label without taking into account the serving size…

Looks pretty good!

Why look at Measurability + Viewability?

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Organic

Kale Chips

BBQ

….but maybe the results aren’t as good once you dig a little deeper!

• Research Background• Results

• Observations

• Key Takeaways

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282,987,300 standard display impressions

No mobile, no pre-roll video

Impressions ran between October 1 and 31, 2014

Post click / viewthrough conversions measured where applicable

Research Background

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Impressions Analyzed

282,987,300 impressions analyzed from ad serving October 1 to 31, 2014

• Research Background

• Results• Observations

• Key Takeaways

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Introduction to the Graphs

Vie

wab

ility

Measurability

Viewability vs Measurability

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Viewability & Measurability by Browser Type

Vie

wab

ility

Measurability

25 million

50 million

75 million

Impressions

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Viewability & Measurability by Browser Type

Vie

wab

ility

Measurability

Chrome

Firefox

IE

Safari

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Viewability & Measurability by PublisherViewability vs Measurability by Publisher

Vie

wab

ility

Measurability

1 million impressions




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Viewability vs Measurability by Programmatic

Vie

wab

ility

Measurability

Viewability & Measurability by DSP




Viewability & Measurability Publisher vs DSP

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Publisher

Programmatic

Publisher

Impressions

10 million

20 million

30 million

40 million

50 million

Measurability

Vie

wab

ility

Viewability & Measurability – Top DSPs

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There are DSPs that provide

you with better quality

inventory

30,000,000

35,000,000

40,000,000

45,000,000

50,000,000

Impressions

Vie

wab

ility

Measurability

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Viewability & Measurability by “Premium” Domains

Does site “Quality” =

higher levels of Measurability?

Vie

wab

ility

Measurability

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

Impressions

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Viewability & Measurability by Suspicious Domains

Fraud sites often optimize

towards viewability

High Viewability ≠

High Measurability

Vie

wab

ility

Measurability

250,000

Impressions

500,000

750,000

1,000,000

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CPM effect on Viewability & Measurability

Do higher CPMs give you more

Measurable Inventory & Higher

Viewability?

Viewability vs Measurability for higher cost inventory

Vie

wab

ility

Measurability

CPM Scale


• Results

• Observations • Key Takeaways

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False Economy? The influence of viewability on eCPM

$2.50 $2.96

$6.40

$11.02

Total Inventory Artifical Removed Out of View Removed Unmeasurable Removed

100% 84% 39% 27%

CPM

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Traditional Conversion Tracking – Total View-throughs

Total Conversions: 1372

How Does Viewability Relate to Conversions?

Total Conversions: 197

Tracking with Certainty – Only Measurable and Viewable

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Behind the High Viewability Screen

High Viewability doesn’t mean a thing without knowing Measurability

What your average DSP will show you What you should ask your DSP to show you

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Advertisers and publishers often use different vendors resulting in discrepancies

As the market consolidates we see verification vendors looking to become the standard on both the buy and sell side resulting in some interesting market pressures

In the few deals we’ve seen, publisher CPMs increase if the buy is negotiated based on viewability.

Whose numbers are right?

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Publisher Strategies

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Publisher Policy – A sample excerpt

• Buyer and seller agree to a percentage of traffic that will be guaranteed viewable based on IAB standards.

• If buyer chooses to use a viewability vendor other than the one used by publisher, rates must be within 10%, or publisher viewability numbers will prevail.

• Both sides to provide weekly viewability numbers to the other party

(paraphrased from Nov 17 admonsters blog post by Joe Luna, Fox News)

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• If a robot “sees” an ad – it IS considered viewable.

• Viewability is not a valuable metric unless you minimize fraud before measuring.

• Fraud sites are often engineered to show many ads above the fold.

Where does fraud fit in?


• Results

• Observations

• Key Takeaways

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• The key predictor of measurability & viewability is transparency of domain

• Where publishers are transparently identified, whether the buys are direct, or programmatic, measurability and viewability are both generally higher.

• Even though this transparent inventory may be more expensive, these buys may ultimately offer more REAL value, in several ways:

1) Conversion costs become more accurate after removing non-human traffic, and measurable non-viewable traffic.

2) Transparent (ie friendly iframe) inventory is more easily vetted for non-human traffic, nested ads

Analysis

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1) Make sure all the details of any viewability based buy are in a contract; including which party’s numbers will prevail.

2) Choose a partner who can report on multiple dimensions of viewability, including fraudulent sites, domain spoofing and non-human traffic.

3) Take a deeper look into viewability numbers. Are those viewable percentages coming from only measurable inventory?

4) Is it time to increase the CPM you are willing to pay to receive quality measurable and viewable inventory?

Viewability Best Practices

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Ian Hewetson@ianhew

[email protected]

X-Series: Metrics 2014: Measurability and Viewability

Marketing

Transcript of X-Series: Metrics 2014: Measurability and Viewability