Media Rating Council issues temporary mobile viewability guidance
The Media Rating Council (MRC) has issued interim guidance regarding mobile viewability measurement for digital marketers and advertisers which will remain in place until a standard is set by the end of this year.
Credit: MRC
The guidance dictates how to go about measuring and transacting an ad on a mobile web browser or app.
It aims to provide direction as the MRC and Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS), a collaboration between the ANA, IAB, and 4As, facilitate discussion and conduct research to create permanent guidelines for the mobile web environment.
George Ivie, CEO and executive director of the MRC, said: “After the issuance of the desktop and video viewability guidelines last year, it became clear that technical characteristics of the mobile ad serving environment require the development of new or enhanced methods for determining the viewability of mobile-delivered ads.
“Furthermore, the ways in which users interact with content and ads in mobile environments are inherently different from those observed in the desktop environment, possibly creating differences in where the moment of ‘opportunity-to-see’ occurs,” he said.
Following the same criteria used to determine viewability on desktops, the guidance states 50 per cent of pixels must be seen for a minimum of one second for display and two seconds for video advertisements.
A new metric, called the ‘Loaded Ad,’ has also been introduced for measurement purposes, which acknowledges the challenges in the mobile app space by letting users know that an ad has appeared on the screen even if it does not meet the requirements to qualify as a viewable impression.
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