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Google ISBA Viewability

ISBA welcomes Google’s move to inform brands if their video ads are seen, but says industry viewability metrics 'questionable' for video

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By Jessica Davies, News Editor

January 7, 2015 | 4 min read

British ad trade body ISBA has welcomed Google’s plan to extend viewability-based trading to video ads, but cautioned that the industry’s viewability standard for video is “questionable”.

Google, which announced the news at CES in Las Vegas, opened up viewability-based trading to its display network in 2013, and will now apply the same process to video advertising served via DoubleClick and on YouTube.

The news, unveiled by Google’s vice president of video & display advertising Neal Mohan, will see it inform brands whether their ads are physically being seen by viewers, rather than skipped or going unwatched.

“In the coming days, we will start to offer viewability reporting for video campaigns available to all marketers and publishers using our DoubleClick platforms, as well as for the DoubleClick Ad Exchange. We’ll soon have this capability for reserved inventory on YouTube as well (including all of Google Preferred) across desktop and app views...

“In the coming months, we’ll start offering the ability to target viewable impressions in DoubleClick, as well as the ability to buy only viewable video impressions across the Google Display Network. Later in the year, we also plan to report on audibility for video ads, as well as the total amount of time an ad was viewable,” he said.

The issue of viewability, which relates to whether an ad is deemed in-view to customers, has become “almost endemic” in the advertising market, and brands are increasingly scrutinising the viewability of their ads as their digital spend continues to rise, according to ISBA’s director of media and advertising Bob Wootton.

“The whole industry is plagued with this issue, so full marks to Google for drawing their clients’ attention to the impressions that aren’t always seen, it’s a great first step.

“After all, for advertisers what is the point of paying for something that doesn’t result in something they want. All you’re doing is putting money in at one end to get a human contact at the other, and if you don’t get the human contact what is the point?"

He added: "This must and should also mean that the search giant should not charge or will reimburse advertisers for advertising that isn’t viewable and doesn’t meet the Viewability standard."

Some advertisers are “very concerned” about the issue of viewability, with the body seeing a “steadily growing” interest from brands particularly over the last few months, according to Wootton.

“The tide has turned in the last few months as there has been a huge swell in money into the digital space – there is so much data now, it’s so accountable, and deeply in fashion, and has lots of agency support as they can earn a lot more money for every pound they spend in digital than through all the legacy media channels because of the way they are now renumerated and renumerate themselves from what flows through.”

However, he said the last few months has seen a “backlash” from clients which have channelled increased investment into digital, as issues including ad fraud, brand safety, ad misplacement, and viewability have all seen renewed interest as bigger budgets begin to flow into the area acting like a ”reality check” for brands.

Google, which released its first viewability report last year revealing that 56 per cent of online disaply ads go unseen by consumers, has adhered to the industry standards for defining viewability, as outlined by MRC and Making Measurement Make Sense, which dictates that: 50 per cent or more of the video should be on screen for a minimum of two seconds.

However, Wootton said that although this is a good first step, two seconds is unlikely to be enough to give an accurate picture of what has been viewed for video.

"There is a discussion to be had around the Media Rating Council’s Viewability Standard that has been implemented in the US. Seeing an ad for two seconds with 50 per cent in view surely is a very low bar to meet when talking about viewable impressions.

"...Most videos last for 15-20 seconds or more – so two seconds doesn't really give you a impression of what the video is about and is therefore questionable."

He added that the industry should look to align better with the current measurement processes for TV, to find a common ground when it comes to measuring video viewability.

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