Topic: Viewability

The Four Top Myths About Online Ad Viewability

Why Viewability Can't Always Be the Currency

By: 

Joshua Koran

    

JOSHUA KORAN

More and more attention to digital ad viewability -- including efforts to determine exactly where ads appear on the screen and whether anyone ever had a chance to see them --  is generating more and more questions among marketers. The issue is more relevant now than ever, as the Internet Advertising Bureau helps advance replacing our industry currency with a viewability-based metric.

But talk about viewability and everyone tends to get a little nervous: Publishers are concerned about advertisers refusing to pay for low-viewability inventory and advertisers worry that they’re wasting budget on ads that aren’t even being seen. Both fears are valid. Before we can engage in an intelligent conversation as to how viewability can be an asset to certain (note the emphasis) campaigns, I’d like to clear up four common misconceptions:

1. The existing viewability standard makes sense. It doesn’t. When the industry’s joint initiative on measurement defined viewable ads as those that remain at least half in view (half the pixels of the ad, that is) for at least one second, they failed to take into account some key points. First, the amount of time beyond one second improves response rates. Second, small ads are more likely to be able to be half in view than larger ads -- but large ads are more likely to be noticeable. And finally, screen sizes vary widely, now more than ever, as smartphone and tablet soars.

The existing viewability standard penalizes advertisers for electing to buy larger ads and publishers for optimizing content for user experience. There are ways to account for these variables, and the IAB and Media Research Council are hard at work to define what those are, but we aren’t there quite yet.

2. Viewability is accurately measurable. There are many different ways to measure viewability, but that’s just the thing: They’re all different (and for now, they’re all proprietary).

Comparing viewability metrics across data providers is like comparing iPads and iMax screens, and until recently, there was no way to measure the viewability of ads served in i-frames (the “container” on a webpage where many ads are served). What’s more, we know how many ads are served, but we guess about viewability. And guessing involves risk: You can’t predict whether someone will scroll down or not to view an ad, and someone has to pay for that risk. For as long as ad impressions served are our industry’s currency, the advertiser is paying for that risk. Shifting to viewability just moves the risk to the publisher. It’s fine for this to be an option for buyers and sellers – to shift the risk – but making viewability as currently envisioned the standard would simply create inefficiency in the system overall, as auditors and new technology vendors enter the picture. Until we have a single metric to apply across the industry, viewability will remain an interesting metric, but it can’t be a currency for our industry.

3. Viewability is the silver bullet we’ve all been waiting for. Viewability is one tool in a vast arsenal of technology and strategic intelligence that today’s lucky marketers have at their disposal. I support giving buyers the choice to deploy a viewability metric or not. But whether it makes sense depends entirely on the objectives of a given campaign.

Using viewability makes no sense, for example, on platforms that allow direct-response marketers to  change their ads on the fly depending on performance. They can’t wait to see whether people are going to scroll down the page. On the other hand, viewability can be a useful surrogate for engagement on brand marketing initiatives.

Viewability can also be misleading. We’ve even seen an inverse relationship between viewability and click-through rates in some instances where a page is so engaging that an ad is viewed but not clicked on. Low click-through rates in this instance don’t necessarily indicate a low viewability ad.

4. Viewability is new. Viewability might be the buzzword of the moment, but any conversation about viewability is ultimately really a conversation about quality and performance: the quality of your campaign, your ad, your strategy, your interaction with consumers. Can viewability help certain marketers enhance the quality of that interaction? Sure. But it’s only one piece of a puzzle that’s bigger, more complex and, thankfully, more exciting than ever. 

Mobile Ad Best Practices

TECH SENSE: What to Consider When Running a Mobile Ad?

Posted by: Dan Johns Posted date: June 04, 2013 

According to eMarketer, content on mobile devices grew 272% over the last four years, and where consumers go, advertising is likely to follow.  What does this mean to a marketer? It means they now need their brand message to run across these devices at scale. Each consumer may be presented a different version of the creative or message, but it is the marketer’s (and more commonly their agency of record’s) responsibility to ensure the brand stays consistent across all of these different experiences.

Before we dive into what a mobile strategy at scale looks like, first make sure you understand the advertising goals. These goals could be launching a new product, increasing brand favorability and increasing direct response or customer retention to name a few. Once you know what you’re trying to do, the “how to do it on mobile” becomes easier to visualize.

The IAB refers to mobile as “encompassing media on feature phones, smartphones, and tablets, as well as eReaders and portable gaming devices.” It is very important to remember that, even within mobile, there are multiple channels to consider to reach consumers, including mobile web, in-app, mobile video, mobile search, branded applications and any other interactive messaging consumed on these different devices. If you have a tight budget and less time to execute, stick with mobile web and in-app display ads. Because mobile is still in its infancy period, and because both budgets and turnaround times tend to be tight, keeping it simple and consistent should be the marketer’s main considerations.

Plan for mobile. Mobile is frequently added late in the planning stages when extra budget is uncovered. This is not only a drain on resources, but the message has a stronger chance of being diluted and putting the success of the campaign at risk. Mobile will bring the best returns if it is brought into the plan from the beginning and considered as part of the overall media conversation.

Marketers should take three things into consideration when planning a mobile web or in-app campaign.

1) Tailor the idea to the platform, not just the creative execution. Be careful not to dilute the brand’s message while tailoring it to a specific platform. The message should always stay consistent, even while the manner in which it is delivered changes. For example, phones are highly personal devices, so the message should be brand-consistent but more personal to the consumer.

2) Audience size is key. If you want to track campaign success across all platforms, you have to have a clear understanding of that scale. For example, mobile web generally offers broader reach, while in-app limits the audience size but opens up creative opportunities. You may favor one over the other, but utilizing both mobile web and in-app can have a great impact.  According to the IAB, rich features available for in-app are increasingly available for mobile web, and planning for both is highly recommended.[1]

3) Marketers need to make sure the duration of the campaign is long enough to generate statistically sound sample sizes.  Media planners today are often buying mobile inventory with leftover budget, which creates inconsistent messages and ends up hurting the campaign more than it helpsing. If you don’t have a big enough sample size to get sound reporting, you’ve wasted your spend.

Most marketers equate mobile display buying with traditional display buying. While they may appear very similar at top of the mountain, the further you down you descend toward the planning stages, the more they appear to be different beasts. Marketers should recognize the growth of mobile  and treat it with the appropriate gravity.  Start the planning early in the media conversation, and align yourselves with partners that understand the mobile space and can help execute your vision.