New Metrics Strengthen Evaluation Of Digital Impressions

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The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Tuesday released specifications to support digital ad impressions through viewable measurements and move the industry into the next phase of ad metrics.

The SafeFrame 1.0 initiative, which replaces traditional iFrames, becomes the framework for Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS) formed by the IAB, ANA, and 4As, and managed by the Media Rating Council (MRC).

iFrames make it difficult to measure viewable impressions, so the new standards strengthen the evaluation of digital media and promote cross-platform comparisons.

The IAB said SafeFrame standards will allow brands to calculate the length of time the SafeFrame remains in view. The metrics apply when the ad is in a static state or in expanded mode, and used to determine viewable impressions based on predetermined criteria. While SafeFrame doesn't report viewable impressions, reporting databases that use the data will.

Companies like DG MediaMind worked to support SafeFrame by working with the IAB working group. The company found the average viewable rate for rich media was 63% during the month of September 2012. In total, 10.1 billion of 16.1 billion rich media impressions served by the DG MediaMind platform were viewable during our test period. The verticals with the highest viewability were travel, news and media, consumer products, and corporate. The lowest viewable ads by vertical belonged to financial and telecom, but even those were viewable at least half the time.

Worldwide, click-through rates of viewable impressions based on the proposed 3MS standard were 0.34% compared with 0.22% for all rich media -- a lift of 54.5%. The DG MediaMind benchmark features analysis of more than 600 billion display ad impressions from 47 countries worldwide throughout 2012.

The study points to finding from Forrester Research that predicts the viewable impression standard will become the main driver increasing average CPMs from $2.66 in 2012 to $4.68 in 2017. As the technology continues to advance, viewable impressions will likely influence ad planning, buying and pricing measurements.

SafeFrame offers standard ad layouts and ad code, so ads can run on any publisher network complying with the SafeFrame API. It enables controlled rich media interactions and data collection. For the first time, ad networks and exchanges will have an option to programmatically trade rich media ad units that expand, creating new revenue streams for publishers.

Those applying viewable measurement to post-campaign metrics believe it gives advertisers a better sense of how effective campaigns can eliminate impressions from the equation that don't impact the target audience.

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3 comments on "New Metrics Strengthen Evaluation Of Digital Impressions".

1. Christopher Skinner from MakeBuzz, LLC
   

   commented on: March 20, 2013 at 7:55 p.m.
   VI will take off once the buyers of impressions connect media to performance. Agencies are disconnected if they are not looking at and responsible for client profits.
2. Domenico Tassone from Viewthrough Measurement Consortium
   

   commented on: March 22, 2013 at 2:46 p.m.
   This is great progress on VI but the whole rationale of shoehorning this to make digital GRPs more palatable is backwards-looking. As Mr. Skinner suggests deriving performance from display media has to be part of the solve here. Hopefully, that will mean more than newly inflated clickthrough rates and a serious look by the IAB at post-impression response. The Viewthrough Measurement Consortium is working with the DAA to help standardize the definition of this metric. Let's hope the IAB gets involved sooner than later. Domenico Tassone Viewthrough.org
3. Domenico Tassone from Viewthrough Measurement Consortium
   

   commented on: March 22, 2013 at 5:25 p.m.
   ...and by performance I don't mean that literally just whatever the campaign objectives are, i.e. accountability even for branding.

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