• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, November 7, 2013

Gourmet Ads, a food advertising network with their own real-time bidding (RTB) exchange, on Thursday announced the addition of viewability reports about the publishers on its network. The reports are viewable by both publishers and advertisers.

The ad network has partnered with Pixalate to provide the ratings. Gourmet Ads will use an API to pull impression-level data showing each publisher's viewbility rates on both the domain and ad placement levels.

In other words, each URL on the Gourmet Ads network, and each ad within each URL, will be given its own viewability rating.

Gourmet Ads displays the ratings using a simple system -- red lights, amber lights, or green lights -- to indicate which ad units have low viewability, which require attention, and which are getting the most views, respectively.

“We’re increasingly being asked by advertising agencies and programmatic buyers for targeting solutions based on viewability,” stated Benjamin Christie, Gourmet Ads' founder and president.  “Ensuring publishers have high viewability placements on their websites is the first step in the process.”

It's all part of a real-time "publisher scoring system" Christie told RTM Daily he hoped to deploy during a conversation earlier this year. The purpose is to keep publishers honest and advertisers informed.

As a result of making viewability ratings an important part of its network, Gourmet Ads has claimed the average viewability rate across its network has increased to 56% since it began working with Pixalate in April. When it began tracking with Pixalate, the ratings were "low double digits across the network."

The official Pixalate partnership -- announced today -- means the vieawbility ratings will now be updated daily. Christie shared that he hopes the average viewability across the Gourmet Ads network to reach 70% by the end of 2013.