• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, January 30, 2013

In an effort to bolster brands’ confidence in the effectiveness of online video advertising, Adap.tv says it can now independently verify the viewability of video ads in real-time.
 
Ostensibly saving agencies real money, the video ad start-up’s new Certified Viewability service promises to block impressions that do not appear to users.
 
“We are able to provide buyers with the most accurate information on data on where and how their ads are being viewed,” said Toby Gabriner, president of Adap.tv.
 
Verifying whether videos are actually being viewed should be a concern for any ad buyer, Gabriner stressed.
 
In fact, a full 31% of ads are never viewed -- either because they appear on a part of the page that is below the fold or because of deceptive or fraudulent practices -- Gabriner said, citing comScore data.
 
Agency heads, for their part, are aware of the viewability issue. “It’s critical for advertisers to not only understand if their video ads are being seen but to also have the ability to verify them independently,” said Mitch Weinstein, SVP of Ad Operations at Universal McCann.
 
Offered within the Adap.tv Platform, Certified Viewability monitors where video ads appear, while verifying the size of the video player and its position relative to the browser viewport. Buyers can specify whether they want to target viewable-only impressions before the first ad request is sent.
 
Adap.tv reported adding more than 200 new customers in 2012, including Vevo and Horizon Media.

In terms of video advertising, Adap.tv served about 1 billion videos last October, according to comScore. At the time, that put it behind BrightRoll and its 1.8 billion videos served, along with Google (1.75 bilion), Hulu (1.5 billion), and LiveRail.com (1.2 billion).
 
By eMarketer’s estimates, the overall U.S. online video ad market grew 46% to $2.9 billion last year. This year, the research firm expects advertisers to spend $4.1 billion on video ads in the U.S.

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