Goodway Group, a managed-services programmatic media firm, on Monday released “Applying Viewability
Intelligently for Measurably Improved Performance,” a white paper whose findings run counter to the industry’s 100% viewability standard.
“The research clearly shows
the benefits a viewable impression has over one that isn’t viewed. No one doubted that,” said Jay Friedman, Partner and COO of Goodway Group, in an email to Real-Time Daily.
“What the paper also shows is, the amount of ‘gray viewability’ is frustrating, [which complicates] any ‘case closed’ answer on whether or not 100% viewability is
beneficial, reasonable and necessary.”
Friedman said that “gray” impressions are measured differently by different accredited vendors. Rather than providing a binary yes/no,
the viewability outcome is a “maybe.”
“It’s for this reason we’ve concluded that requiring 100% measured in-view impressions by a single vendor is likely pushing
the benefit of viewability measurement past the point of diminishing returns for marketers,” Friedman told Real-Time Daily.
Testing viewability’s impact on ad performance by
analyzing more than one billion delivered impressions, Goodway’s research identified four key findings:
1. Using two viewability technology companies, Goodway determined that
consumers who are served ads that are measured as viewable convert at an 8% to 9% greater rate than those who are served ads that are not measured as viewable.
2. A large gray
area exists in viewability: impressions that are measured as being in-view for some amount of time are not enough to meet the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) standard.
3. Contrary
to intuition, sites that have nearly 100% viewable inventory are the worst-performing sites in the programmatic ecosystem.
4. Viewability’s lift on performance can’t be
compared with other dimensions’ lift, such as behavioral data or site/context. The research found that viewability is, instead, the basis for enabling all other performance to catalyze a
campaign.
Goodway maintains that “viewability” has become a buzzword “and a default for marketers,” but his research found that when campaigns are built solely around
viewability, they often miss the mark--to the detriment of advertisers.
The white paper shows that 100% viewability doesn’t automatically lead to conversions. “The programmatic
ecosystem requires that multiple factors, including viewability, be considered to achieve optimal campaign results,” Friedman said.
The report recommends adopting a multidimensional
approach when executing campaigns: place high-quality creative in effective media vehicles, accept a margin of error when it comes to viewability, and cherry-pick viewable inventory in the private
marketplace.