The issue of ad viewability has been front and center for more than a year. It’s widely accepted as a standard for quality in the digital advertising industry. But many in the industry
maintain that it doesn’t guarantee that ad impressions are actually delivered to their target audiences. Dstillery, a provider of data insight, created a viewability guide to help educate
marketers.
Dstillery takes a more contrarian approach to viewability. For example, the company’s guide aims to show marketers how viewability can undermine marketers' return on
investment goals, why viewability isn’t free of fraud, and how context is compromised when viewability is the No. 1 priority. The guide tries to break those insights down.
How
viewability may undermine ROI goals:
Dstillery believes that focusing on viewability in isolation can detract from overall campaign objectives. The guide maintains that a
scarcity of viewable impressions might lead to higher pricing, and impressions that fall below 70% viewability can sometimes yield results that would otherwise be lost if campaigns adhere only to
rigid viewability metrics.
Fraud follows viewability:
Dstillery’s analysis found a higher incidence of fraud occurring at 70% pre-bid viewability scores, the
same percentage the industry has focused on as the "acceptable" rate.
Context is compromised when viewability is the priority:
Dstillery’s guide suggests
that most viewable inventory is found in specific contextual categories that may or may not align with marketer objectives: categories like photos at 70% pre-bid viewability, games at 63%, and dating
sites at 60%.
“The Viewability Balancing Act captures new research into some of the unintended consequences of the viewability standard,” Dstillery’s Gabriel Celis,
VP of client services, told RTBlog via email. “Our guide is designed to help marketers use the standard most productively to achieve a brand’s true objectives
while avoiding the pitfalls of an over-reliance on viewability.”