• by Sean Hargrave , Staff Writer, September 4, 2019

For the first time ever, the UK exceeded the 70% viewability mark during the first half of this year. That's a 7.5% improvement over the latter half of 2018 -- and it means the UK has leapt above Austria and Germany, which are usually at the top of the European league table.

And let's not forget -- it wasn't that long ago that UK display struggled to exceed a 50-50 chance of being seen. 

The figures come from Integral Ad Science, whose researchers believe this is all part of a global move among advertisers to demand better-quality placements to make sure their inventory is visible.

The proof that this is not just the UK improving comes from a new record global average figure of viewability hitting 60% for the first time. 

There's more good news for mobile marketers. The UK is leading the world with in-app engagement of 22 seconds, but is just behind the global average in desktop at just under 22 seconds. 

And the news just keeps getting better as the risk of brand safety being impacted in the UK has dropped, pushing it up to third place in a league table behind Italy and Australia.

It is a similar story with ad fraud -- although the risk went up slightly, even on optimised buys, the UK is just a little under the 1.1% global risk level. 

So, just in case the Brexit blues are getting you down, these figures might just be the tonic to put the smile back on an advertiser and ad executive's face. 

The researchers believe much of the improved advertising landscape is down to better awareness of issues and improved tools and methodologies for spotting and tackling problems.

It is arguable that direct buying of quality inventory could be a possible consideration to throw into the mix as the big media owners bring together their titles under single sales roofs to offer reach and scale that cannot be enjoyed one site at a time.