What Is Ad Viewability? How to Improve Ad Viewability - Next Millennium Media

How does ad viewability differ from ad blindness? With ad viewability, we’re concerned with how much an ad was visible to a user and for how long—an essential distinction to master.

Calculating ad effectiveness is a top priority in digital advertising. It’s essential to understand what worked and what didn’t with creatives, ad placement, or sites chosen. Viewability metrics allow advertisers and publishers to evaluate campaign success and determine whether ads are getting seen. This blog will explore viewability, its importance, and how to improve it.

Understand Supply Path Optimization (SPO) , a strategic approach used in programmatic advertising to enhance ad spend effectiveness.

What Is Ad Viewability In Digital Advertising?

What exactly is ad viewability? In digital advertising, viewability refers to how visible an ad appears to a user on a site or device. Specifically, it measures how much of the digital ad or video is within the user’s view and for how long. For an ad to be considered viewable, it must meet the industry standard set by the IAB in 2014:

• Display Ads: At least 50% of an ad’s pixels in view for a minimum of 1 second to qualify.
• Video Ads: At least 50% of the video must be visible on the screen and play continuously for at least 2 seconds.

Where do most campaigns fall in the viewability percentages game? According to a Comscore report (2017), viewability rates hover around 55%. Let’s explore further.

Why Is Viewability Important?

Viewability is crucial in digital advertising because higher viewability rates are directly linked to  improved campaign performance and effectiveness. Advertisers prioritize publishers with superior viewability rates, as these metrics boost the worth of their display inventory because their ads are more likely to be seen by the target audience.

• For publishers, understanding viewability data is key to enhancing the
  value of their inventory. 
• By analyzing how ads perform across different demographics, publishers can
  optimize their offerings to attract higher bids from advertisers.  

Ad viewability data significantly influences how much advertisers are willing to bid for impressions. 

• To achieve the best return on investment (ROI) for their ad spend, advertisers are willing to pay a premium for placement that deliver high viewability.  

By mastering viewability metrics, both publishers and advertisers can maximize ad revenue and elevate brand awareness. 

Ready to discover what to do to recover revenue lost to ad blockers?

What Causes Ads To Not Be Viewable?

The most common reasons involve non-optimized ad formats, poor page placements, user behavior, ad saturation, and ad relevance. One way to approach the concept of poor viewability is to examine the set amount of ad inventory on a publisher’s site.

Let’s say a site has a banner on the top, a vertical rail on the side, and a third banner on the bottom. 

• When the page loads, most code has all the ads called and served. 
• But what if someone opens a page, glances at the top, and moves on, never scrolling or quick scrolling through the page? 
• The top banner may have been viewed, but there’s a good chance the vertical side ads and the one of the bottom banner, while paid for, were never viewed. 
• The stickier the content, the better chance users will see the ads. 
• Site design factors like overloading ads also make it challenging for every ad to be viewed.

How To Improve Ad Viewability

There are general strategies to enhance viewability across digital campaigns. For advertisers, choose the suitable ad format for your product or service—digital ads or a video. Do your ads have optimized versus non-optimized loading times? And what site placement performs best with the formats you chose? The publisher will offer that insight. Another factor to consider: have you chosen high-impact versus standard, business-as-usual creatives?

Viewability may seem like an advertiser’s problem, but it affects publishers, too. Advertisers will put their budgets on sites with higher viewability ratings. 

How Publishers Can Improve Viewability In Advertising

Publishers can take many specific actions to enhance the viewability of ads. Measuring current site performance informs direction shifts required. Here are a few other techniques to consider: 

• Use heat maps. Page templates can be adjusted to place ads near high-engagement hot spots for maximum viewability.
• Vet your ad formats. 375 x 50 ad units most viewable at an average 94% viewability rate according to a 2018 Google study. Followed by 360 x 50 ad units at 92% viewability.
• Sticky is good. Sticky ads are more viewable; consider adding in rails, or sticky bottom ads that follow as users scroll. 
• Ads in content carousels. Ads have higher CTR than average in carousels.
• Less is more. Less cluttered pages are more viewable and, therefore, more profitable.

The key to yielding more robust results is having diversified ad formats in your campaign; here’s why.

How Advertisers Can Increase Viewability In Advertising

Increasing viewability in digital advertising requires a solid strategy around selecting the right ad formats, targeting high-viewability sites, and monitoring performance metrics to adjust campaigns proactively. Here are a few more techniques to boost viewability performance:

• Try bidding higher to access better placements like above the fold.
• Simplify the creative for faster page loads so the viewer sees it before scrolling.
• Consider changing video or rich media to HTML5 and compressing file size.
• Explore verticals with the best viewability averages: The top 3 are reference, online communities, and games.

Find out which ad formats command the highest CPMs to start improving your ad viewability.

Improve Your Ad Viewability Rate With Next Millennium’s Programmatic Advertising

Why is viewability crucial? Everyone wants to maximize ad spending with superior viewability above industry standards. Is it attainable? We think so. Leveraging our advanced programmatic advertising solutions, we consistently achieve viewability rates exceeding 90% with our premium inventory and high-impact ad formats.

Here are a few reasons why our clients are outperforming others: 

• Intelligent Ad Injection: Our sophisticated algorithms trigger ad placements only when users are actively engaged, ensuring ads are served precisely when users are scrolling the publisher’s pages.
• Optimized Load Speed: We expertly balance the need for rapid ad loading while maximizing revenue, ensuring ads are delivered swiftly and viewed by the target audience. 
• Code and Stack Management: Recognizing that different verticals and partners impact ad speed, we meticulously select and optimize our website partners. We implement a two-week yield optimization period, followed by ongoing adjustments to ensure peak performance.
• AI-Powered Precision: Our AI technology analyzes ad speed and user behavior in real-time to determine the optimal moment for ad delivery, maximizing viewability. 

Book a call today to discover how Next Millennium, on average,  helps you double your ad revenue