Reasons Why Ad Viewability Measurement Matters

Consumption of digital video will continue to expand this year, especially when it comes to connected TV (CTV). A report by eMarketer estimated that Americans have spent 80 minutes per day viewing subscription-based over-the-top (OTT) video in 2021, a jump of 8.7% over 2020. By the end of 2021, CTV ad spending had increased by 59.9% to $14.44 billion. So, how can marketers be sure to make the most of their ad budgets using CTV and properly measure the success of their ad campaigns?

If an ad isn’t seen, it can’t do its job of raising awareness of a product or service, communicating new ideas, or changing the perception of a brand. Measuring the extent to which advertisements are actually viewed, or viewability, is one of the key challenges to the growth of the over-the-top (OTT) and connected TV (CTV) advertising markets. Buyers demand that the ad viewability measurement capabilities they’ve gotten accustomed to with desktop and mobile also be available for OTT and CTV, but that has proven to be easier said than done. 

In this post, we’ll figure out what ad viewability is, how to apply viewability measurement to the Connected TV industry and how to benefit from doing so.

What Is Viewability?

At a basic level, viewability is a metric for measuring whether ads are visible on-screen for genuine viewers, as assessed with a set of minimum industry standards. The establishment of those minimum industry standards goes back a number of years. When digital marketing was still fairly young, standardized means of assessing ad impact were lacking, and there was serious debate over what would even constitute a viewable ad. Advertisers argued over what the best metric to measure was, while publishers were still trying to figure out just how important viewability really was.

Nowadays, there is a general consensus among advertisers and publishers on the methodologies behind and importance of video ad viewability measurement. Right now, the standard video ads must meet is established by the Media Ratings Council (MRC), and sets forth a threshold for a video ad’s viewability of 50% of the unit being in view for at least two consecutive seconds.

What Metrics are Used to Measure Viewability?

The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) has defined a number of important metrics with which to measure advertising viewability.

Ad impression is the first one: This term determines how often an advertisement shows up in a particular place. In other words, one ad loading on a site equals one impression. An ad impression also means when it is estimating CPMs as well. Just serving the advertisement isn’t enough for an ad impression because the server may fail to serve the content, for example. Impressions can only be counted after the first frame of the video is rendered. The definition of this metric is not contingent on the number of times the advertisement was clicked.

VTR (Viewable Impressions): refers to completed views over the number of initial impressions. This viewability metric measures the effectiveness of video ads and shows audience interest. For marketers running video brand campaigns who want more users to watch the video creative, VTR is the key metric to follow.

%VTR (Percentage of video viewed): accounting for video player size and video creative length, and measured as a percentage, this metric tracks how much time and content of an ad was viewed. A 75% VTR means that 75 percent of video creative was viewed. It’s also referred to as VAST video viewability.

VAP – Video Ad Profile: measures video impressions, video starts, and video completions. VAP is a video completion rate that factors in video player size and video ad creative length. VAP is also considered the predecessor metric to %VTR (see above) by some at IAB.

VCR: It is another metric that may be considered from time to time. It refers to completion rate/ratio. This metric shows how many views per video starts an advertiser obtains. In other words, this is a way to find out how many watchers view a piece of content from start to finish. This ratio can be estimated in real-time with the help of video advertising servers or ad exchanges. Calculate VCR to define how engaging the video is to users. A higher rate means that media that is entirely viewed more often.

CTV Viewability

CTV benefits from being a platform with inherent ad viewability. Ads are played on the main video player, which means there’s nothing else on the screen to distract a viewer. Moreover, just like with regular TV, people tend to enjoy their CTV viewing experience while seated, relaxed, and at home, making them more likely to pay attention to the ads on their screen. This is why data from Integral Ads Science indicates that video ad viewability on CTV significantly exceeds that of other platforms (low 90s for CTV vs high 70s for mobile app video, mobile web video, and desktop video). 

However, there are some key challenges to measuring viewability in CTV. Linear TV has viewability measurement protocols via Nielsen ratings, which it has been able to rely upon for decades. For CTV, however, viewability measurement remains a patchwork of different systems that are difficult to navigate between. Thus, while CTV/OTT offers the combined advantages of both digital video (excellent ad targeting capabilities and on-demand content) and the traditional TV viewing experience (done on a large screen and usually in the comfort of one’s own home), many marketers have significant reservations about putting too many of their eggs in the CTV/OTT basket, largely because of difficulties with reliable viewability measurement. 

Takeaways

Viewability is a key factor in an ad’s quality, and thus its price. When platforms offer consistently high (or even inherent) ad viewability, as set-top-box video-on-demand (STB VOD) do, they tend to attract premium prices. Platforms with low ad viewability, like social media platforms, where viewability rates can be as low as 20%, tend to garner lower prices. After all, if ads don’t actually meet eyeballs, they have no chance of achieving the advertiser’s desired impact. 

Viewability measurement is becoming even more important as advertisers have been starting to shift their priorities in video ads from brand advertising (whereby they try to make viewers think or feel something new about the brand in order to improve brand favorability) towards performance-driven advertising (whereby they try to remind viewers of things they like about the brand in order to encourage purchasing decisions and thus drive a direct return on their advertising investment). As a result, higher ad viewability measurements mean better KPIs for advertisers and higher revenues for publishers.