Here are the slides from our Beyond the Fold Viewability Webinar. Summary below!
What is viewability?
“An ad is viewable if at least 50% of ad pixels are in view for greater than one second.” – IAB Standard
Do viewable ads receive higher CPMs?
Yes! Viewable ads see higher CPMs and higher conversion rates. Publishers see 28-54% uplift in CPM. (Signal) Viewable ads saw conversion rates improve by as much as 50%. (Google) Some buyers add viewability logic into their buying algorithms. Some optimize to viewable attribution models.
5 Factors of Viewability
1. Fraud
Sovrn spends 2% of its revenue combatting fraud.
2. Latency
20% of users don’t see the top of the page, as they scroll before the page fully loads. (Chartbeat)
3. Ad Size
The larger the ad, the less likely it is to be in view.
4. Page Layout
Web design is hugely important for viewability.
5. Mobile and Video
Publishers more and more have to think mobile-first. With video, placement in video content and the presence of audio are big viewability factors.
You must account for all five of these factors to improve viewability across your site.
How to Measure Viewability using Google AdX
1. Create a query
Create a new query using the query tool.
2. Select Query Dimensions
Date range: go for at least 3 months Now let’s use this data to build an ad unit viewability map for your site.
Dimensions: Select “Tags” from “Inventory Segments” to break down viewability by the AdX tags you are using in your ad server and differentiate performance by unit.
Metrics: Include standard metrics along with “active view measureable” and “active view viewable.”
3. Export Query Data
Now let’s use this data to build an ad unit viewability map for your site.
Other viewability tools
Not using Google AdX? If you aren’t using AdEx, there are a few other tools you can leverage to pull similar metrics. We recommend Integral AdScience, MOAT, comScore, RealVu and DoubleVerify.
What’s next in viewability?
Financial Times combined user data to sell advertisers 100% viewable ads based on time seen. That way they took their readers two most important attributes (time engaged on content, demographic information on that person) and sold them as Cost Per Hour.
Sticky ads, which are content blocks that follow you down the page, are also becoming popular.
Designing your site for maximum viewability
Testing the number of ad units on a page and the ad to content ratio can help you hone in on the right number of zones to boost your viewability percentage and revenue.
Step 1 – Choose a Control
Pick an existing page on your site and don’t change anything.
Step 2 – Create a Variant
Duplicate your Control page and remove one BTF zone
Step 3 – Analyze Key Metrics
Compare CPM, Viewable %, Viewable CPM, Fill Rate, Ad Render Time for A & B – pick a winner
Viewability on mobile
The average viewability on mobile much lower than desktop.
• Need to use mobile-specific formats
• Less is more with mobile. Use fewer formats that don’t take as long to load
• Sticky header or sticky header that stays with user.
Video and viewability
Here are the main ways you can ensure your video content is viewable.
1. User-initiated videos maximize viewability.
2. No autoplay videos below the fold.
3. Outstream video is always InView with the right partner. Here are the main ways you can ensure your video content is viewable.
How to avoid latency with video ads
1. Partners
Use partners with historically fast- serving ads.
2. Track Latency
If you’re losing page views due to video ads, they’re too slow.
3. use Fast Preroll
Work with partners whose preroll doesn’t cause latency. Video retention rates will drop.
Fraud prevention
Bot traffic and other fraudulent traffic hurts ad viewability. Here are a few tools we recommend checking out to track down and stamp out any fraudulent traffic to your domain: distil networks, Forensiq, Pixalate and are you a human.
