Responding to the problem of online ad ‘viewability’ Google has said that it will now begin charging advertisers only for ads that are seen.
Speaking to The Times on Friday, James Beser, Google’s group product manager said: “Even the jingliest, jolliest ad of the season can’t work its magic unless it gets seen…You can now choose to pay for only those impressions where your ad has a chance to be seen.”
For online banner ads, The IAB UK has determined that an ad is ‘visible’ if over 50% of the banner is in view for one second or more and that it has the potential to be viewed.
However, results from over 2,000 eye tracking studies performed by Sticky earlier this year reveal that, on average, 30% of visible display ads do not attract any attention – even when viewed for a length of up to 10 seconds.
In other words, one in three ads were not looked at despite being “viewable”.
To ensure the same problem doesn’t plague online video, Google now wants to ensure viewability a basis for buying, selling and measuring – and with its TrueView system, that enables viewers to skip an advertisement after five seconds, the advertiser can pay only when the consumer chooses to watch the ad.
“Sixty-plus per cent of videos that have ads, have TrueView ads,” a spokeswoman for YouTube has said. “We find that when the advertiser is creative in matching the ad to the content of the video, it can be a lot of fun and users want to view it.”
Google has also indicated that prices for viewed ads are likely to rise.
