The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has today lifted its advisory on viewable impressions for the display advertising market, giving a green light to trade against viewability for the first time.
The standards – which mirror those currently used in the US – have been released to enable the entire marketplace, agencies, advertisers and publishers to benefit from “improved quality, accountability and effectiveness of digital advertising.”
They state that 50% of pixels must be in the viewable portion of an internet browser for a minimum of one continuous second to qualify as a viewable display impression for a standard display ad.
For larger ad formats (at or in excess of 242,500 pixels), given their substantial size, 30% of pixels must be in the view for a minimum of one continuous second to qualify as viewable. Standards for video, mobile and tablet have not yet been determined, but are expected later in 2014 and beyond, respectively.
“Today’s announcement heralds a new era in delivery measurement for the advertising industry,” said the IAB’s director of data and industry programmes, Steve Chester.
“Moving to viewable impressions offers the valuable prospect of guaranteed impacts for advertisers, who in 2013 spent £1.9 billion on digital display.
“As with any major change, a bedding-in period will be required to fully implement and take advantage of the benefits such as increased brand effectiveness of online, and address challenges such as discrepancies between viewability vendors.”
The IPA’s consultant head of media and emerging tech, Nigel Gwilliam, said that the IPA supports the option of trading on viewable impressions where the buyer considers it appropriate, however, “cross industry efforts will and must continue to address discrepancies between the results of different viewability service vendors.”
ISBA’s marketing services manager, David Ellison, added: “Advertisers shouldn’t have to pay for ads that aren’t seen. The viewable impressions standards will go some way to answer ISBA members’ demand for a move away from ‘served’ ad impressions to ‘viewable’ ones.
“Ultimately we want online ads to be comparable to other media that offer the ‘opportunity to see’ as the basis of an ad measurement currency.”
