Nobody is denying that ad-fraud has – and in some cases continues to be – the scourge of our industry. But I can’t help but think that the focus on viewability, which was addressed in recent opinion piece by Martin Ryan, may not be focused in the right direction.
Given engagement should be the most important goal for advertisers, particularly in an ad-blocking world, should we as an industry be throwing time and money at ensuring an ad is seen when there is no guarantee a viewable ad works?
Consider this - if media is bought on an engagement metric, then viewability itself becomes a non-issue. This type of measurement mandates that an ad has to be seen, but critically beyond being visible it then has to be working for the advertiser.
Fragmented media content and more brand choices mean that advertisers have to work that much harder to cut through the ad clutter and stand out to build a preference in the consumer’s mind. Consumers are paying less attention to ads than ever before, so merely serving a ‘viewable impression’ isn’t enough to capture their active attention.
Although the focus on viewability comes from a good place, it seems counterintuitive to spend so much time and effort to simply ensure an ad is viewable to a consumer if we know that the impression will not have any impact.
When you throw into the equation differing viewability standards that make the landscape confusing for advertisers and life difficult for publishers, I’m not convinced this will mean better results for the advertiser.
Exponential recently partnered with research firm EyeSee to evaluate the impact of our own VDX rich media ad formats to those of standard pre-roll and display ad formats to demonstrate the value of engagement.
Using a panel of 500 internet users to evaluate using a combination of eye tracking, facial coding and survey questions, we found that compared to standard pre-roll video units, VDX units held attention for over twice as long, produced higher ad recall and intent to purchase rates, and boosted brand perception.
For example, when compared to standard pre-roll, the average browsing time per viewer was 28% for VDX pre-roll and 205% percent greater for VDX MREC (teaser + expansion). In addition, 40% of those interacting with the ad unit did so for more than 60 seconds.
What would a focus on engagement mean for publishers and trading desks?
It simply means these players need to ensure their data play is robust enough to back themselves. Demographic targeting and reach, and frequency buying is no longer enough to deliver what the industry needs. Audience-based targeting of users ‘in-market’ is a much more robust approach that will allow publishers and trading desks to bill on a ‘cost per engagement’ model.
To my mind engagement is where our industry should focus its efforts.
Luke Donkin is the commercial director of Exponential.