Google Viewability Report Is Now Available For Advertisers

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Google has announced another report on viewability of all its advertising programs. However, the company still need to give more proper explanation, so the industry understands what “viewability” really means.

Google’s vice president of video and display advertising, Neal Mohan, announced that Google would be offering the reports to inform advertisers whether video ads were seen or not and help them measure “what truly matters”. Furthermore, he stated that the viewability report will help to “turbo-charge” on video advertising.

The viewability reports will be available to all advertisers who use Google’s DoubleClick platform including the DoubleClick AdExchange. It will soon roll out to reserved inventory on YouTube and Google Preferred, including desktop and app views. In a few months, Google will offer the ability to target viewable impressions and buy only viewable impressions across its display network. Down the track Google plans to add reporting for audibility, and the total amount of time an ad was viewable. The company revealed that more than half (56.1%) of ads served on its platforms are not viewable.

The IAB in Australia is making viewability a priority this year, and is working on a set of guidelines and how to roll it out appropriately in the Australian market. However, there is a tricky point in viewability: just because an ad is not viewable, it doesn’t mean it’s not seen, or valuable and should be paid for by an advertiser. It just means that it hasn’t been measured.

It’s also worth remembering that no advertising medium has 100% viewability. The defining thing is that not measured, doesn’t mean not seen, but a lot of people in the industry view not measured as not seen. Viewability is the right way to go and it’s right for the industry, yet there is still so much that we’re learning about it. It’s really important for us to make sure that roll out happens in an appropriate way and everyone understands it.

Google’s is sticking to the US industry definition for video viewability as set by the MRC and Making Measurement Make Sense, which means 50% or more of the video being on screen for two seconds or longer. Mohan stated: “Viewability, though, is just the starting point, not an end in and of itself. With the confidence that their ads can be seen by a real person, marketers can then go on to strive for–and measure–what really matters, impact and engagement.”