The report summarises the capability of six products to measure viewability, simply and equally, delivering trust and transparency to a complex area.
There are various products in the market that count viewable impressions. Last November, following confusion over differences in results, the Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards (JICWEBS) asked ABC to deliver its first impartial and independent report on what viewability products do. This new report features products from comScore, DMA Institute, DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, Meetrics and Moat. All have been tested by ABC for their compliance with JICWEBS Viewability Principles. Updated in July 2015, the JICWEBS industry-agreed principles set minimum benchmarks for product functionality and require that a product can support any viewability metric definition, based on time and percentage in view. This enables the industry to trade using viewable ad impressions on a campaign by campaign basis.
ABC certification is specifically designed to ensure that all products are being tested on a like-for-like basis. This report incorporates newly developed checks and disclosures to demonstrate how each product performs in different behaviour scenarios. As the products work in different ways, it is important to understand how they are configured to get the most out of each one. The ABC report shows that when configured correctly, all six products tested are capable of counting viewable impressions in a number of scenarios, in accordance with the JICWEBS Principles.
Alongside the report, ABC has developed a new, easy-to-use interactive table which is available on its website. Advertisers, agencies and marketers can use this free resource to better understand viewability products, compare their capabilities and make more informed purchasing decisions.
Visit www.abc.org.uk/viewability to view the report and access the interactive table.
Jerry Wright, Chief Executive, ABC, said: “The industry benefits from an array of products which claim to measure viewability. This can lead to confusion due to the variation in what each product offers. In order to make an informed purchase decision, brands need to know if these products will do what they say they will. By vetting these products to industry-agreed principles, ABC is providing clarity and trust for the benefit of both brands and media agencies.”
Bob Wootton, Director of Media and Advertising, ISBA, comments: “Viewability will remain a key issue for brands if they are to continue to increase their spending on online advertising. As long as advertising depends on reaching human viewers, success pivots on the ability of an audience to see ads, but there is still confusion over the measurement of this area. ABC’s Viewability Report offers transparency and clarity in what is a very technically complex area and we welcome any advance in understanding in what viewability measurement products are actually delivering.”
Rob Norman Global Chief Digital Officer, GroupM, comments: “Clearly, the viewability debate is a key element of our call for transparency in digital ad trading. Dealing with discrepancies in the numbers is necessary now, and media buyers and our partners need to have a clear understanding of the differences in the capabilities of these viewability products. We support the JICWEBS principles and applaud the work done by ABC in delivering increased transparency.”
