Viewability is a term that you might see in your SHE Media dashboard reports and wonder just what it is, and how you can improve it.
What is Viewability?
An ad is categorized as viewable when over 50% of it is showing on a screen that is not scrolling and is actually seen by a human being for one second. Viewability is the measurement of this event.
Why does Viewability matter to me?
Viewability is an industry-wide development in how advertisers require accountability for their advertising dollars. From Facebook ads, to Google ads, to major companies that sponsor ad campaigns with SHE Media, advertisers are increasingly asking to buy only viewable ad impressions.
The Media Rating Council, an advertising industry association, released standards in June 2014 so all companies and publishers involved in online advertising have a common set of definitions.
Publishers with the most viewable inventory will be in the best position to earn revenue. Demonstrating success at displaying advertising to real customers will help publishers continue to attract advertising for their sites.
What happened to above the fold?
In the past, higher CPMs were granted to placements that were "above the fold" or in the first 1500 pixels of height on a screen. The idea was that this was the first thing that readers on a site would see. Better metrics in understanding how readers view a page, especially with the rise in mobile browsing, has shifted the importance to how viewable your site's inventory is.
How is viewability measured?
The industry standard for desktop viewability requires that 50% or more of the ad must be displayed for continuous second in a browser tab that the user is viewing, while the user is not scrolling. If the ad is larger than 242,500 pixels, then only 30% of the ad needs to be in view, so extra-tall units like the 300×1050 portrait ad have some leniency.
For video units, 50% or more of the ad must be seen for 2 seconds. For mobile, publishers are encouraged to follow the desktop standards until a mobile standard is issued.
The general industry expectation is that 70% or more of ad impressions should be viewable. Some advertisers are seeking viewability much higher than the 70% minimum, up to 100%.
SHE Media works with a third-party measurement service to track the viewability performance of ads displayed by our network, and share that data with our publishers. For most sites in our network, viewability data is best analyzed month by month, rather than day by day, because viewability is best measured with a large number of ad impressions.
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