Viewability has become one of – if not the – most important trend in today’s ad tech ecosystem. While the term has been gaining momentum for a while now, over the last year or so, viewability has turned into a hot topic not to be ignored.

What is Viewability?

So what exactly is viewability? As defined by the Media Rating Council (MRC), desktop video ads are considered viewable if 50% of the pixels are in view for at least two seconds – and at least one second for desktop display ads.

To understand why this issue has become so significant, let’s first take a closer look at digital measurement. Unlike other media, digital media have always been measured by individually served ad impressions, regardless of whether or not they are viewed. However, five years ago, three leading industry associations, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), joined forces to overhaul digital measurement.

These three associations published a white paper concluding that the most crucial industry need is to shift media currency from a served impression to a viewable impression.  This shift means more accountability in digital media. Why? Because marketers, agencies and publishers are now working to guarantee what they call the “Opportunity to See” for all digital ads. This creates a basis for greater comparability between digital media and other media, which helps leads to more accurate cross-media-platform measurement. The bottom line, the associations assert, is that better measurement of ad effectiveness helps brand marketers meet their media-allocation goals.

In late 2013, Google jumped on the viewability bandwagon, announcing it would allow marketers to transact on viewable impressions. This was followed by the MRC lifting its advisory in early 2014 on using viewability as a currency for both display and video ads.

So, today, marketers, agencies and publishers are all working toward the same goal of increasing the “Opportunity to See” for all digital ads. In fact, companies, such as Brightcom, have specialized teams solely focused on providing viewability solutions and delivering high-impact, high-viewability units.
Brightcom has also been working along with MOAT for the past two years to verify our site’s Viewability.

This is clearly a trend that is here to stay.