Are Your Video Ads Making an Impression?
As video is used more and more in online marketing and advertising, how do you make sure that labor of love (and money) pays off? Which factors affect the viewability of video online?
First, we need to define viewability. A “viewable impression” occurs when at least 50% of an ad’s pixels are visible on screen for at least two consecutive seconds, according to the Media Rating Council and the IAB standard. What determines whether both of those conditions are present? Google recently conducted a study to find out, analyzing tons of data from their Active View measurement technology.
First, they found that over three-fourths of the ads that were not seen were in a background tab or never on screen at all. The remaining one-fourth of non-viewable ads were either scrolled off-screen or abandoned in less than two seconds.
Of those that were viewable, here are some interesting findings:
- Device Matters—Video ads are significantly more viewable on mobile devices and tablets than on desktop screens. Surprised?
- Player Size Matters—The most popular video ad player size across the web happens to be the least viewable. The most popular player sizes are the smallest, but the most viewable ads were on large players, especially those on video-focused sites, like YouTube.
- Location Matters—Horizontal and vertical positioning both matter, as both correlate directly to viewability.
Want more? Google has summarized all the findings in this nifty infographic.
Comments 1
Matt Deweese
This is a very interesting article! I have wondered what the criteria was for measuring viewability. A question on mine, does this also read when say two or more tabs are open, if the ad is on a tab that you are not viewing, does it count? Great read and link, thank you!