Programmatic Advertising Overview: What are Viewability Standards?

Dila Doymus
GoWit
Published in
6 min readOct 27, 2021

Quick Overview: Programmatic Advertising

It was common practice in the past to conduct digital advertising campaigns by using a delivery order method, where information was exchanged between the publisher and advertiser parties via email. Digital advertising’s rapid growth over time rendered human power unsustainable. This is when programmatic advertising has emerged. With programmatic advertising, the buying and selling of ads can be accomplished faster, more effectively, and more securely.

What is Programmatic Advertising?

With the help of algorithms and software, AdTech platforms manage this dynamic process transparently, quickly, and accurately. Using programmatic processes minimizes error rates and time delays.

Programmatic advertising collects information from users’ browsers (cookies, IP addresses, pixel tags), analyzes this information along with their behavior and preferences, and allows them to be targeted. Brands are now able to reach relevant audiences, i.e. their potential customers, thanks to user-relevant advertising via programmatic.

What is Viewability?

Viewability is one of the critical elements for successful digital advertising. The term viewability, simply put, means ads are literally being seen by the intended target audience. To secure this, the true reach of ads can be measured and tested according to various standards. To set and apply these standards, Media Rating Council (MRC) was established with the support of the industry.

Non-Viewable Ads

Non-viewable impressions deceive advertisers with impressions that are not actually viewed by targeted audiences. Non-Viewable Ads can be examined under two main categories determined by MRC, General Invalid Traffic (GIVT) Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT). Let’s have a look at some techniques such as out-of-view, short exposure and non-human traffic.

Out-of-View

An out-of-view impression is seen by the computer but not by the audience.

Some techniques are as follows:

  • Below the Fold: Ad is not visible to users, it is at the bottom of the website.
  • Inactive Tab: Ad is opened in a new tab that is not visible to users.
  • Ad Stacking: Ad is covered by the website’s features or another ad or ads.
  • Pixel Stuffing: It’s the act of displaying one or more adverts in a 1x1 pixel format. Users generate impressions, but they don’t see the ad.

For more, check our article on Ad Fraud (Oktay, 2021)

Short Exposure

In this method, the advertisement is displayed for a very short time or can be skipped immediately with a skip button. But in practice, an ad is considered viewable when a total of 10 tests are performed for 1 second (every 100 milliseconds) and at least 50% of the ad is shown in each test. Various standards apply to different ad types, such as, at least 50% of a video ad must be displayed for 2 seconds (MRC Viewable Ad Impression Measurement Guidelines (Desktop), 2015)

Non-Human Traffic

Despite the fact that digital advertising primarily aims to reach humans, bots are capable of faking human-like engagements with ads, which will cut straight into ads’ ROI.

There are a couple of examples of non-human traffic:

  • Bot Farms: Ads can be viewed or clicked by bots instead of humans. Since establishing a bot farm requires various infrastructure such as SIM cards, device hardware and software, it requires financial investments.
  • Botnets: A botnet is a system of connected devices (e.g. computers and routers) that are infected with malware. Hackers can control the whole network or connected devices without the owner’s knowledge. In comparison to bot farms, botnets do not require any financial investment, so they spread more rapidly throughout the world.
  • Website Crawlers: A web crawler is a program that crawls the web for various reasons, such as web indexing.

Viewability Standards according to MRC

According to MRC, Viewability (The Little Black Book of Viewability, 2020) standards can be categorized into the following groups: Web Display Viewability, In-App Display Viewability, Web Video Viewability, In-App Video Viewability, and Walled Garden Viewability.

Web Display Viewability

Third parties use JavaScript tracking codes to measure viewability when the ad is delivered by an ad server. Third parties measure viewability using three methods: Geometric verification, Intersection observer, and Viewport optimization; three points which we will explore in the next chapter of this article.

In-App Display Viewability

In contrast to web display viewability, third-party visibility measurement is enabled with Software Development Kits (SDKs) instead of JavaScript codes. Measurement companies have to get app owners to install their SDKs in order to track viewability within apps. As this is a hurdle, IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) took action and released Open Measurement Software Development Kit (IAB Tech Lab, n.d.) in 2018.

Video Viewability for Web and In-App

Web video viewability is best determined mainly by VPAIDs (Video Player-Ad Interface Definitions) and in-app video viewability by VASTs (Video Ad Serving Template). Both scripts provide video commands such as which videos to play, where and for how long.

VPAID is sometimes limited by mobile inventory as well as slowing down publisher sites. VAST 4.2, the latest version of VAST that supports viewability standards more and more with each release, is gaining ground over VPAID with steady industry adoption. VAST provides a clear path to clarity with its verified code, plus awareness of creative asset origins. Additionally, VAST offers mobile and CTV advertisers better interactive ad experiences than VPAID.

Walled Garden Viewability

Walled gardens, to name a few Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter, do not allow third-party ad serving on their platforms. A standardized viewability measurement becomes more difficult because of this policy. Currently, many walled gardens offer direct integration with third-party auditors, allowing advertisers to measure viewability across their inventory.

Viewability Verification Techniques

1. Geometric Verification: Ad viewability is initially measured by geometric verification. The viewability of an advertisement is affected by how far it is from the top and sides of a webpage.

2. Intersection Observer: Many browsers nowadays have the intersection observer API (Application Programming Interface) to reduce the limitations of geometric verification by reporting any overlapping of HTML object and viewport of the browser.

The moment third-party code is loaded into a browser placement, it sends a request to the API, which returns details of the placement’s location relative to the browser window. There is also a complementary option named IAB SafeFrame support, which is implemented by the publisher, instead of the browser.

3. Viewport Optimization: The alternative (and largely outdated) method of verifying viewability relies on how web browsers handle video files to conserve system resources. A measurement company embeds a 1x1 pixel video in an ad and monitors its framerate. A user’s browser automatically reduces the video’s framerate when the user scrolls pixel out of the viewport, letting the measurement company know the ad is no longer visible.

Conclusion:

A key industry standard is making sure that digital advertising is visible. Compliance with international standards and measurement are essential in this context. Various digital advertising tools are available to stakeholders in the ecosystem, such as JavaScript, VAST, VPAID, and SDKs. As a result, advertisers can be assured of a return on their investment, while publishers can increase their ad earnings by adhering to viewability standards.

Resources:

Oktay, E. O. (2021, August 19). Ad Fraud. Medium.Com. Retrieved October 27, 2021, from https://medium.com/gowit/ad-fraud-61b2da2841b8

MRC Viewable Ad Impression Measurement Guidelines (Desktop). (2015, August 18). Http://Mediaratingcouncil.Org/. Retrieved October 27, 2021, from http://mediaratingcouncil.org/081815 Viewable Ad Impression Guideline_v2.0_Final.pdf

The Little Black Book of Viewability. (2020). Retrieved October 27, 2021, from https://jouncemedia.com/little-black-book/the-little-black-book-of-viewability

IAB Tech Lab, I. A. B. (n.d.). Open Measurement SDK. Iabtechlab.Com. Retrieved October 27, 2021, from https://iabtechlab.com/standards/open-measurement-sdk/

Digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST). (n.d.). Iabtechlab.Com. Retrieved October 27, 2021, from https://iabtechlab.com/standards/vast/

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