Extensive research reveals that advertisers who have high viewability goals do so at the detriment of their online ad performance and the ability to fully complete campaigns.
Provider of real-time advertising services, Quantcast, spent three years analyzing 5billion ad impressions across 10,000 publishers and found that advertisers aiming for high viewability and achieving the desired reach are having their goals thwarted by current levels of viewable ad inventory in the EMEA.
“Viewability has been an issue for the online advertising industry for years, yet understanding the current state of viewability and what is means for online advertising is challenging for marketers because of the scale of the problem, and the impact on campaigns, has remained ambiguous,” said Matthew White, managing director for the UK at Quantcast.
Quantcast’s research found that just 3% of European ad inventory is available at an 80%+ campaign viewability goal. Even setting the bar lower, at 70% campaign viewability, increases ad inventory to just 6%. Furthermore, at 75% to 100% viewability, inventory is a whopping 92% more expensive than the RTB average, and 97% of European ad inventory isn’t even available at 80%+ viewability goals.
Quantcast ran the same research in the U.S. and found similar levels of viewability rates.
“There is no doubt that viewability will be a mainstay metric in our industry however, this research shows that the success of viewability will depend on the growth in the amount of viewable inventory, as well as the ability of marketers to balance their performance and viewability needs,” says White.