Ad Viewability is the need of the hour.

1. Viewability – An Ad that is not seen isn’t worth less. It’s
worth ZERO!
Viewability has become one of the most focused and hotly debated
topics in digital advertising in the last few years. You will encounter
more than 200000 search results in Google on this topic.
I would like to keep it short and just stress on few points:
 Users exposed to Viewable impressions convert at an 8-9%
greater rate than users who are exposed to impressions not
measured as viewable
 Contrary to intuition studies have shown that sites which have
almost 100% viewable inventory are the worst performing sites
in the programmatic ecosystem
 Debates are on even with respect to the MRC's viewability
standards. A large grey area exists in Viewability and some top
Global Brands are just busy redefining the viewability standards
that (they perceive) suit their brands.
 The biggest question is that while measuring viewability makes
sense from the advertisers perspective, there is lack of
understanding on how one should be reacting to the viewability
numbers in absence of clear cut benchmarks ( owing to ever
changing standards and each advertiser defining it in his own
way).
Viewability does impact performance but it cannot be compared
with other dimensions’ lift such as behavioural data or site/context
data. I feel viewability is more foundational in nature to enable all

2. other performance parameters to catalyst a campaign. It acts as a
multiplier.
In India, I am personally happy that at least the discussion has started
with few of the more evolved advertisers/brands already adopting it as
an important metric to watch out for. I think advertisers should move
beyond basic metrics of impressions/click/CTR and start looking at
viewability also to measure the actual quality of Media Buys happening
and how it can be bettered month on month. I think there are brands
who are even thinking of paying on Viewable impressions since a non
Viewable impression does not have any value either for the user or the
advertiser/brand.
Let us also remember that viewability is closely linked with fraud. An
impression is defined as viewable only when a ‘Human’ sees it (and
not when a ‘Bot’ sees it). I will take up this in my next article.
Ignorance might have been bliss (read “pseudo bliss”) till now but let’s
transcend to an actual blissful state by taking control of what we are
buying and paying for. We have enough good tools in place now to
measure this (across all buys –Display/video –Programmatic or non-
Programmatic)with utmost efficiency. This will also prompt publishers
to work and improve the quality of inventory being sold or released into
ad exchanges (PMPs are the best way in programmatic to cherry pick
viewable inventory as a stopgap until publishers re-code their websites
such that all ads (or nearly all ads )are viewable.
I would like to see all advertisers taking a step forward on this.
Let the discussion begin!