The document summarizes findings from a study that analyzed digital advertising campaigns across multiple advertisers. Some key findings included: - On average, only 69% of ad impressions were viewed, meaning 31% of ads were not seen. In-view rates varied significantly by site. - Geographic targeting was not always accurate, with some ads being delivered to regions outside the intended geography. - Some ads were placed on content deemed unsafe for brands. - Above-the-fold ad placement did not guarantee visibility, with in-view rates ranging from 48-100%. Some below-the-fold ads had high visibility rates too. - There was a weak correlation between ad pricing (CPM) and in-view

1. Next-Generation Campaign
Section Title
Validation & Optimization:
A Sprint Case Study
Victor Silva Andrea Molette

2. In 2007, comScore’s First Post-Buy Analysis Across 8 Digital US
Campaigns Showed Execution Left a Lot to be Desired …
70%
Percent of Ad Impressions for 8 Campaigns
60%
50%
40%
30% 61%
20%
10% 19%
8% 12%
0%
In US But Not Target Hit Target Hit Target Outside US
Frequency >=5 Frequency <=4

3. Branding advertisers on TV are accustomed to audience
guarantees and expect the same in digital
Accuracy of cookie-based digital plan delivery is
problematic:
Cookie Deletion Cookie Proliferation
X Cookies Are Not People
Source: comScore 2011

4. Some Things We’ve Learned About Digital
Media Plan Delivery
• The negative impact of cookie deletion
– Cookie deletion inflates ad frequency and deflates ad reach
by as much as a factor of 2.5X
• Targeting accuracy using cookies:
– 70% for 1 demo (e.g. women)
– 48% for 2 demos (e.g. women age 18-34)
– 11% for 3 demos (e.g. women age 18-34 with kids)
– 36% for behavioral targeting (e.g. people visiting travel sites)

5. Cookies Can’t Accurately Identify Who is Using a Computer at any
Given Point in Time due to Multiple Users
Over 64% of home users share a computer with other users
3+ users 1 user
32% of the36%
30%
time, someone other
than the Facebook
logged-in person is
actually using the
2 users
computer
32%

6. Cookie Deletion is a Global Reality
…and a Global Challenge
Accurately counting reach with cookies is not possible,
yet is currently the method used in most ad servers and analytics systems
Ad Server Cookies
Percent of Average # of cookies
Country computers deleting per computer for same
campaign
Australia 37% 5.7
Brazil 40% 6.6
U.K. 35% 5.9
U.S. 35% 5.4

7. Arguably the Most Important Digital Advertising Initiative To Date:
Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS) Mission
 Reduce costs of doing business due to complexity of
digital advertising ecosystem
 ‘Single Tag’ solution to reduce complexity
 Improve reporting of ad exposure
 Bolster confidence that ads delivered are actually
visible

8. What is a vGRP?
• validated Gross Rating Points (GRP) based on validated
impressions delivered to the Total Census Population for selected
Geographic Market, or 100 * % Pop Reach * Average Frequency
for the reporting period
• Comparable to GRPs used in television because it used the same
calculations
• vGRPs must:
– Deliver in the target geography
– Not be fraudulent deliveries
– Be in brand safe content
– Be viewable
– Hit the target audience

9. vGRP can provide more accurate analysis of campaign
effectiveness in Marketing Mix Models
GRP: Negative vGRP: Positive
Correlation Correlation
100 80 100 80
90 90
70 70
80 80
60 60
70 70 vGRP
GRP 50 50
60 60 Sales
Sales
50 40 50 40
40 40
30 30
30 30
20 20
20 20
10 10
10 10
0 0 0 0
Month 1 Month 2 Month 1 Month 2

10. CHANGING HOW THE WORLD SEES
DIGITAL ADVERTISING

11. vCE US Charter Study:
12 Major Branded Advertisers Came Together to Lead & Learn
18 campaigns
2 billion impressions
400,000 sites
Allstate

12. Charter Study replicated in Europe with similar results
15 campaigns
640 million impressions
213,000 sites

13. Study Objective
Quantify incidence of sub-optimal ad delivery across key
ad delivery dimensions…
… to better understand sources of waste and identify
opportunities to extract more value for all players in the online
advertising ecosystem

14. Importantly, all impressions in the study were
delivered in iframes, including the notoriously difficult-
to-measure cross-domain iframes
Directory on site Same-domain iframe Cross-domain iframe
(friendly) (un-friendly)
ad ad ad
web web web
site site site
61+% of
iframed ads
use this
method

15. Across all campaigns, the average in-view rate was
69%, meaning 3 out of 10 ads weren’t seen
Percentage of Ads In-View by Campaign

16. vCE Charter Study:
In-View Rates Need to Be Improved
US EU
69% 67%
AVERAGE AVERAGE
Campaign In-View ad rates ranged from:
US 55% to 93% EU 64% to 72%

17. In-view rates by site ranged from 7% to
100%, suggesting the importance of validation across all
sites
Percentage of Ads In-View by Site

18. Large sites scored better than long-tail sites
Percentage of Ads Served In-View
77% 74% 70%
61%
66% 63% 61%
55%
US EU

19. The Classic Leaderboard delivered the strongest in-view rates but
there was significant variance across all sites with a range of
7% to 93% using this size
Percent of Ads Delivered In-View by Ad Size
one potential
cause?
the relationship between ad
sizes and their typical
placement on a web page

20. Digital Ad Economics:
The Good Guys Aren’t Necessarily Winning
Low correlation of In-View Rates & CPM
R²=0.0373
An equally as weak correlation was also observed between CPM and ability to
hit a primary demographic target

21. On a campaign-by-campaign basis, one performed
flawlessly, while another delivered 15% of its impressions to
the wrong geography
Percent of Ads Delivered In Geography by Campaign
Sub-optimal geographic delivery is often a result of communication or human
error, and it can be remedied
with in-flight alerting and blocking

22. Of those ads delivered outside of their target, a good
portion of them landed in countries where English is
not even the primary language
% of Ads Delivered to Geographic Market Among All Impressions Delivered Outside of N.A.

23. Brand safety should be of the utmost importance to advertisers.
Even one poorly delivered ad can leave a very bad impression
Percent of Campaigns with Impressions Delivered
Next to Content Deemed “Not Brand Safe”

24. The Above-the-Fold Myth?
Above-the-fold in-view rates ranged from 48% to 100%
source: comScore vCE charter study

25. Some Below-the-Fold ads
are actually premium inventory
Below-the-fold in-view ranged from 3% to 67%.
source: comScore vCE charter study

26. There is good news for advertisers and publishers
 Analogous to TV audience guarantees
 Eliminating unseen online inventory supply results
in:
 More effective / efficient campaigns and less waste for
advertisers
 More accurate metrics for market mix models
 Better proof of digital ad effectiveness
 Increased transparency/accountability means
increased confidence in digital

27. Thank You!
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