The Ad Quality Conundrum
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The document discusses the importance of ad quality in digital advertising, which encompasses viewability, brand safety, and fraud prevention. It highlights that improper ad placement and non-human traffic can significantly impact advertising effectiveness, leading to wasted resources and diminished brand trust. Additionally, it references studies indicating a substantial percentage of digital impressions are non-viewable or generated by bots, emphasizing the need for comprehensive solutions to enhance ad quality.
The Ad Quality Conundrum
- 1. THE AD QUALITY CONUNDRUM HOW TO DELIVER THE HIGHEST STANDARDS IN VIEWABILITY, BRAND SAFETY & FRAUD PREVENTION Raju Malhotra Senior Vice President, Products
- 2. WHAT IS AD QUALITY? When an advertiser buys media in a digital environment, they expect: Real people are viewing the ads Media appears within brand appropriate content Impressions are viewable When each of these criteria is met, the ad is considered “high quality.” HUMAN REQUESTED IMPRESSION VIEWABLE TO THE PERSON APPROPRIATE ENVIRONMENT CONVERSANT AD QUALITY
- 3. 1. VIEWABILITY Impressions visible to a person when they view content online. A non-viewable ad is an impression that simply did not appear in the live viewing area of the consumer’s screen as they browsed online. The ad may have been placed further down the web page below the live screen area or the ad may appear too far left or right on a page to be seen in the user’s screen size. The ad may appear in the viewing area of most PC screens, but not for mobile screens. In addition, some ads may be loaded in a background tab of a multi-tabbed browser or the ad may fail to load before the user navigates to another web page. THREE KEY COMPONENTS OF AD QUALITY
- 4. 2. BRAND SAFETY The practice that ensures ads will not appear on pages that contain inappropriate content. Most people think of brand safety as it relates to advertising not appearing on “adult content” sites, though there are many types of potentially non-brand-safe environments — it all depends on the brand. For example, an R-rated action film might have different standards than a baby products company. Whatever your brand, the expectation is that your ad will only appear among content you find acceptable. THREE KEY COMPONENTS OF AD QUALITY
- 5. 3. AD FRAUD Impressions not seen by a person. Fraudulent ad traffic generated by non-human “bots” can have a negative impact on brand engagement metrics that are driven by real humans. Ad fraud ultimately dilutes the value of publisher inventory and can affect the overall integrity of the digital media ecosystem. THREE KEY COMPONENTS OF AD QUALITY
- 6. Poor ad quality, fueled by non-viewable ads, brand safety violations and bot-driven traffic, can have a major impact on brand advertising. Bots cannot positively impact the brand advertised or influence the desired consumer interaction for the program, so it represents hundreds of thousands of wasted advertising dollars. Similarly, ads that run on pages that don’t reflect the content standards of a brand can also have a negative impact on brand equity, elevate advertiser mistrust and steal potential revenue from publishers that do not meet brand standards. THE IMPACT OF POOR AD QUALITY
- 7. AD QUALITY ISSUES: VIEWABILITY A comScore study across hundreds of campaigns and billions of impressions found that more than half of digital display impressions were non-viewable. While ensuring a high level of viewability may seem like a simple task, it’s quite the opposite due to inconsistent measurement standards and emerging technologies. According to the Media Ratings Council (MRC), “it is unreasonable for advertisers, agencies and publishers implementing viewable impressions as measurement currency to expect to observe viewable rates of 100%.” NON-VIEWABLE VIEWABLE 46% 54% source: comScore validated Campaign Essentials™ data 2013, global
- 8. WHY VIEWABILITY IS DIFFICULT TO DELIVER FLUID FORMATS The format of digital media is not confined to what is visible on a screen at any given time. Web pages tend to be longer and wider than can be displayed on most digital screens. NON-HUMAN TRAFFIC Some online traffic isn’t actually driven by a person. Rather, it is caused by bots. Naturally, advertisers have no interest in serving ads to bots. PUBLISHER LABELS Publishers sometimes label their ad units inconsistently or incorrectly. For example, a leader board ad unit may not necessarily be viewable in all cases. We recommend relying on a proven viewability solution versus the publisher’s metadata. USER BEHAVIOR Unlike television, with digital the consumer can scroll down a page to expose content and ads, spending as much or as little time on a page as they wish. That flexibility makes it very difficult to predict whether an ad will be viewable with 100% certainty, especially ads that do not load within the dimensions of the opening screen. BROWSER LOAD TIMES The speed at which a browser can download a page is controlled by available bandwidth — wireless vs. wired — and can have a significant impact on ad viewability and measurement. Sometimes an otherwise viewable ad placement simply doesn’t have time to load before a user moves on.
- 9. WHY VIEWABILITY IS DIFFICULT TO DELIVER (CONT’D) iFRAMES CHALLENGE The challenge with iFrames, specifically ones that come from a different domain delivering ads, is that the viewable impression code within the iFrame is not able to access the publisher page due to the “Same Origin Policy.” SAMPLE-BASED MEASUREMENT Various vendors that calculate viewability do so by assessing a sample of impressions. While a strong sampling approach can drive reasonably accurate figures, the measure will not be exact. Another factor to consider is that viewability code must be implemented and tested across all browser types and code versions for complete coverage. PRE-VERSUS POST-VIEW MEASUREMENT A media company must make the decision to deliver an ad before it is viewed, based on the probability that it will be viewable in the user’s browser. Because of the variables identified above, that decision isn’t an exact science. Viewability measurement is done post-impression, meaning that any circumstances outlined above can cause an ad to be non-viewable. VARIABLE SCREENS There is a remarkable range of screen sizes on digital devices, from 30-inch monitors to small smartphone screens. What’s visible on different screen sizes can vary widely. While 100% viewability may not be possible, it makes sense to work with a partner that is trying to address this challenge in a comprehensive way. Vendors in the comScore study showed viewability rates ranging from less than 10% to more than 90%. The top banner is viewable on both screens shown here, but the skyscraper ad becomes non-viewable due to the size of the laptop screen. Website Website
- 10. INCIDENCE OF AD QUALITY ISSUES: BRAND SAFETY Most advertisers want to ensure that their messages appear on sites with brand appropriate content. While brands have different standards for safety, it’s very difficult to define the scale of this issue, other than to say that brand safety is common for some classes of media and vendors.
- 11. THE ANA/WHITE OPS STUDY BY THE NUMBERS ACCORDING TO THE STUDY, BOTS ACCOUNTED FOR: 181 Campaigns 11% Display Impressions 36 ANA Member Companies Tagged to Identify Bot Fraud 23% Video Impressions 5.5B Impressions 3M Domains Measured 60 Days AD QUALITY ISSUES: AD FRAUD While estimates vary as to the exact proportion of bot-driven impressions from fake clicks or app downloads for points, virtually all sources identify it as a significant amount of total web traffic with no long-term usage or value. One of the largest studies was conducted and published in December 2014 by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and online fraud detection firm, White Ops. According to the numbers, 11% of display and 23% of video impressions were bot-driven. Other studies have reported higher (and lower) rates of ad fraud. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), for example, estimates that 36% of online traffic is fake. Whatever the actual percentage, it’s clear that ad fraud represents a significant risk to digital advertising effectiveness.
- 12. EIGHT STEPS TO ENSURE AD QUALITY AD QUALITY PROPRIETARY TECHNOLOGY TRANSACTIONS AD QUALITY INDEX EXCLUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS WHITELISTS & BLACKLISTS VIDEO & MOBILE TOOLS CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TEAM INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP
- 13. To learn more about how to identify ad quality issues and address the need for a holistic solution, download the full whitepaper now. THE AD QUALITY CONUNDRUM HOW TO DELIVER THE HIGHEST STANDARDS IN VIEWABILITY, BRAND SAFETY & FRAUD PREVENTION Raju Malhotra Senior Vice President, Products DOWNLOAD NOW