More Than Half of Online Ads Fail Viewability Standard

The online ad industry’s Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS) initiative calls for a new viewability metric that would only measure when 50 percent of an ad is in view for at least one second. The problem is, fewer than half of online ads meet that standard, according to a forthcoming study.

The study by AdSafe Media, which offers products that promise to safeguard brands' ads online, shows that 49.9 percent of ads sold directly hit the proposed requirement. The number shrinks to 41.2 percent in the case of ads sold through ad networks and 40.3 percent of ads sold through ad exchanges. And that’s only for a second-long peek. When extending the in-view window to 15 seconds, the stats dwindle to 21.1 percent for ads bought directly through the publisher, 16.4 percent for exchange buys and 16.3 percent for network buys. The findings are based on impressions examined during the first half of 2012.