No one can be that mean to those folks who decided to place ads where no one can see it. They’re using their impeccable knowledge of human behavior and producing something brilliant and catchy.

You won’t put the result in a drawer for good, will you? Even though the premises are obvious, we’re living in a reality where a half of display ads is seen by no one and only half of it is considered as viewable. And the continuous question is – which half?

Both publishers and advertisers now stick to vCPM rather than CPM, meaning viewable guaranteed impressions, seen by a human audience will be far more valuable than a non-viewable guaranteed impressions.
So what is viewable? According to MCR standards ads to be considered as viewable should meet pixel requirement – greater than or equal to 50% and time requirement – greater than or equal to one continuous second (two seconds for video).

We’re sure that you aware of the fact that ads that were seen rather than just displayed are a key measurement for whole success of a campaign and as a result higher ad revenue.

Thus if you want to maximize value, result, profit, everything, we all have to think about viewability all the time.

What we should keep in mind

1. The longer your ad is visible in a visible spot the better. So testing of different methods for longer in-view duration can be effective. For instance, you can check the difference between results of the regular banners versus sticky banners that stay with you while you’re scrolling. If sticky banner brings higher viewability, ad space becomes more valuable to advertisers.
2. Different size different outcome. Again, according to Google (just look at this report anyway), the size matters. Experimenting with different ads sizes and layout can benefit you in very unusual way. According to this report, we can conclude that vertical ad units perception is better than square or horizontal ones. A good idea could be to plan a couple combinations of sizes and perform some testing.
3. Ads should be placed near areas with higher engagement. This isn’t breaking news as well: one of the best places for ads on Facebook is Facebook feed. The same logic works for any other media. Choose places with higher engagement where ad units can be alongside the content.
4. Choose a less crowded place so they could see you. So less ad cluttered place can be more valuable by being more viewable. You can test this one as well. Fewer ads in the area can result in a better recall. A publisher can check out different approaches, either space out ad units or try a less cluttered version of a page and compare results.

Anyways, we’re positive, that you’ve got the idea of the importance of maximizing the viewability and about its role as new “currency” in digital advertising. We’re obsessed with viewability and we can talk about it endlessly, write to us.