APPLYING VIEWABILITYINTELLIGENTLYfor Measurably Improved Performance

2016

© 2016 Goodway Group. All rights reserved. Applying Viewability Intelligently for Measurably Improved Performance 2

WRITERS

Jay Friedman, COO

Olivia Bias, VP Sales Operations

CONTACT

Penthouse Suite at The Pavilion

261 Old York Road, Suite 930

Jenkintown, PA 19046

(877) 274-9881

www.goodwaygroup.com

info@goodwaygroup.com

© 2016 Goodway Group. All rights reserved. Applying Viewability Intelligently for Measurably Improved Performance 3

Google features more than 200,000 search results for advertising viewability. Viewability has been one of the most focused on and hotly debated topics in advertising technology during the past two years.While Goodway Group has shared its opinions, it’s important to contribute

to the continued growth of the digital media industry with real facts.

Despite the volume of discussion around the topic, there have been little

data presented to support the value of viewability. Goodway Group’s

data-science team decided to take on this task, analyzing more than one

billion delivered impressions to understand viewability’s true impact on

campaign performance, and also the importance of viewability within the

many factors affecting digital media campaign results.

This paper has four key findings:

1. Users who are served ads that are measured as viewable

convert at an 8-9% greater rate than do users who are served

ads that are not measured as viewable.

2. A large gray area exists in viewability: impressions that are

measured as being in-view for some amount of time but not

enough to meet the IAB standard.

3. Contrary to intuition, sites that have nearly 100% viewable

inventory are the worst-performing sites in the programmatic

ecosystem.

4. Viewability’s lift on performance cannot be compared with

other dimensions’ lift, such as behavioral data or site/context.

Viewability is instead foundational to enabling all other

performance to catalyze a campaign.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

© 2016 Goodway Group. All rights reserved. Applying Viewability Intelligently for Measurably Improved Performance 4

ADVICE FOR MARKETERS APPLYING VIEWABILITY AND MEASURING DIGITAL SUCCESS

In line with the Executive Summary Key Findings, advertisers are now

finding out that even if they followed the advice to only buy viewable

impressions — perhaps especially if this advice was followed — results

were anything but guaranteed. Given that the sites with the best

viewability contribute the least to conversions, viewability must be applied

as one dimension of many.

Here are five ways to embrace viewability that will benefit campaign results:1. Multi-dimensionality: If digital is anything, it’s “hyper-dimensional.”

With so many facets and dimensions to digital media, it’s really hard to

grasp even just the few that have the most influence. This is to say, no

single dimension should be weighted too heavily without determining

its covariance when paired with other variables. Marketers who

state, “This year we’re going to put a big focus on ‘X’,” should be more

skeptical.

2. Be Skeptical of Sensationalist Headlines: Similar to what grabs

attention in traditional news, sensationalism is used in our own trade

magazines to create fear and shock to drive greater readership. Jokes

about statistics abound. They exist because we should all dig in further

to understand for ourselves.

3. Timelessness: Marketers are better off using advertising strategies

that worked in the 1960s than over-focusing on bleeding-edge

technology. Great creative placed in relevant media vehicles with

productive reach and frequency levels will consistently achieve better

results compared to over-focusing on a single dimension.

4. Embrace Directional Guidance: We know that all ads reported as

unviewed aren’t truly unviewed. We know that approximately 30%

of impressions aren’t measured. And we know that frequency is the

catalyzer within the (frequency * in-view) equation. Finally, different

viewability technologies are discrepant by as much as 40%. This is to

say that the difference between 70% in-view and 80% in-view might

not be much of a difference at all.

5. Explore The Private Marketplace: Great-performing sites lift the

performance of a campaign when the ads are seen. While some of the

deciles shown above have lower viewability, the private marketplace is

beginning to mature and can offer large marketers and programmatic

media partners the ability to cherry-pick viewable inventory as a

stopgap until publishers re-code their websites such that all ads (or

nearly all ads) are viewable.

© 2016 Goodway Group. All rights reserved. Applying Viewability Intelligently for Measurably Improved Performance 5

Before presenting the data, it’s important to zoom out and first understand

the problems plaguing decisions being made around viewability today.

They are

The Big Guess: The IAB created a strict binary standard with no research

to back up whether or not 50% of an ad being in view for at least 1.000

seconds was actually the right standard. This means that an ad which is

100% in-view to a user but is only in-view for .98 seconds does not count.

In this hypothetical scenario, is .98 seconds versus 1.00 seconds (where the

ad would be measured viewable) meaningfully different for a marketer?

This hypothetical scatter plot of ads shows how many pixels were in-view versus how long the ad was in-view. Are those highlighted in green really more valuable than those in red?

Our analysis showed that 8% of campaign impressions fall in the upper

left quadrant, where 50% or more pixels were in-view to the user, and the

time in-view was greater than 0 seconds but less than one full second. A

similar percentage of impressions fell between 1.000 seconds and 2.000

seconds. These impressions are in a gray area for marketers. The ad was

seen — the technology even said so. Depending on the complexity of the

creative, times less than 1.000 seconds may or may not be enough to make

an impact.

An extreme example of this flaw is found with full-page takeovers. These

ads are clearly seen 100% of the time — the ‘X’ to remove it doesn’t come

up until the ad does. Yet a top provider of these full-page takeover ads

reports that this ad unit consistently only achieves 70% viewability.

Challenges around measuring viewability’s real impact:1. The IAB’s measurement

standard is too absolute

and not data-supported

2. The various accredited

viewability measurement

tools do not produce

consistent results

3. Viewability measurement

results are dependent on

conditions in which the ad

was served

4. Oft-cited viewability stats

can be deceptive and geared

toward headline-grabbing

WHAT DROVE THIS RESEARCH?

Per

cen

t o

f Pix

els

In-V

iew

Time In-View

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

© 2016 Goodway Group. All rights reserved. Applying Viewability Intelligently for Measurably Improved Performance 6

The Non-standardized Standard: As of the beginning of 2016, there

are 14 MRC-accredited viewability vendors for display and 11 for video,

all supposedly to a standard. (Note: Some overlap occurs between the

14 and 11.) However, these vendors have significant discrepancies with

each other and with standard ad servers due to varying technology and

methodologies.

See the results from a BrightRoll study published in conjunction with

Kellogg’s below:

In test 5, discrepancies reach a minimum of 60% but possibly reach 99%!Additionally, viewability vendors can’t and don’t report on various

scenarios in which an ad was served, such as browser and OS, page

scrolling, an ad being served in cross-domain iframes, and others. This

often equates to approximately 30% of impressions going unmeasured.

You can see the specific pitfalls across technologies and vendors in this

document, which is from the United Kingdom’s IAB equivalent, the ABC.

Deception: Many in the digital industry took advantage of the media’s

focus on viewability to confound it with fraud and get their point of view

published. “56% of all ads are never seen by a human!” This implies 56%

of ads are viewed by bots, but that’s not the case. The truth is, “when

combining ads not measured as viewable and occurrences of fraud, 56%

of ads are measured not viewable by human eyes.” Blending two topics

to confuse marketers is irresponsible and damaging to those trying to

improve our industry.

One oft-repeated quote about viewable ads is “An ad that’s not seen isn’t

worth less. It’s worth zero.” While empirically correct, the variations across

viewability vendors mean one vendor may say the ad was in-view and

another may say it wasn’t. Or it was 48% in-view for 12 seconds. Or 100%

in-view for .980 seconds. There is some value in each of these scenarios.

The only way to quantify the value of a viewable ad over one that is not

viewed is to run tests with true control groups.

BrightRoll Viewability Study Vendor A Vendor B Vendor C Vendor D

Test 1: 100% in-view 100% 100% 60-80% 40-60%

Test 2: <50% in-view 100% 60-80% 40-60% 40-60%

Test 3: Start 100% in-view, scroll to <50% 80-99% 80-99% 40-60% 40-60%

Test 4: Start 100% in-view, scroll to <50%, then back to > 50% 60-80% 40-60% 60-80% 20-40%

Test 5: Tab away from active tab at 25% 80-99% 40-60% 20-40% 0-20%

© 2016 Goodway Group. All rights reserved. Applying Viewability Intelligently for Measurably Improved Performance 7

Now that we’ve reviewed the problems at the surface level of the

viewability argument, let’s dig into some substance on viewability and

understand why it is really important.

Goodway Group’s data-science team ran the data using two of the largest

and most well-known viewability technology companies. The data showed

that using technology partner #1, impressions measured as viewable led

to an 8% greater likelihood for the user to convert compared to those

who were served impressions not measured as viewable. With technology

partner #2, it was 9%.

A marketer’s first thought upon hearing results of 8-9% may be that too

much effort and expense has been spent on viewability for such little

lift. Why not just apply behavioral data or contextual targeting to the

campaign or any other type of low-effort, tried-and-true tactic that would

probably achieve an even greater lift? The research suggests pivoting this

viewpoint and interpreting viewability’s lift differently. It’s not the value of

viewability compared to other tactics to create lift, it’s that viewability is

foundational to creating lift provided by other variables. It’s a multiplier.

Another tried-and-true way of measuring ad effectiveness supports this

data.

Consider a common brand survey/study advertisers run to measure the lift

in brand perceptions among those exposed to a brand message and those

who were not exposed. Goodway Group’s experience has been that the lift

achieved in these studies ranges from 6-10%. This is very much in line with

the 8-9% viewability lift that was found, a likely non-coincidental finding.

Here, the lift in brand metrics is directly in line with the conversion-based

results tested in our data. The users in the control group that bought were

going to buy anyway and didn’t require advertising to encourage them to

make the purchase.

Also supporting the point that viewability is foundational to campaigns

and not an isolated variable is a study conducted by Integral Ad Science

(IAS) as presented at the AdExchanger Omni.Digital conference. IAS

found that viewable ads do indeed improve conversion rate, and with great

nuance depending on how long the ads were viewed (and creative, and

targeting, and others). However, the platform’s same research showed

that frequency and viewability combined have a much greater impact than

viewability or time in-view alone.

REAL SCIENTIFIC RIGOR APPLIED TO VIEWABILITY AND ITS IMPACT ON CAMPAIGN PERFORMANCE

It’s not the value of viewability compared to other tactics to create lift, it’s that viewability is foundational to creating lift provided by other variables. It’s a multiplier.

Viewability Lift Partner #1 Partner #2

Impressions measured as viewable 8% 9%

greater likelihood for the user to convert compared to those who were served

impressions not measured as viewable

© 2016 Goodway Group. All rights reserved. Applying Viewability Intelligently for Measurably Improved Performance 8

FACTS ABOUT VIEWABLE PROGRAMMATIC INVENTORY

Now that we’ve determined the value of viewable inventory with real

scientific scrutiny, shouldn’t advertisers require 100% of inventory be

viewable? This is an admirable goal, but the reality of the programmatic

marketplace and the viewability technology suggest this is a dangerous

path. Beyond what we’ve already explored, we also found that sites with 90-100% viewable ads were the poorest converting inventory available

(private or open exchange, see data below). Before looking at the data,

here is some important information to keep in mind:

• There are no y-axis labels. The bars are proportionate to each other

based on the lowest data bar.

• We looked at one billion impressions for this study with Moat

validating viewability. These were taken from campaigns’ “learning

period,” which is prior to optimizing to viewability. This provided the

rawest data.

• The data is derived from aggregating site-level data (that is, a site came

in at 34% viewability on average across all ad units. An impression

itself clearly cannot be 34% viewable).

• This is 100% programmatic inventory, both PMP and open exchange.

These are scary results for marketers over-focused on viewability. Some

simple analysis shows

• Conversion rates for the “best” (90-100%) sites are worse than sites

with 0-10% viewability.

• Clearing prices for sites with 80%+ viewability don’t deliver value in

that their eCPMs aren’t justified by strong conversion rates.

• Sites that perform the best fall into disparate deciles, with 30-40%

owning the top spot, followed by 70-80% and 10-20%.

• For the price, sites with 30-40% viewability offer the greatest value,

but your likelihood of actually delivering a viewable ad is less than half.

This is fixable and addressed in the closing discussion (page 9).

Conversion rates for the “best” (90-100%) sites are worse than sites with 0-10% viewability.

Clearing Prices of sites by Viewability Decile

Conversion Rates on CPA Campaigns by Viewability Decile

90-100%

80-90%

70-80%

60-70%

50-60%

40-50%

30-40%

20-30%

10-20%

0-10%

90-100%

80-90%

70-80%

60-70%

50-60%

40-50%

30-40%

20-30%

10-20%

0-10%

In viewing the “Clearing Prices and Conversion Rates” data (page 8), many

marketers have come to the following conclusion: “Sites in the 30-40% and even

10-20% and 20-30% buckets have significantly better conversion rates, so those

sites should be bought regardless of their viewability.” This entirely misses the

point of viewability being foundational to measuring conversion lift and value.

The following represents the six possible user paths as it relates to measuring

the value of an ad against the value of a subsequent conversion:

It’s important to recognize that the

site on which an ad is purchased

(and its predilection for causing a

conversion) only matters if the ad

is seen in the first place. Looking at

the scenario on the far right where

an ad is truly never seen, we know

that even if that ad ran on a relevant

site to a relevant user and it typically

performed well, that impression

delivered no value. Even if the user

does end up subsequently converting,

the ad that was never seen cannot

be credited with driving any part of

that conversion. Vendors who do this

intentionally — paying low prices for

sites in high-converting but low-

viewability deciles — are known to

be “cookie bombing,” attaching their

cookies to as many users as possible

in the hope that the sheer volume of

users they touch will make it appear

as though their media influenced

conversions and performance.

The middle scenario describes an

ad that is viewable by the user but

doesn’t meet IAB measurement

criteria or is incorrectly measured

due to technological limitations. If

the user doesn’t end up converting,

it’s unlikely that ad had any value. If

the user does end up subsequently

converting, it is difficult to measure

the value because we don’t always

know what caused the ad to be

declared unviewable.

Where an ad is truly in-view and

measured in-view, it’s clear there is

value if the user converts. If the user

doesn’t convert, we can safely say the

impression didn’t have value for that

specific campaign, although there

may be residual brand value that is

beyond the scope of this paper.

In summary, the key to understanding

relatively high conversion rates in

lower viewability buckets lies in

understanding how conversions

occur at all in relation to ad exposure.

In real life, conversions occur with

or without advertising exposure,

and conversions also occur beyond

the scope of the industry’s technical

measurement capabilities. These

layers of complexity in interpreting

viewability lead us to the conclusion

that making campaign decisions

about viewability should not be siloed

or extreme. A marketer declaring

he or she will only pay for 100%

viewable is not only overly binary but

also misinformed and detrimental

to generating optimal campaign

performance. Conversely, a trading

desk deciding to only buy sites in the

30-40% decile because they drive

high conversions is falsely claiming

success for conversions that would

have occurred anyway.

How to Understand Conversion Rates for Non-viewable Ads

© 2

01

6 G

oo

dw

ay G

rou

p. A

ll ri

ghts

res

erve

d.

Ad is Viewable by User, but Not Measured Viewable

Ad is Measured Viewable to User

A User is Served an Ad

Ad is Truly Never Viewable by the User

YES – user later converts

NO – user does not ever convert

YES – user later converts

NO – user does not ever convert

YES – user later converts

NO – user does not ever convert

© 2016 Goodway Group. All rights reserved. Applying Viewability Intelligently for Measurably Improved Performance 10

CONCLUSION AND FOUR STEPS TO ENSURE VALUE

With all of the tools and technology now available to measure an ad

campaign, the advertising industry is getting to a point where advertisers

can now know with significant precision whether or not their campaigns

worked and to what degree. By using viewability, control versus exposed

methodology, and offline-to-online sales matching and attribution, digital

media has leapfrogged its traditional counterparts by being able to deliver

provable, measurable value.

At Goodway specifically, in order to deliver the highest viewability possible, here is what we are doing to ensure value for every campaign that we run.

1 LEVERAGE PRIVATE

MARKETPLACE DEALS 2 PARTNER WITH

THE BEST

We have the buying power

to negotiate with publishers

directly for viewable inventory

at discounted rates. This

ensures that regional agencies

and marketers don’t get shut out

from the best inventory typically

reserved for holding companies

and other big advertisers.

We partner with MOAT,

an industry-leading,

MRC-accredited viewability

provider. MOAT is seamlessly

integrated into every campaign

that we run, allowing us to

monitor viewability daily and

report on viewability at no extra

cost to our clients. However,

we work with all accredited

viewability partners should you

prefer a different one.

3 IMPLEMENT SITE LIST

CONTROLS 4 OPTIMIZE WITH

HUMAN EYES

After serving billions of

impressions each month, we know

which sites deliver value and which

don’t. We blacklist sites with low

viewability and focus delivery on

proven performers.

With the largest independent

trading team on the planet of 60+,

our trading experts optimize every

campaign towards viewability

through optimal targeting, fold

adjustment and bid management.

Goodway Group is a leading managed-services

programmatic partner to local, regional, and Fortune 500

clients. Bootstrapped and 100% privately owned since

1929, Goodway moved into the programmatic digital

media space in 2006 to continue its rich history of tackling

complex local and regional campaign executions with data

science-driven targeting and support services to make

achieving success easy for clients. Its proprietary algorithms

pair with a technology-agnostic approach to enable clients

to achieve their ultimate goal – drive more traffic and sales.

(877) 274-9881 | info@goodwaygroup.com

Contact us to improve viewability and get more value from your media.