Viewability

Viewability is a standardized metric of how much an advertising banner actually came into the user's field of view. Media Rating Council (MRC) standard: A display banner is considered “visible” if at least 50% of its area is on the screen for at least 1 second. For video - 50% of the area and at least 2 seconds.

The problem is that you pay for impression (impression), and not for view. A banner at the bottom of a long page, where 70% of users did not scroll, is a display with zero viewability. The average industry viewability for display advertising is 50–60%, for video it is 70–80%. That is, up to half of the purchased impressions are money down the drain.

In my practice, viewability is important when evaluating media placements and DSPs. For performance campaigns, where I optimize for conversions rather than reach, viewability is less critical: if the banner does not convert, I will remove the site regardless of visibility. Viewability is a metric for brand awareness budgets.

How to improve viewability: choose Above the Fold formats (content on the first screen), use sticky banners, work with proven whitelist sites with a history of high viewability. Verification services: IAS, DoubleVerify, Moat.