What does the viewability of ads mean in Performance Marketing as an indicator? What conclusions can marketers draw from it?
Report Meetrics Viewability Benchmark Report for Q3 2020 includes data on digital ad exposure duration. It covers various European and international markets. According to the report, in Poland, the viewability of display and video ads slightly decreased compared to the second quarter of 2020. The visibility of display ads was 57%, and the viewtime was 16.8 seconds. Compared to Q2, where the results were 58% and 17.4 seconds, these indicators fell by 1 pp and 0.6 seconds, respectively. Similarly, we see slight drops in the video ad, where viewability drops to 75% from the previous 79% and viewtime of 16.9 seconds from the previous 18.5 seconds.
The report identifies three main reasons:
What are the best viewable display ad formats on desktops and laptops? MPU (300x250) reigns here with 74% viewability and 23.2 seconds viewtime. Behind the MPU abbreviation stands the Mid-page Unit, a banner also called a medium rectangle (banner resolution is 300 x 250 pixels). This banner usually appears on the right or left side of the page, as the name suggests, in between of the page content. Good results are also shown by the Skyscraper ad (160x600), the average of which is 70% viewability with 27.2 seconds of viewability viewtime. Half Page Ad (300×600) is similar with 71% viewtimeand 24.1 second visibility viewtime.
The overall visibility of display ads on mobile is similar to ads on desktop devices (57% compared to 58%). The most visible mobile ads a banner with an aspect ratio of 6:1 (320×50) with 84% viewability and a view time of 23.4 seconds.
Let’s compare your ad viewability with your CTR by comparing the most popular ad sizes. Half Page Ad banners’ viewability on the desktop is 71%, with just over 24 seconds of viewtime. CTR - 0.12% according to the Bannertag portal and 0.22% according to our data. This mobile ad has 63% viewability and 9.3 seconds of viewtime. The portal does not distinguish between CTR on mobile and desktop, but according to our data CTR on mobile is almost 2%.
What are the results for the MPU? The average CTR was 0.25%. This is in line with Selectivv’s data, which shows 0.15% on desktop devices and 0.38% CTR on phones. On the other hand, viewability is better on the desktop with 74% than on mobile with 55%. The viewability viewtime is similar, with the advantage of desktops 23.3 seconds and 10.3 seconds for mobile.
What about the Skyscraper? CTR of Selectivv and the portal overlaps at 0.08%, while viewability is 70% with 27.2 seconds of viewtime. These results only apply to the desktop. The last banner we analyzed in terms of CTR and viewability is a 6:1 mobile banner (320×50). The first indicator is 0.02% according to the portal, but as much as 0.58% according to Selectivv. In turn, the viewability is 84% and 23.4 sec viewtime.
As you can see, these results do not clearly indicate which ad is better. Even more so if we take into account the difference between the different channels. The topic of campaign effectiveness and CTR was also discussed in our previous post.
While they can help you see the bigger picture overall, they should not necessarily be our main goal.
After television, the Internet is the second most important advertising channel, which continued to gain importance during the pandemic. The entire internet advertising market is growing, but especially efficiency advertising (growth of the e-commerce market). CTR is still widely analyzed and is not a good measure of the success of either image-building or efficiency activities:
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