are your video ads making an impression?

Are Your Video Ads Making an Impression?

May 2015

Video Ad Viewability Insights for Digital Marketers and Publishers

WHAT WE WANTED TO KNOW

We conducted research using our Active View technology to learn about the current state of viewable video impressions on the web. Viewability is top of mind for many advertisers and publishers now that the Media Rating Council has lifted the viewable transaction advisory for video. Seeking enhanced ROI, brand advertisers hope to ensure that their video ads are seen. Publishers are receiving more RFPs and are looking to enhance site viewability, using viewable impressions as a currency to do so. Here we highlight the broad findings and insights we discovered during our analysis of the research data to help advertisers and publishers better understand the current state of viewable video impressions.

2 thinkwithgoogle.com/viewability

WHAT WE DID

3

Google conducted a study of our video advertising platforms, including Google, DoubleClick, and YouTube, to better understand video ad viewability on YouTube and across the web. According to the Media Rating Council and IAB standard, a viewable video impression occurs when at least50% of an ad’s pixels are visible on screen for at least two consecutive seconds. For the purpose of this report, we are using this definition across both desktop and mobile devices. We analyzed two separate sets of data pulled using Google’s Active View measurement technology in April 2015: 1.  Video viewability across the web (desktop, mobile, and tablet), not

including YouTube. Mobile video app data is not available at this time, so we have excluded it from this analysis.

2.  Video viewability data for YouTube, including both data from across the web (desktop, mobile, and tablet) and mobile in-app ads.

thinkwithgoogle.com/viewability

WHAT WE FOUND WHAT WE FOUND

State of Video Ad Viewability The average viewability of video ads across the web (not including YouTube) is 54% and on YouTube is 91%.*

Why Video Ads Aren’t Seen Of non-viewable ads, 76% were in a background tab or never on screen at all. The remaining 24% were scrolled off-screen or abandoned in fewer than two seconds.

Player Size Matters The most popular video ad player size across the web happens to be the least viewable. Large players on video-focused sites, like those found on YouTube, for example, demonstrate significantly higher viewability.

Location, Location, Location Horizontal and vertical positioning matter, and correlate to viewability.

Device Matters Video ads are significantly more viewable on mobile and tablet than on desktop. YouTube exhibits very high viewability on mobile and tablet at 94%.*

4

*YouTube includes mobile app data

Source: Google and DoubleClick advertising platforms data, April 2015. thinkwithgoogle.com/viewability

State of Video Ad Viewability

6

*Does not include mobile apps **YouTube numbers also include data for mobile apps

are viewable on the web (not including YouTube) across desktop, mobile,* and tablet.

54% are viewable on YouTube.**

91%

State of viewability for video ads:

Source: Google and DoubleClick advertising platforms data, April 2015. thinkwithgoogle.com/viewability

7

more ad recall compared to those who didn’t experience the ad at all (control).

33.1%

Source: Google and DoubleClick advertising platforms data; Google Brand Lift study data; through March 2015.

Even ads that are not viewable on YouTube impact brand lift.

Users exposed to YouTube ads that are heard and not seen had:


8 Source: Google and DoubleClick advertising platforms data, April 2015.

Viewability is not uniform globally; benchmarks can vary significantly by country.

*Does not include mobile apps **YouTube numbers also include data for mobile apps


Country Non-YouTube* YouTube**

54%

61%

80%

76%

58%

69%

69%

56%

86%

83%

65%

79%

64%

United States

Canada

Mexico

Brazil

Great Britain

Germany

France

Italy

Russia

Japan

South Korea

India

Australia

91%

91%

89%

89%

91%

92%

89%

89%

91%

91%

88%

90%

91%

Device Matters

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Desktop

Mobile**

53%

83%87%

94% 94%

81%

Tablet**

Desktop

Mobile

Tablet

10

Video ads are significantly more viewable on mobile and tablet than on desktop. YouTube is 94% viewable on mobile devices.

Source: Google and DoubleClick advertising platforms data, April 2015.

YOUTUBE† WEB*

More than half of YouTube views are on mobile devices.

*Does not include YouTube **Does not include mobile apps †YouTube numbers also include data for mobile apps


Why Video Ads Aren’t Seen


Non-viewable ads are served video ads across desktop, mobile, and tablet that don’t meet the viewability criteria.

are never on screen (they’re in a background tab or simply not on the screen at all).

76%

are scrolled off-screen or abandoned in fewer than two seconds.

24%

Of the video ads that were not seen:


Player Size Matters


Among the most common video players across the web, the larger the video player, the higher its viewability.

VIEWABILITY RATE BY PLAYER SIZE


VOLUME BY PLAYER SIZE

75

50

25 19.8

33%

88.6

57.3

26.7

85.9

73.8

52.2

46.4

83.8

71.4

85.8 85.4

79.3

30.3

67

19%

7%5% 5%

4% 4%3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3%

2% 2%

View

abili

ty R

ate

Player Size Player Size

% o

f Tot

al V

olum

e

Most viewable video ad sizes

Least viewable video ad sizes

0

100

30%

15%

20%

25%

5%

10%

0

35%

300 x 250

300 x 250

848 x 477

848 x 477

640 x 360

640 x 360

400 x 300

400 x 300

610 x 290

610 x 290

960 x 540

960 x 540

612 x 281

612 x 281

1280 x 720

612 x 344

640 x 480

640 x 480

640 x 390

645 x 410

645 x 410

1280 x 720

300 x 255

854 x 510

854 x 510

702 x 396

702 x 396

300 x 225

612 x 344

640 x 390

Location, Location, Location


VERTICAL POSITION

Top of Page = Most Viewable

Video player size and its location on the page matter. Both correlate to higher viewability.

HORIZONTAL POSITION

Centered = Most Viewable


HighestViewability

2ndHighest

Viewability

2ndHighest

Viewability

3rdHighest

Viewability

3rdHighest

Viewability

Screen

250

750

1250

1750

2250

2750

3250

3750

4250

4750

5250

5750

6250

6750

Pixe

ls to

Pla

yer T

op


Video player size and its location on the page matter. Both correlate to higher viewability.

0 20250750

125017502250

27503250

37504250

4750525057506250

6750

40 60 80 100

Pixe

ls to

Pla

yer T

op

Document Width

VERTICAL + HORIZONTAL POSITION

Top Center of Page = Most Viewable


WHAT THIS MEANS FOR ADVERTISERS

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Advertisers seeking viewable impressions should look at high viewability sites that engage in best practices for video viewability. Video viewability varies significantly by ad size. In general, advertisers should consider investing their spend in inventory comprised of larger video ad sizes to enhance viewability.

Page position is crucial to video viewability. Advertisers should understand how both horizontal and vertical positioning can impact viewability for video ads.

While extremely popular, advertisers should consider buying fewer 300 x 250 ads given how poor the viewability is for this ad size.

To maintain accurate, high viewability rates, every impression needs to be counted, not just a sample of impressions.


WHAT THIS MEANS FOR PUBLISHERS

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In order to achieve average viewability for their video ads, publishers need to achieve a viewability rate of 54%.

Publishers should evaluate their video ad size inventory and move away from smaller video ads that don’t deliver the viewability rates desired by advertisers.

In general, moving video players to a higher and more centrally located position on the page is recommended.

Page position affects the effectiveness of video ads; publishers should keep this in mind when making video ad placement/layout decisions.

To maintain accurate, high viewability rates, every impression needs to be counted, not just a sample of impressions. This helps prevent any lost revenue from inaccurate sampling.


are your video ads making an impression?

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