Viewability Archives - Integral Ad Science https://integralads.com/insider/category/topics/viewability/ The Hidden Cost of MFA Webinar Mon, 19 May 2025 20:20:16 +0000 en hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://integralads.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/IAS-Favicon-2023-Square.png Viewability Archives - Integral Ad Science https://integralads.com/insider/category/topics/viewability/ 32 32 Media Quality Report: 20th Edition https://integralads.com/insider/media-quality-report-20th-edition/ Tue, 20 May 2025 12:00:00 +0000 https://integralads.com/?p=341824 Industry-leading benchmarks for superior media quality IAS is pleased to share the Media Quality Report: 20th Edition — offering trusted benchmarks and global insights based on more than 280 billion digital interactions daily. As the gold standard in media quality,...

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Industry-leading benchmarks for superior media quality

IAS is pleased to share the Media Quality Report: 20th Edition — offering trusted benchmarks and global insights based on more than 280 billion digital interactions daily.

As the gold standard in media quality, the Media Quality Report (MQR) is here to help marketers across the globe assess performance through the industry’s most actionable data. This year’s report offers an in-depth look into global media quality data, key trends shaping the digital landscape, and a step-by-step guide for how to get the most out of the MQR.

Dive into this year’s report, with key trends including:

  • BRAND RISK: The share of offensive content increased 72% year-over-year.
  • AD FRAUD: Fraud rates for campaigns that were not protected against fraud increased 19%.
  • VIEWABILITY: Overall viewability stabilized, but global desktop video viewability reached a record high of 83.9%.

With digital media evolving every day, reliable benchmarks are more important than ever. See how your media stacks up — and where to take action next.

Download the report today to access IAS’s industry-leading global benchmarks.

ACCESS REPORT

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]]> What is Digital Ad Viewability — and Why is it So Important? https://integralads.com/insider/what-is-digital-ad-viewability/ Wed, 04 Dec 2024 12:00:00 +0000 https://integralads.com/?p=338624 Ad viewability is a key topic of conversation in the advertising industry, often regarded as a fundamental measure of success for display and video ads. But why does ad viewability matter so much? Just because an ad is served doesn’t...

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Ad viewability is a key topic of conversation in the advertising industry, often regarded as a fundamental measure of success for display and video ads.

But why does ad viewability matter so much?

Just because an ad is served doesn’t mean it’s actually been seen by a user. Advertisers seek out websites with high ad viewability rates because it leads to better campaign performance and a stronger return on investment (ROI).

A staggering one-third of digital ads go unseen in some environments, meaning a significant portion of advertising budgets may be wasted. Visibility is everything. An ad that doesn’t get seen can’t drive engagement, increase conversions, or deliver the results you’re looking for. However, simply serving an ad isn’t enough — ensuring that it’s viewable is the real challenge. 

This article will explore what ad viewability is, how to improve it, and how to ensure your ads are seen by the right audience on the right platforms.

What Is Digital Ad Viewability?

Ad viewability is a measurement of whether an ad has a real opportunity to be seen by a user, rather than just appearing on a web page. It’s an essential metric in digital advertising, as it determines if the ad had the potential to make an impression on the viewer. Unlike traditional impressions, which simply track ad delivery, viewability focuses on whether the ad is visible and can actually capture user attention.

The Media Rating Council (MRC) offers a standardized definition for viewable display ad impressions, ensuring consistency across the industry. According to the MRC Viewable Ad Impression Guidelines, an ad is considered “viewable” when:

  • Pixel Requirement: At least 50% of the ad’s pixels are displayed within the viewable space of the browser tab on an in-focus page.
  • Time Requirement: The pixel requirement must be maintained for at least one continuous second after the ad has rendered for display ads and a minimum of two seconds for video ads.

These criteria ensure that an ad meets the minimum standards for visibility, offering advertisers greater transparency and more meaningful performance insights. By focusing on viewability, advertisers can ensure that their campaigns have a genuine chance to connect with their target audience, enhancing engagement and campaign success.

Why Viewability Matters in Digital Advertising

Viewability is what makes or breaks the success of your ads. Ads that aren’t viewable simply can’t drive conversions, no matter how well they’re targeted or how compelling their creative is. 

Viewability is more than just a metric — it’s a cornerstone of digital advertising success. Here’s why:

  1. Accurate Performance Measurement: Viewability ensures advertisers know that their ads had a chance to be seen, making other performance metrics like clicks and impressions more reliable.
  2. Maximized ROI: Advertisers allocate their budgets based on the expectation that ads will be seen. Higher viewability rates directly correlate with better campaign performance, stronger brand recall, and ultimately, increased conversions.
  3. Better Brand Safety: Environments with low viewability often overlap with those that pose risks to brand safety. For example, ads displayed at the bottom of a page or obscured by other content are not just unseen but also more likely to appear in non-premium environments.
  4. Stronger Publisher Relationships: Publishers benefit from higher viewability rates, too. Ads that are more visible generally yield higher CPMs (cost per thousand impressions), creating a win-win for both advertisers and publishers.

While viewability is critical, it’s far from guaranteed. Just think about this:

Clearly, there’s room for improvement.  These statistics underscore that simply serving an ad isn’t enough. Without addressing the gaps in viewability, advertisers risk wasting ad spend, missing potential conversions, and failing to reach campaign goals. High viewability is critical for optimizing every step of the customer journey, from awareness to action. To achieve this, advertisers and publishers need to implement targeted strategies that enhance the chances of ads being seen.

How to Improve Ad Viewability

Now that we have a clear understanding of what ad viewability entails and why it’s critical for the success of your campaigns, the next step is to explore how to actively improve it.

Here are some key strategies that can help ensure your ads don’t just exist in digital spaces but have the opportunity to capture attention.

Leverage Viewability Measurement

To optimize campaigns effectively, advertisers must actively measure and monitor ad viewability throughout the campaign lifecycle. Here’s how leveraging viewability measurement can make a difference:

  1. Identify Weak Spots: By analyzing viewability rates, advertisers can pinpoint specific ad placements or formats that underperform. This data enables more informed decisions about ad positioning and inventory selection, allowing for rapid adjustments.
  2. Enhance Ad Placements: Viewability measurement tools provide actionable insights that can be used to improve ad placements and formats. For example, by identifying low-viewability inventory, advertisers can redirect their budget toward higher-quality placements that are more likely to be seen.
  3. Increase Accountability: Working with third-party measurement platforms ensures greater accountability, as advertisers can verify whether publishers are delivering viewable impressions. This transparency strengthens relationships between advertisers and publishers, fostering trust and better collaboration.
  4. Refine Ad Strategy: Continuous measurement of viewability helps advertisers fine-tune their strategies over time. By regularly evaluating which campaigns have the highest viewability rates, advertisers can replicate successful elements and refine their approach for future campaigns.
  5. Align With KPIs: Since viewability is closely tied to key performance indicators like click-through-rate (CTR), conversion rate, and ROI, using measurement tools allows advertisers to optimize campaigns more efficiently. Higher viewability rates typically translate into better engagement and stronger overall results.

By leveraging viewability measurement, advertisers can ensure that their campaigns are not only reaching audiences but also making a tangible impact. This proactive approach drives more meaningful engagement and helps maximize ROI.

Optimize Ad Placement

Ad placement plays a huge role in determining viewability. Ads that are placed above the fold—the portion of a web page that is visible without scrolling—are far more likely to be seen than those placed further down. 

Additionally, ad placement on mobile devices needs to account for smaller screen sizes, meaning strategic positioning is even more important for mobile ad viewability.

Choose High-Quality Inventory

To maximize viewability, it’s essential to partner with publishers that prioritize high-quality inventory and offer premium ad placements. Ads positioned in high-traffic areas, such as above-the-fold or embedded within engaging content, tend to deliver better viewability rates. This approach not only improves the chances of ads being seen but also enhances overall campaign performance. By carefully selecting inventory, advertisers can ensure that their ads are in the best position to reach and impact target audiences.

Optimize Ad Formats

The format of your ad plays a critical role in determining its viewability. Formats like sticky ads, which remain visible as users scroll, or in-stream video ads that play within video content, often yield higher viewability rates. By tailoring ad formats to both the platform and the preferences of the target audience, advertisers can increase the likelihood that their ads will not only be seen but also engage users. Experimenting with a variety of formats and placements is key to finding the combination that drives the best results.

Leverage Contextual Targeting

Aligning ads with contextually relevant content can significantly boost viewability rates. Contextual targeting involves placing ads within environments that are directly related to the user’s interests, making them more likely to notice and engage with the content. For example, an ad for athletic gear is more likely to perform well on a fitness blog, where users are already primed for related content. This approach increases not just the chances of the ad being seen, but also the likelihood of user interaction, leading to stronger engagement metrics and higher ROI.

Monitor and Adjust with Timely Reporting

To achieve the highest levels of ad viewability, digital ad campaigns need continuous oversight. Actionable and timely monitoring is crucial for tracking viewability rates, ensuring that ads are actually seen by the intended audience. Key metrics to monitor include time-in-view, which measures how long an ad stays visible on screen, and attention metrics, which indicate user engagement and interaction with the ad. These insights provide a clear picture of whether an ad is achieving its intended impact.

By keeping a close eye on these metrics, advertisers can make immediate adjustments to improve performance. For example, if an ad consistently falls short in one placement, advertisers can quickly reallocate the ad to a different location or platform that offers better visibility. This kind of agility is critical, as it minimizes wasted impressions and maximizes the return on ad spend.

Timely adjustments also allow for optimization of ad formats and creatives based on performance data. If certain formats (like in-stream video or sticky ads) show higher viewability, advertisers can shift more resources toward those formats. 

Furthermore, timely monitoring enables dynamic bidding adjustments in programmatic campaigns. If an ad placement is underperforming in terms of viewability, pre-bid viewability targeting segments can be utilized to drive optimal viewability rates and ensure that ad budgets are spent more effectively. By maintaining this level of responsiveness, advertisers can enhance campaign outcomes, ensuring that their ads not only reach but truly engage the target audience.

How IAS Can Help Improve Your Ad Viewability

At IAS, we know that ensuring your ads are seen is just the beginning. Our solutions are designed to enhance your ad’s performance by improving viewability across platforms and environments. Our viewability solutions cover a wide range of environments, including CTV, mobile, in-app, and programmatic, ensuring that your ads appear in high-quality placements that capture attention.

If you’re ready to make your digital ads work harder, IAS is here to help. Get in touch today to learn how our viewability solutions can ensure your ads are not only seen and heard but also drive real action.

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]]> Mastering Ad Verification: Viewability, Ad Fraud, and Brand Safety Measurement for Effective Campaigns https://integralads.com/insider/mastering-ad-verification/ Mon, 18 Nov 2024 12:00:00 +0000 https://integralads.com/?p=338492 Digital advertising presents countless opportunities for brands to connect with their target audiences, but ensuring that ads are actually seen by real people, in the right places, and within safe environments is no small task. As brands aim to reach...

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Digital advertising presents countless opportunities for brands to connect with their target audiences, but ensuring that ads are actually seen by real people, in the right places, and within safe environments is no small task. As brands aim to reach the right consumers, they must contend with the challenges of viewability, ad fraud, and brand safety — making ad verification an essential part of any successful strategy.

What Is Ad Verification?

Ad verification is the process of ensuring that ads are delivered as intended. This involves confirming that ads appear in front of human eyes (viewability), are protected against fraudulent activities (ad fraud), and are placed in environments that align with the brand’s safety guidelines (brand safety).

Without these checks, brands risk wasting valuable advertising dollars, damaging their reputation, and losing consumer trust. Moreover, ad verification tools provide vital data that help in refining marketing strategies by highlighting which ads perform best.

By filtering out invalid traffic and preventing ads from appearing on inappropriate websites, verification also enhances overall campaign efficiency. As advertisers rely heavily on digital channels to reach their audiences, integrating robust ad verification processes becomes indispensable to maximizing return on investment (ROI) and maintaining brand integrity.

The Role of Ad Verification in Digital Advertising

Ad verification has become a fundamental component of successful digital advertising campaigns. In today’s complex ecosystem, where ads are distributed across a variety of channels and devices, it’s essential for brands to ensure their investments are delivering real value. 

Ad verification allows advertisers to measure the success of their campaigns, providing critical insights that help them refine their strategies and avoid common pitfalls, like wasting money on ads that aren’t seen or are susceptible to ad fraud.

Ensuring Ads Are Seen and Effective

When ads are verified, brands can be confident that their messages are reaching genuine audiences, which in turn enhances the potential for engagement and conversions.

Furthermore, ad verification tools provide invaluable insights into ad performance, enabling advertisers to refine their strategies and optimize future campaigns for even better results. This level of accountability not only maximizes the return on ad spend but also ensures that brand reputation is maintained, fostering greater consumer trust and loyalty.

What are the 4 Core Pillars of Ad Verification?

To fully harness the potential of this data, advertisers must rely on robust ad verification tools that offer a comprehensive approach to evaluating campaign effectiveness. These tools go beyond surface-level metrics, providing insights that directly inform strategic adjustments in near real-time. 

By ensuring that ads are not only seen by real users but also placed in brand-safe environments and contextually relevant settings, advertisers can maximize both the efficiency and impact of their campaigns. At the heart of this process are four core pillars that form the foundation of effective ad verification: viewability, ad fraud prevention, brand safety, and contextual relevance.

The four core pillars of ad verification are:

  • Viewability: Ensures that an ad has the opportunity to be seen by users. This pillar focuses on whether the ad appears within the visible area of the screen and meets industry standards for a viewable impression (e.g., at least 50% of the ad in view for one second or more for display ads).
  • Ad Fraud Prevention: Detects and prevents invalid traffic, such as bot activity and fraudulent practices like ad stacking or hidden ads. Ad verification solutions, like those from IAS, help ensure advertisers are only paying for genuine impressions seen by real users.
  • Brand Safety: Ensures that ads are placed in environments that align with the advertiser’s values and avoid appearing next to inappropriate, harmful, or unsuitable content. This protects brand reputation by verifying the context in which ads are displayed.
  • Ad Targeting & Contextual Relevance: Ensures that ads are delivered to the right audience and in the appropriate context. This pillar focuses on the relevance of the content surrounding the ad to ensure that ads are served in environments that enhance engagement and effectiveness.

Key Benefits of Ad Verification

Ad verification provides advertisers with the clarity they need to make informed decisions, ensuring their investments are directed toward high-quality impressions. 

1. Optimize Budget Allocation

One of the most valuable benefits of ad verification is the ability to optimize how your advertising budget is spent. Every digital ad campaign faces the challenge of ensuring that impressions are actually seen by real people, not lost to bot traffic, or displayed in non-viewable areas of a digital environment. Verification tools allow brands to:

  • Avoid wasted impressions: Ads served in non-viewable placements, such as those that don’t load fully or appear too far down the page, offer no value. Verification provides the increased transparency needed to inform optimization that drives viewability and the likelihood of engaging with users.
  • Detect and block fraudulent traffic: Bots and click farms are responsible for billions in wasted ad spend annually. Ad verification systems monitor traffic, preventing fraudsters from siphoning off your budget with fake clicks or views.

When advertisers know that their budgets are being spent on impressions that have a real chance of being seen and engaged with, they can maximize the effectiveness of their campaigns, leading to better performance and improved ROI.

2. Increase Campaign Performance

Verification tools also enhance overall campaign performance by focusing efforts on reaching legitimate users in relevant and safe environments. This leads to more meaningful engagements and conversions. Here’s how ad verification boosts campaign performance:

  • Target real users: With verification, advertisers can receive assurance that their ads are being served to human users, avoiding wasted spend on bot-driven impressions or fraudulent clicks.
  • Reach users in safe environments: Ad verification helps brands avoid unsafe or low-quality websites, ensuring ads are displayed in places that reflect positively on the brand and align with its values. This builds trust and enhances the likelihood of user engagement.

By refining the targeting and placement of ads, verification ensures campaigns are reaching the intended audience, driving better engagement, and ultimately, improved results.

3. Protect Brand Integrity

A major concern for advertisers is ensuring that their ads don’t appear alongside harmful, offensive, or inappropriate content. Poorly placed ads can have significant repercussions on brand reputation, potentially alienating consumers and diminishing trust. Ad verification tools allow brands to:

  • Shield their ads from unsafe content: These tools scan the digital ecosystem for inappropriate or harmful content, ensuring that ads do not appear in environments that could reflect poorly on the brand.
  • Implement dynamic safety filters: Many verification platforms offer real-time content filtering pre-bid segments, preventing ads from being served on newly emerging or flagged content that doesn’t meet the brand’s standards.

The ability to take control over where ads are shown is critical to maintain consumer trust and brand reputation. Ad verification gives advertisers the peace of mind that their campaigns are running in safe, relevant spaces, preserving integrity and audience trust.

4. Measuring and Improving Campaign Effectiveness

Beyond ensuring ads are visible, fraud-free, and safe, ad verification tools provide detailed insights into how campaigns are performing. Advertisers can use this data to fine-tune their strategies, improving future campaigns. Key metrics like viewability rates, brand safety violations, and fraud detection statistics give advertisers a clear understanding of what’s working and what needs improvement.

This constant feedback loop allows for more refined targeting, smarter budget allocation, and better overall results. In a competitive digital space, the ability to continuously optimize campaigns is a significant advantage.

Understanding Viewability: Making Sure Ads Get Seen

Viewability is the cornerstone of ad verification, determining whether an ad has the opportunity to be seen by a user. According to the Media Rating Council (MRC), an ad is considered viewable if at least 50% of its pixels are in view for at least one continuous second for display ads, and two continuous seconds for video ads.

Why Viewability Matters

An ad that isn’t seen by its intended audience has no chance of delivering value. A non-viewable ad is effectively invisible — it can’t drive brand awareness, engage potential customers, or lead to conversions. This makes viewability a critical metric for advertisers. If your ad is served but not seen, your campaign is failing at the most basic level. Ensuring high viewability is not only important for visibility but also for maximizing your return on investment.

Viewability is a Metric You Can’t Afford to Ignore

Viewability directly impacts campaign performance, making it a core element in digital ad strategy. Brands invest significant resources in crafting the right message and choosing the right platforms, but none of that matters if the ads don’t actually have the chance to be seen. 

Studies show that higher viewability correlates with better engagement rates, click-through rates, and overall brand recall. Essentially, the more your ad is seen, the more likely it is to fulfill its objective.

High viewability gives advertisers the confidence that their ad spend is going toward placements that matter — ads that have the potential to be seen, engaged with, and acted upon. As a key performance indicator (KPI), viewability helps brands assess the health of their campaigns and adjust strategies accordingly.

Factors Impacting Viewability

Achieving high viewability is not always straightforward. Several factors can influence whether an ad is viewable, ranging from its placement on the webpage to how users interact with the content. By understanding these factors, advertisers can optimize their campaigns for better performance.

Ad Placement and Positioning

Ad placement and positioning play a crucial role in determining ad viewability. First, ads placed above the fold, where they are immediately visible without scrolling, have higher chances of being seen compared to those below the fold. Second, the alignment of ads within the viewport is essential, as ads fully within a user’s viewing area are more likely to be viewed. Lastly, larger ad units often outperform smaller ones in viewability, and IAS provides data-driven insights to help advertisers optimize placements for maximum visibility.

Fraudulent Traffic and Non-Human Activity

Fraudulent traffic and non-human activity can severely skew viewability metrics, leading to wasted ad spend and inaccurate performance reports. In fact, over 20% of all digital ad traffic is estimated to come from bots, contributing to billions of dollars in lost revenue annually. First, bot traffic generates false impressions, which artificially inflates impression counts while reducing the number of genuine ad views. This undermines advertisers’ ability to gauge the true effectiveness of their campaigns, as the ads are not reaching real, engaged users.

Second, fraudulent tactics like ad stacking — where multiple ads are layered on top of one another, with only the top ad visible — or hiding ads in places where users can’t see them, further distort viewability data. These deceptive methods can lead to up to a 30% overestimation in viewability scores, giving advertisers a false sense of success. In both cases, the ads technically load, but they fail to deliver any real value to advertisers because users either never see them or don’t interact with them in a meaningful way.

IAS tackles these issues head-on by offering verification solutions that provide fraud protection and automatically filter out fraud when measuring for viewability. Plus, we provide advertisers with comprehensive fraud detection and prevention solutions. Through the use of advanced technologies and machine learning, IAS identifies and blocks invalid traffic, ensuring that advertisers only pay for genuine impressions that have the potential to engage real users. By providing transparency and accurate reporting, IAS helps advertisers avoid the estimated $88 billion annual loss to ad fraud globally, optimizing media performance and delivering better ROI.

To maximize viewability, advertisers should take a strategic, data-driven approach. IAS provides valuable insights into how ads are being viewed, allowing brands to adjust their strategies for better performance. By regularly monitoring viewability metrics, brands can optimize their ad placements and adjust targeting to reach users at the right time.

Key Steps to Improving Viewability:
  • Prioritizing mobile optimization: With mobile devices accounting for the majority of online traffic, ensuring that ads are designed for mobile screens and fast loading is essential.
  • Collaborating with publishers: Working with premium publishers who offer high-visibility placements can make a significant difference in viewability rates.
  • Leveraging near real-time data: Brands should use sophisticated analytics to monitor viewability performance and adjust campaigns on the fly, ensuring they reach users in the most effective way.

Viewability is more than just a number: it’s a measure of how effectively your campaign is engaging with its target audience. When ads are seen, they have the potential to drive awareness, engagement, and conversions. By focusing on optimizing viewability, advertisers can ensure their digital ad spend is being put to work, reaching real people in meaningful ways.

More on Fraud: The Types of Ad Fraud

Understanding the different types of ad fraud is essential for protecting your campaigns:

  • Impression fraud: Fake impressions are created by bots or scripts, causing brands to pay for ads that are never seen by real people.
  • Domain spoofing: Fraudsters disguise low-quality or unsafe websites as premium ones, tricking advertisers into buying low-value impressions.
  • Click fraud: Fraudsters generate fake clicks on ads, inflating engagement metrics without any real user interaction.

How IAS Fights Ad Fraud

IAS’s ad fraud detection tools use advanced algorithms to identify and block fraudulent activity. By analyzing patterns and behaviors, IAS can filter out suspicious traffic, ensuring that advertisers only pay for genuine impressions.

Best Practices to Prevent Ad Fraud:

  • Partner with trusted verification providers: Utilize measurement and optimization partners like IAS to detect and block fraudulent activity in near real-time.
  • Monitor traffic sources: Keep a close eye on where your traffic is coming from, as certain sources are more prone to fraud.
  • Use programmatic transparency: Ensure your programmatic partners provide full visibility into where your ads are being placed.

Brand Safety Is Critical: Here's Why

Brand safety involves ensuring that your ads don’t appear alongside content that could harm your brand’s reputation. This can include offensive, inappropriate, or controversial content, as well as misinformation or politically charged material. Brand safety is more important than ever.

As digital content continues to proliferate across various platforms, the risk of ads being placed next to harmful content increases. Even a single instance of a brand’s ad appearing alongside inappropriate material can lead to significant backlash from consumers and a tarnished reputation.

IAS Brand Safety Solutions

IAS provides comprehensive brand safety solutions that ensure ads are placed in environments that align with a brand’s values. These solutions use machine learning to analyze content and categorize pages to avoid the most harmful content.

Proactive Steps to Safeguard Brand Safety:

  • Set clear brand safety guidelines: Define what types of content are off-limits for your brand and ensure your verification tools enforce these standards.
  • Leverage dynamic content filtering: Use tools that can filter content in near real-time, preventing your ads from appearing alongside newly created harmful content.
  • Monitor ad placements regularly: Continually monitor where your ads are being placed to ensure compliance with your brand safety guidelines.

Optimizing with Brand Suitability and Contextual Targeting

Beyond ensuring that ads are viewable, fraud-free, and placed in safe environments, advertisers must also optimize their campaigns to reach the right audiences in the right context. This is where brand suitability and contextual targeting come into play.

Brand Suitability: Tailoring Content to Align with Brand Values

While brand safety focuses on avoiding harmful content, brand suitability goes a step further by ensuring that ads appear alongside content that aligns with a brand’s specific values and tone. For instance, a luxury brand may prefer to advertise alongside high-quality editorial content rather than user-generated content.

Best Practices for Optimization through Brand Suitability and Contextual Targeting:

  • Use data-driven insights: Leverage the power of analytics to determine which types of content your target audience engages with most.
  • Refine targeting criteria: Continuously update your brand suitability and contextual targeting criteria to reflect changes in consumer behavior and preferences.
  • Collaborate with publishers: Work closely with publishers to ensure your ads are being placed in premium, brand-aligned environments.

How IAS Can Help

IAS provides advertisers with essential measurement and optimization solutions to ensure ads are served in the most effective and safe environments. Along with core ad verification, IAS offers post-bid blocking and monitoring solutions that provide real-time page scoring and impression blocking. If a page doesn’t meet the required quality standards, the ad simply won’t be served, protecting brands from appearing next to inappropriate content or in environments with non-human traffic. Additionally, through the IAS dashboard, advertisers can access granular insights into ad performance, including viewability, brand safety, and invalid traffic data. 

Plus, by leveraging IAS’s pre-bid filtering, advertisers can target only pre-qualified inventory on their demand-side platforms (DSPs), which helps reduce wasted ad spend and increases cost efficiency. This means that before any bidding takes place, advertisers are already filtering out low-quality or risky placements, ensuring that their ads are more likely to reach relevant, high-quality audiences.

Ensure that your campaigns are reaching the right audiences and driving superior results in any digital environment. Talk to an IAS representative today to get started.

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]]> IAS Partners with OpenX to Provide AI-Driven Brand Safety, Suitability, and Invalid Traffic Measurement https://integralads.com/insider/ias-openx-ai-driven-brand-safety-suitability-invalid-traffic-measurement/ Fri, 27 Sep 2024 12:00:00 +0000 https://integralads.com/?p=337140 IAS has partnered with OpenX, one of the world’s leading omnichannel supply-side platforms, to provide advertisers with the confidence to scale their campaigns across OpenX’s expansive publisher footprint, including web, in-app and premium CTV. Read more here.

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IAS has partnered with OpenX, one of the world’s leading omnichannel supply-side platforms, to provide advertisers with the confidence to scale their campaigns across OpenX’s expansive publisher footprint, including web, in-app and premium CTV.

The supply-side integration ensures advertisers can access brand safe and suitable inventory across Openx’s global network, and publishers can more accurately identify fraud and IVT.

Through this partnership, IAS and OpenX are:

  • Ensuring brand safe and suitable content for advertisers throughout the breadth of globally available OpenX inventory 
  • Eliminating blind spots for publishers to proactively detect and report against fraud and IVT at the impression level
  • Providing advertisers with data enrichment such as attention metrics to deliver additional value through unique inventory packages, custom segments, and more for programmatic direct and PMP deals 

“Our partnership with OpenX further demonstrates our commitment to helping publishers maximize yield and grow their audiences, while assuring advertisers that they are investing their spend in brand safe and suitable inventory,” said James Wilhite, VP, Product at Publica by IAS. “IAS is excited to provide our best-in-class measurement solutions across OpenX’s premium publisher inventory.” 

“OpenX’s partnership with IAS reflects our focus on driving innovation and providing best-in-class solutions across all digital channels by extending our audience modeling capabilities,” said Gil Sommer, VP of Global Product at OpenX. “Advertisers across our premium supply can remain confident in better outcomes, and publishers can expect to see higher yield and monetization opportunities.”

In February 2024, IAS announced the launch of IAS for Publishers, a new UI for the sell-side that helps publishers maximize yield and grow their audiences. In April 2024, IAS for Publishers was enhanced to enable ad sellers to report on both MFA and Ad Clutter and get insights into the quality of their inventory.

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]]> End-to-End Ad Measurement is Super Valuable — Here’s Why https://integralads.com/insider/end-to-end-ad-measurement-is-super-valuable-heres-why/ Wed, 17 Jul 2024 10:00:00 +0000 https://integralads.com/?p=334285 It’s no secret that measurement is a crucial component of successful advertising campaigns. Advertisers and publishers alike have been measuring digital impressions for decades. But ad measurement has evolved significantly since its inception, and impressions aren’t the only metric that...

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It’s no secret that measurement is a crucial component of successful advertising campaigns. Advertisers and publishers alike have been measuring digital impressions for decades. But ad measurement has evolved significantly since its inception, and impressions aren’t the only metric that matter anymore.

So how comprehensive and actionable is the measurement you’re relying on today?

The right measurement tactics enable you to ensure greater brand protection and impact on valuable media inventory — especially in environments like the open web, where your display and video campaigns are highly visible. In this blog post, we’ll explore why end-to-end ad measurement is invaluable and how it can transform your advertising strategy.

The key ingredients of end-to-end ad measurement

Despite its simplicity in nature, end-to-end ad measurement on the open web can get complicated fast. The advertising ecosystem is complex and busy, with consumers tuning in every day to different formats via multiple streaming platforms, and often in very different contexts. To navigate this complexity, end-to-end measurement must cover several key areas.

Viewability

For advertising to make an impact, it has to be viewed —not just served. Ensuring that your digital ads have the opportunity to be seen by consumers, wherever they are, is critical. All digital ads — desktop, mobile, in-app, browser, display, video — have unique requirements that need to be met when measuring for viewability.

As advertising becomes more sophisticated, brands want to not only prove ROI but also transact on viewability, and that’s why it’s more important than ever to have full-flight data on whether or not an ad was seen. IAS provides coverage for display and video placements across desktop, mobile web, and mobile app, and provides actionable data that reports viewability, fraud, and overall user experience.

Measuring viewability is paramount, so IAS ensures it doesn’t come at the cost of efficiency. We deliver the same set of data to both buyers and sellers so that no time is wasted on reconciliation. Additionally, our predictive data makes it possible for brands to target the most viewable ads available, all before ever placing a bid. Our pre-bid video and display viewability segments are easily accessible within the world’s largest demand-side platforms.

Ad Fraud

There are more than 5.35 billion internet users worldwide using the internet everyday. But unfortunately, sometimes digital ads are delivered to anything but a real person. 

Advertising fraud is a persistent threat in the digital space, draining resources and diminishing campaign effectiveness. According to our 19th Edition Media Quality Report, campaigns that are not optimized for fraud tended to encounter levels of fraud up to 14 times higher than those optimized against ad fraud. In fact, 8.4% of non-optimized ad campaign impressions were served to anything but a real human in the second half of 2023. 

End-to-end ad fraud measurement can significantly increase transparency to help identify fraudulent inventory. By leveraging ad fraud metrics, marketers can measure the amount of activity their ads are generating from fraudsters, and subsequently use this data to optimize ad spend toward real users via IAS pre-bid solutions. Access to actionable invalid traffic data throughout the entire campaign is key to effectively allocating ad spend and confidently ensuring your ads have an opportunity to reach real users and make an impact.

Brand Safety and Suitability

Brand safety must go beyond the binary. Black and white brand safety and suitability measurement can unnecessarily limit scale and doesn’t give the context marketers need to understand the effectiveness of their ads. 

That’s why it’s critical for marketers to build on the power of brand safety with the innovation of suitability. IAS contextual targeting technology reviews all elements on a given page and takes additional steps beyond URL analysis to understand the meaning of the content. Before a bid is even placed, IAS’s predictive science pre-screens pages to filter out content that isn’t suitable for a given brand. Only IAS gets to the true meaning of the content, so marketers can ensure they’re aligning campaigns with consumers who will connect the most with their brand. 

End-to-end brand safety and suitability measurement and protection gives marketers the most accurate picture of the content near their ads, and provides brands with the opportunity to safeguard without limiting scale.

4 steps to improve your brand’s performance on the open web

  1. Leverage measurement partners who follow industry standards for viewability 
  2. Keep up with benchmarks for viewability, invalid traffic, and brand safety and suitability
  3. Employ AI-powered prevention solutions for invalid traffic and brand safety and suitability to ensure your ads are seen by real people in the right context
  4. Reallocate ad spend based on viewability, invalid traffic, and brand safety and suitability data

Drive superior results today with IAS

By incorporating end-to-end measurement into your digital advertising strategy, you can protect your brand, optimize your ad spend, and achieve superior results. Reach out to an IAS representative today to learn how we can help you harness the full potential of your advertising campaigns.

The post End-to-End Ad Measurement is Super Valuable — Here’s Why appeared first on Integral Ad Science.

]]> Effectively Validate Media Quality Across the Microsoft Advertising Network https://integralads.com/insider/media-quality-microsoft-advertising-network/ Tue, 25 Jun 2024 12:00:00 +0000 https://integralads.com/?p=333799 Delivering your ads to the right places and driving impact to the right audience has never been easy — until now. Starting today, IAS and Microsoft are joining forces to provide new levels of transparency into ad performance across the Microsoft Advertising Network including Audience ads and Microsoft Invest.

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Safeguard and scale with Viewabilty, Invalid Traffic, and Brand Safety & Suitability Measurement across Microsoft

Delivering your ads to the right places and driving impact to the right audience has never been easy — until now. Starting today, IAS and Microsoft are joining forces to provide new levels of transparency into ad performance across the Microsoft Advertising Network including Audience Ads and Microsoft Invest.*

Through this expanded collaboration, you can access Viewability, Invalid Traffic, and Brand Safety & Suitability measurement to ensure that your Microsoft ads are running adjacent to brand safe and suitable content and engaging users.

With IAS's Microsoft Advertising Network Measurement, you can:

  • Validate your campaigns with measurement using trusted third-party reporting and analysis for Audience Ads
  • Access actionable insights such as viewability, time in view, % completed, invalid traffic rate, and brand safety pass and fail rate
  • See a holistic view of performance across desktop, mobile web, and in-app for display, video, native, and CTV campaigns

Effectively validate your media quality and maximize engagement with real users across the Microsoft Advertising Network. To get started, download the one sheet and reach out to an IAS representative.

ACCESS ONE SHEET

*Powered by Xandr

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]]> Transition with Ease to IAS: A Message for Oracle Customers, Partners, and Employees https://integralads.com/insider/transition-with-ease/ Thu, 13 Jun 2024 20:04:30 +0000 https://integralads.com/?p=332596 For Oracle Advertising customers and partners, IAS is here to facilitate your smooth transition to our Measurement and Optimization solutions.

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Oracle’s recent announcement to shut down its advertising business comes at a time of rapid transformation for the industry. We understand that this is an unsettling time for Oracle Advertising’s customers, partners, and employees. Our teams are committed to providing support and enabling a smooth transition during this period of change.

For Oracle Advertising customers and partners, IAS is here to facilitate your smooth transition to our Measurement and Optimization solutions. Our teams are ready to help you maximize ROI while serving as a reliable and innovative partner throughout this moment. We offer a comprehensive suite of solutions designed to deliver superior results and accelerate your progress.

Discover more about our offerings below:

Additionally, we have a wide range of roles available at IAS and are eager to support Oracle Advertising employees affected by this change. If you find a role that aligns with your expertise, we encourage you to apply directly. Please highlight your skills and that you were impacted by this change.

Our mission at IAS is to be the global benchmark for trust and transparency in digital media quality. We are here to support you and ensure a smooth transition to IAS during this turbulent time.

Contact us here to learn how we can help.

The post Transition with Ease to IAS: A Message for Oracle Customers, Partners, and Employees appeared first on Integral Ad Science.

]]> What is Podcast Advertising? https://integralads.com/insider/what-is-podcast-advertising/ Mon, 20 May 2024 10:00:00 +0000 https://integralads.com/?p=331877 If you’re reading this, you’re probably looking to expand your advertising strategy through podcasts, but you still have one critical question: what is podcast advertising? Read more here.

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If you’re reading this, you’re probably looking to expand your advertising strategy through podcasts, but you still have one critical question: what is podcast advertising?

Podcast advertising lets you speak to potential customers through digital audio ads within podcast episodes. But in a world where we primarily associate advertising with visuals, you may be wondering how this ad strategy works and how you can take advantage of it to grow your brand.

Let’s dive into the world of podcast advertising.

Does anyone listen to podcast ads?

“Does anyone have any good podcast recommendations?” 

Chances are you’ve heard this phrase within the past year, and maybe even more recently than that. That’s probably because podcast listenership has hit an all-time high, with nearly 100 million Americans tuning in every week. 

On top of that, U.S. podcast advertising spend is expected to surpass $3 billion in 2027, according to eMarketer. Podcast ads are expected to pass $3 billion in ad spend by 2026, which will account for 35% of digital audio services spend.

The benefits of podcast advertising

Podcasts are an incredibly popular source of entertainment. Whether you’re a true crime fanatic, a pop culture buff, or a marketer wanting to learn more about stopping ad fraud, there’s a podcast for just about anything.

With that, there are multiple benefits to launching a podcast advertising campaign:

  • Incremental Reach: Podcast advertising allows you to replenish the top of your marketing funnel with new customers. Podcast listeners are primarily a younger audience, so you can market to them and advertise on radio or traditional TV to avoid targeting a duplicative audience.
  • Improved Overall Marketing Performance: Adding podcast advertising to your campaigns can improve performance across the board. The Guardian found that the compounding effects of podcast ads as part of a media mix helped 34% of listeners learn something new about a brand.
  • Increased Brand Trust: A study conducted by Acast and Nielsen found that 63% of respondents trust the podcast host to whom they’re listening. An additional 80% said they trusted the host’s recommendations.
  • Increased Audience Reach: Podcast ads let you reach audiences beyond traditional TV, social media, and display campaigns. For example, a podcast ad campaign opens up your reach to millions of people listening to podcasts on their morning and evening commutes to work.

How do ads work in podcasts?

Like most advertising strategies, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to podcast advertising. Brands can choose from these three common formats when it comes to delivering their ads via podcast:

1. Host-read sponsorships

Other names for this format include host-read ads, sponsor ads—or more commonly today—sponsorships. 

These are longer, editorialized commercial messages the podcaster delivers themselves. The idea behind these ads is that the influencer delivers a creative and authentic message to their audience promoting the brand sponsoring the podcast episode. 

With the right timing, a podcast host can segue into these live reads naturally from a topic, and the audience may be more likely to engage with the product or service. A typical host-read ad can range from 60 seconds to a couple of minutes.

2. Pre-recorded ads

Also known as announcer-read ads, pre-produced ads, or just audio ads, pre-recorded ads are created by the advertiser and given to the podcast host to play during an ad break. 

Most pre-recorded audio ads run anywhere from 15-30 seconds, and are dynamically inserted into podcast shows by targeting campaign dates, geographic location, podcast categories, and audience demographics. This targeting is set up before launching a campaign to narrow down which listeners should hear your ad and which shouldn’t.

3. Branded content

Though not as common as sponsorships and audio ads, branded content integrates a promotional message into the editorial content of the podcast.

This can be in the form of a branded segment or episode, and can even encompass an entire series. For this format to succeed, the branded content and podcast advertising the brand must align in their messaging to feel organic and resonate with the audience in a non-intrusive manner.

Where is the best place to insert podcast ads?

Different ad spots dictate when your audience will hear your ads during the podcast. Like podcast ad formats, there are three types of ad spaces:

  • Pre-roll ads are placed at the beginning of the podcast episode. Pre-roll ads are considered effective because most people will just let them play since they are leading into the episode.
  • Mid-roll ads are placed in the middle of an episode that is 10 minutes or longer. Most consumers will be engaged in other activities by this point, making it highly likely that they will let the ad play. As a result, this is the most lucrative place for audio ads.
  • Post-roll ads play at the end of an episode. While there is a chance listeners will just let the ad play while they wait for the next episode, there is also a chance they turn off the podcast before they can hear the ad.

Dynamic vs. baked-in ads

How do ads work in podcasts that are no longer relevant? And what if I want my ads to reach different audiences?

Along with choosing from the three types of formats and ad placements, there are also two different ways to fill an ad slot: ads can be “baked-in” or inserted dynamically.

  • Baked-in ads are added to the podcast audio file, making it a permanent ad placement. All listeners will hear the same ad, and it will remain in the episode as long as it is up, meaning individuals who go back to listen to an older episode will still hear your ad.
  • Dynamic ads are inserted into chosen ad spots (pre-, mid-, or post-roll) and can be targeted to a desired audience at any chosen time. Podcasters can also keep their advertising up-to-date, allowing them to monetize older podcasts with new ads.

The world is listening. The question is: are they listening to you, or your competitors?

Make your brand heard with IAS

Let IAS help ensure your audio ad spend is heard, measurable, and transparent with industry-leading media quality measurement for digital audio — including podcasts.

When you measure your podcast ads with IAS, you can:

  • Validate your campaigns using trusted third-party reporting and analysis for audio campaigns compliant to MRC standards
  • Access actionable insights such as audible rate, audible impressions, invalid traffic rate, and more
  • Receive a holistic view of performance with support across formats, globally

Ready to drive superior results in podcasting? Contact us today and let’s protect your brand and ensure your audio ads resonate with real people.

The post What is Podcast Advertising? appeared first on Integral Ad Science.

]]> Industry-Leading Media Quality for TuneIn https://integralads.com/insider/media-quality-tunein/ Wed, 08 May 2024 12:00:00 +0000 https://integralads.com/?p=331549 IAS Audibility and Invalid Traffic measurement is now available for TuneIn Marketers are concerned about fraud in digital audio — and it makes sense why. With an opportunity to reach nearly three-quarters of U.S. internet users, it’s crucial for marketers...

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IAS Audibility and Invalid Traffic measurement is now available for TuneIn

Marketers are concerned about fraud in digital audio — and it makes sense why. With an opportunity to reach nearly three-quarters of U.S. internet users, it’s crucial for marketers to know their ad spend is reaching real people. 

That’s why IAS is bringing its industry-leading media quality measurement to TuneIn. Starting today, marketers can have further confidence that their audio ads on TuneIn are driving engagement with real users. 

With IAS Audibility and Invalid Traffic measurement on TuneIn, marketers can:

  • Validate campaigns using trusted third-party reporting and analysis for audio campaigns, compliant to MRC standards
  • Access actionable insights like audible rate, audible impressions, invalid traffic rate, and more
  • See a holistic view of performance with support across in-app and web browser streaming campaigns for the audio ad format

Drive engagement on TuneIn with the industry’s most actionable data. Download the one sheet now and reach out to an IAS representative to get started.

ACCESS ONE SHEET

The post Industry-Leading Media Quality for TuneIn appeared first on Integral Ad Science.

]]> Media Quality Report: 19th Edition https://integralads.com/insider/media-quality-report-19th-edition/ Tue, 07 May 2024 12:00:00 +0000 https://integralads.com/?p=331432 The 19th edition of the Media Quality Report is here to serve as a trustworthy tool for marketers worldwide to benchmark campaign success. Download the report now.

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Industry-leading benchmarks for superior media quality

The digital landscape continues to evolve at a rapid rate, offering marketers endless opportunities for innovation. But in an era where change is the only constant, it’s critical for marketers to know if their campaigns are keeping up with the pace of digital media. 

The 19th edition of the Media Quality Report (MQR) is here to serve as a trustworthy tool for marketers worldwide to benchmark campaign success. This year’s report offers marketers an in-depth look into global media quality data, key trends shaping the digital landscape in 2024, and country-level metrics for a more enriched way to make data-driven decisions.

Dive into this year’s key trends, with highlights including:

  • Fraud rates for unprotected campaigns were 14x higher than campaigns protected against fraud
  • Time-in-view hit a new low in H2 2023
  • Brand risk rose in the Americas as election cycles began

As the gold standard in digital media quality, the MQR arms marketers with actionable insights that are key to forging an innovative, impactful, and safer digital future.

Download the report today to access IAS’s industry-leading global benchmarks and drive superior results.

DOWNLOAD

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