What Affects Ad Viewability?

What is Affecting Ad Viewability?

You may think that placing an ad at the top of a web page is the best way to get noticed. This is not always true, however. An ad makes an impression on someone when at least half of the ad is in view for more than one second. With this in mind, “Google looked across its display ad platforms…to find out what affects an ad’s viewability,” according to Marketing Land.

The first thing that has been affecting viewability has been an outsized number of publishers. The Google study discovered that 56.1 percent of display ads were never viewable. Despite this, the average view rate for publishers was 50.2 percent.

Many people looking to publish an ad to the web assume that the top of the page is the best place for it. We have already established that this is not true. Marketing Land says that it “turns out the most viewable ad is right above the fold, not the top of the page.” This is often the case because viewers are scrolling rapidly through web pages.

An ad placed above the fold has a higher viewability than an ad placed below the fold. Neither placement, however, is close to one hundred percent viewability. Ads placed above the fold have about a sixty-eight percent chance of being viewed. Ads placed below the fold are also view-able, but they only average about forty percent.

Source:  Marketing Land

Of course, the size of an ad makes a difference to the viewability. Long, vertical ads get the best viewability because they are on the screen for the longest amount of time. “The 120 x 240 unit had the highest viewability at 55.6 percent, while the ever popular 300 x 250 had the lowest rate of viewability at 41.0 percent” says Marketing Land.

Finally, the study revealed that not all publishing verticals experience the same viewability. The type of ad definitely has an effect on the viewability. According to Marketing Land, “reference scored highest in viewability at 51.9 percent, while hobbies and leisure scored lowest at 44.8 percent on average.” This is important to keep in mind when planning to place an ad online.

Online ads are completely ineffective if they are never seen. With this in mind, Google conducted their study on ad viewability. The study revealed fascinating information and demonstrated that an ad at the top of the page, one of the most popular publishing options, is not the best way to go when striving for viewability. In fact, it is better to have an ad a ways down the page and to format it vertically so that it has the best chance to be seen for more than one second and will make an impression on the viewer.