Are Your Video Ads Making an Impression? May 2015 Video Ad Viewability Insights for Digital Marketers and Publishers
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
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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%.*
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*YouTube includes mobile app data
Source: Google and DoubleClick advertising platforms data, April 2015. thinkwithgoogle.com/viewability
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*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
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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:
thinkwithgoogle.com/viewability
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
thinkwithgoogle.com/viewability
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%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Desktop
Mobile**
53%
83%87%
94% 94%
81%
Tablet**
Desktop
Mobile
Tablet
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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
thinkwithgoogle.com/viewability
12 Source: Google and DoubleClick advertising platforms data, April 2015.
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:
thinkwithgoogle.com/viewability
14 Source: Google and DoubleClick advertising platforms data, April 2015.
Among the most common video players across the web, the larger the video player, the higher its viewability.
VIEWABILITY RATE BY PLAYER SIZE
thinkwithgoogle.com/viewability
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
16 Source: Google and DoubleClick advertising platforms data, April 2015.
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
thinkwithgoogle.com/viewability
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
17 Source: Google and DoubleClick advertising platforms data, April 2015.
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
thinkwithgoogle.com/viewability
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.
thinkwithgoogle.com/viewability
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.
thinkwithgoogle.com/viewability