Google to Roll Out Viewability Reporting

Google is rolling out viewability reporting across its ad platforms, according to Neal Mohan, vice president of video and digital advertising, speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

This will allow brands to know whether or not their video ads were watched, as opposed to appearing off-screen and being ignored, or being swiped past. The industry standard for video viewability, as set by the Media Rating Council, says that at least half the video has to be on screen for at least two seconds. The viewability reports will be available to marketers using Google’s advertising management DoubleClick platform and its real-time marketplace, DoubleClick Ad Exchange.

“Viewability, though, is just the starting point, not an end in and of itself,” Mohan wrote in a blog post. “With the confidence that their ads can be seen by a real person, marketers can go on to strive for – and measure – what really matters: impact and engagement.”

The search juggernaut has its own premium programmatic video marketplace, Google Partner Select. At CES, Mohan also revealed that since its June launch, Google Partner Select has signed up more than 30 premium broadcast and publishing brands – including CBS Interactive, Fox News, Discovery, Travel Channel, Rolling Stone, and Us Weekly – with exclusive inventory.

Allstate, BMW and Netflix are a few of Google Partner Select’s early adopters. During the marketplace’s tests, the video ads had 74 percent
completion rates.

In the coming months, Google plans to offer its marketers the ability to target viewable impressions in DoubleClick and buy viewable video impressions across the Google Display Network, as well as reports on audibility and the total time their video ads were viewable.

Reserved inventory on YouTube across desktop and app views will also be available. Noting YouTube’s importance, Mohan says that more video content will be uploaded on YouTube today than all three major networks have created in the past five years.