Viewability Benchmarks: Visibility of Display Advertising Continues on a Downward Slide

Despite established methods and tools for increasing ad viewability, the decline in viewability rates for display ads continues: Even at the end of the 2016 advertising year, viewability in the European market continues to decline, averaging only 55 percent (-1 percentage point). This is the result of the current "Viewability Benchmark" published by ad verification specialist Meetrics. In a comparison of the three largest European markets, Germany is once again ahead of France for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2016, with 58 percent of ads visible, where the viewability rate fell by three percentage points compared to the previous quarter to 57 percent. In the UK, the previous low of 47 percent was improved by two percentage points to 49 percent, but the UK still remains in last place in the European viewability charts.

Advertisers once again achieve the best viewability rate in Austria. With a benchmark of 68 percent (-1 percentage point) and an average viewtime of 32 seconds (Germany: 27.5 seconds, Europe: 27.6 seconds), Austria remains a big step ahead of its European neighbors. This is primarily due to the consistent switch from ad impressions to viewable impressions.

Viewability Benchmarks 4th Quarter 2016

International: 55 percent (56 in Q3/2016),

Germany: 58 percent (59 in Q3/2016),

France: 57 percent (60 in Q3/2016),

UK: 49 percent (49 in Q3/2016),

Austria: 68 percent (69 in Q3/2016)

Competition and complexity as a reason for non-viewability

"The new benchmarks once again confirm the downward trend we have shown in previous quarters," said Max von Hilgers, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Meetrics. "The decreased metrics for the fourth quarter are mainly due to increased competition on a few, sought-after advertising spaces. The large demand means that more and more questionable providers are flooding into the market. The high complexity of the delivering systems and the resulting fragmentation also have a negative impact on ad views. This is where technical methods need to kick in to significantly improve visibility for the user. For our customers, it is unacceptable that more than 40 percent of display ads are not visibly shown, and thus advertisers miss out on many opportunities to directly address customers."

Due to the continuing downward trend, Meetrics closed 2016 with a mixed forecast for the new advertising year. Advertisers and publishers alike must find ways and means in 2017 to correct these values back upwards. "Overall, the quality on the European digital market must be specifically improved in 2017," says von Hilgers.

The complete "Viewability Benchmarks" are available for free download on the website. In the quarterly reports, Meetrics provides an overview of viewability rates and average viewability durations and presents interesting details on the most relevant advertising formats within the European markets. Meetrics' viewability benchmarks are based on the "50/1" recommendation of the IAB and the Media Rating Council. According to this, at least 50 percent of the advertising space must have been in the visible area of the browser for at least one continuous second. For video ads, the recommendation is "50/2", i.e. at least 50 percent of the ad's area must have been visible for at least 2 seconds.