What “Viewable Impressions” Will Mean For Digital Advertising

Click fraud has been a major problem that just about every advertiser has had to face at some point in their work. Bot traffic has driven up the costs of clicks and created artificial markets around terms and targets that may not offer a competitive benefit to the advertiser. As a result, the industry has lost billions (roughly $11 billion to be precise). Viewable impressions offer an important guideline that protects advertisers and ensures the integrity of a pageview.

How a Viewable Impression Works

“Impression” is a familiar term to advertisers. An impression refers to a page load, and could easily be mistaken for a bot click. Viewable impressions offer verification that a page view is authentic.

Viewable Impressions measure how long an ad is shown, and how much of the ad is visible. For example, display ads count as “viewable” if the user can see at least 50 pixels of the ad for one second. Bots are designed to click and bounce, visiting the page without emulating the actions that would constitute a view.. Having standards gives the industry some flexibility in measuring a pageview and outsmarting bots and bot traffickers.

Buying Viewable Impressions

Viewable impressions are seeing more demand for obvious reasons, but you have to be careful what you buy and how you buy it. For example, using the standard above would be a simple task for the bot to outsmart. Instead, you can opt for some pre-programmed time slots for longer periods of time.

Beating click fraud is now a concern. Don’t ignore the problem. Take action to be sure that your ads are receiving views, and that your analytics are giving you accurate results based on real human behavior.

Bio: Ted Dhanik is a direct marketing professional with an emphasis on digital advertising. Ted Dhanik is the co-founder of engage:BDR, a Los Angeles based advertising company. Ted Dhanik also blogs for Venture Beat, AdAge and other publications online.