The IAB and MRC (Media Ratings Council), are looking to change the standards for measuring mobile and desktop advertisements. Traditionally, an ad is counted as being delivered based on when the server that the ad resides on, responds to the request to send the ad. The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), along with the IAB and MRC, are looking to make a change to how this measurement occurs.
The new way to measure ad impressions that they are trying to implement, is to base the ad count on when the desktop or mobile device begins to render on the page. Video ads already use this standard, so by implementing this change, desktop and mobile platforms will be aligned with video, allowing a more apple to apple comparison when choosing between different types of media to advertise with.
MMA Chief Strategy Officer Sheryl Daija states, “We think this will help the advertisers, as this is a stricter metric that is now event-based.”
A change like this would likely provide a quick boost to viewability percentages, due to the fact that ads requests that the ad server responds to but are never displayed or rendered on the device, will no longer be counted when tallying up total impressions. Scott Knoll, the CEO of Integral Ad Science, doesn’t expect to see much impact due to this change. Knoll states, “While complex and dynamic ad creatives may see a small uptick in viewability measurement due to this change, we do not anticipate any meaningful impact to overall results based on our data.”
Knoll also added, “Our data science reveals that longer ad exposures lead to better results for brands, and therefore, it’s logical that we move away from the concept of a served impression, as it has no connection to whether an ad was in view or for how long.”
In order to make this measuring change, very little will need to be configured from a technical standpoint. Alanna Gombert, Senior VP of technology and ad operations at IAB states, “In general, count-on-render is supported by ad servers is supported by ad servers across the board. It may require very minor tweaks on the reporting side.”
In fact, this change could make a positive impact on the business side of things by providing a more accurate picture when it comes to counting impressions. Alanna Gombert adds, “Contracts use impressions…They bill on third-party numbers, but don’t usually delineate between rendered impressions and begin-to-render impressions.”
One downside of using a start to render measurement system is that not all networks are built the same, meaning lag time and bandwidth of a particular connection could have an adverse effect on non-optimized networks. Regardless of this fact, start-to-render measurements will provide a more precise measurement of the number of impressions that are made, which is something that both the buyer and seller of the ads will benefit from.
