A big issue in digital display advertising at the moment is “viewability” – does a human being actually see most digital advertisements?
In many cases the ad is shown ‘below the fold’ in a position on the page that the user does not scroll down to or see on the screen at any time – usually these ads are counted as having been shown and are paid for by the display advertiser. In the worst cases, the ad is shown on a website to bots and not by any users at all – something I wrote about in ‘All digital advertising is performance advertising‘ when it was revealed by The Financial Times that in a recent campaign Mercedes online ads were viewed more by fraudster robots than actual humans. ComScore recently reported that only 54% of ads were actually viewable – premium publishers have higher scores whereas networks and exchanges have even less impressive statistics.
The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) in the US recently confirmed its definition of a viewable ad impression: “a minimum of 50 percent of pixels in view for a minimum of 1 second” and this definition is likely to be, but has not yet been, adopted around the world. It is at least a benchmark but it’s not great news to advertisers paying on a CPM basis that their ad may only have been half seen by a user for a second to count as viewed – does that really mean the user saw it in the context of an entire page?
Some large agencies I’ve spoken to are starting to measure viewability on all CPM campaigns soon and start buying on this basis from early 2015.
21 November 2014 – update – An article from MediaPost this week states that viewability is getting worse, not better: “Data from the third quarter of 2014 finds little more than a third (36.7%) of all display ads purchased on networks and ad exchanges were deemed “viewable” per the Media Rating Council (MRC) standard of 50% of the ad being in-view for at least one second. That’s down from the 45.3% rate posted in the second quarter, which was down from the 51.3% rate posted in the first quarter.”
It’s not hard to see why around 66% of all digital advertising is now based on performance metrics.
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A distinction between display and performance digital advertising remains in many people’s minds but I’ve come to believe that there’s no such thing as digital display advertising – not in the same way that there is in print, outdoor etc: all digital advertising is performance advertising. It can be tracked like no other medium, required actions can be quantified most of the time and performance of one medium, platform or publisher can be measured against another.
Just showing the ad is not enough, particularly when you consider that according to accepted standards a “viewable” impression is “a minimum of 50 percent of pixels in view for a minimum of 1 second” – even then there’s a good chance the user didn’t see it and in most cases these standards are not being imposed: The Financial Times reported this week that in a recent campaign Mercedes online ads were viewed more by fraudster robots than actual humans and Business Insider recently reported that fewer than half of all U.S. video ad impressions were viewable in 2013.
‘Display’ advertising campaigns run by agencies now drop a post-impression cookie from almost every banner served – this allows them to measure how many users going to their client’s site were exposed to the banners. So it’s actually performance based – attribution is key to these display campaigns.
66% of all digital advertising by spend is already what is today called “performance”. If not now, then over time, digital will come to be viewed as a performance marketing medium only.
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CMO reported a new survey last week that found:
93 per cent of organisations will either maintain or increase resources allocated to content marketing in the next financial year.
Only 18 per cent of Australian organisations have someone with ‘content’ or ‘content marketing’ in their title even as 93 per cent look to invest in content marketing next year.
One-quarter of respondents are relying on a content agency to fuel content marketing activities, and 60 per cent are using in-house resources.
The type of content gaining the most investment is video (48 per cent), followed by case studies (40 per cent), infographics (28 per cent) and whitepapers (26 per cent). Over the next year, blogging came up trumps as the most popular tactic for further investment (44 per cent), followed by video (36 per cent) and thought leadership (35 per cent).
The most popular metrics for measuring the return on investment on content marketing is website traffic (63 per cent), followed by conversion metrics such as leads (54 per cent), sales (41 per cent), social shares (40 per cent) and comments (41 per cent).
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“Programmatic has forced a separation of editorial and ad space, and we’ve lost context as a result” says John Battelle in Digiday today.
Battelle continues “When readers or viewers come to a site or app, they come for the experience – what I call “the show.” That show provides context to the reader – if they’re on a business site, they are there in the context of being a businessperson. If they are watching a home improvement video, they’re in the context of being a homeowner.”
“Programmatic has forced a separation of editorial and ad space, and we’ve lost context as a result. It’s time to get it back – it’ll be good for quality publishers, good for brand marketers, and great for our industry.”
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Luma Partners have included dianomi alongside Google and six others as the eight most important platforms for content recommendation.
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There seems to be a backlash against clickbait in content units at the moment.
“Publishers’ reputations, not just money, at stake in content suggestion battle” said Ryan Singel.
“The most notable expression of annoyance came from Marc Andreessen, the prominent venture capitalist, who also happens to have invested in digital publications such as Business Insider and PandoDaily. Any serious publishers “should be shot” for using related content links, he wrote, because they degrade the user experience and the advertiser experience. They are a “part of the ‘race to the bottom’ pervading Internet content,” he added, noting that the income they bring in is a short-term substitute for building a long-term quality business.
“There’s no amount of money that justifies that crap appearing on our pages,” PandoDaily editorial director Paul Carr wrote. ”
Said Forbes
“Sleazy tabloid links have taken over the web” said The Verge.
“You all know the links he’s talking about. You’re reading an article about Crimea and the site is suggesting you read an article about getting “bikini ready” next. “
“You all know the links he’s talking about. You’re reading an article about Crimea and the site is suggesting that you read an article about getting “bikini ready” next.” Said EContent.
“Those F%#&!ng content links” Said Medium.
“I’m not suggesting that it doesn’t generate cash or offer data, but it’s not the kind of linkbait that raises brand value”
“I’m not suggesting that it doesn’t generate cash or offer data, but it’s not the kind of linkbait that raises brand value.” Said Rob Mills @ Medium.
“After reading the latest news on the probe into the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on CNN’s website, would you like to find out about “four ways to run faster, reach your goals and look great”? Asked The Financial Times.
“It goes something like this: While scrolling through the latest coverage on Syria, or doing research on a work project, you reach the end of an article, only to be greeted with the latest tabloid news about Kim Kardashian. With its teasing photo and promise of outrageousness, it takes all your willpower to resist. ” Said AdExchanger.
Now Facebook has shown up many publishers by taking the lead, they said “80% of the time people preferred headlines that helped them decide if they wanted to read the full article before they had to click through” whilst announcing they would crackdown on click-bait.
At dianomi we believe that the context of content is important. For the user. For the brand of the publisher. And for the advertiser.
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dianomi’s high performing Re-Engagement unit has launched on LSE – London South East and can be seen on all article pages
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dianomi’s high performing Re-Engagement unit has launched on Trustnet and can be seen on all article pages.
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Echoing a recent SMSF client, a current ETF client says: “of all the banner ads that are driving traffic to us currently, dianomi placements are far outperforming the others in terms of onsite engagement … other banners are costing money only to have people bounce after a couple of seconds”
dianomi’s units only appear on premium finance publishers.
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Financial Content Discovery Network from dianomi
“We’ve been saying it for years now: What’s the point of creating great content if no one knows about it? If you aren’t going to promote it, your audiences will very likely never discover it – and you will have wasted the resources to create it.” – Content Marketing Institute.
Financial Content (in the right place)– whether in the form of words, graphics, images or videos – is emerging as a critical driver of both revenue and reputation as financial brands aim to position themselves as thought leaders.
Request more information on dianomi’s Financial Content Discovery Network or download content discovery PDF. Recent content marketing campaigns for HSBC and Aberdeen Asset Management.
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