Not Every Impression Is Equal

How did the ad impression come to be?

Impressions today are the currency by which billions of dollars are spent each year. And with $111B digital ad spend in 201818, it’s time we evaluate how the impression is measured and transacted.

Let’s first take a quick history lesson.

When digital advertising grew as a channel, advertisers and publishers needed a common currency to transact ad deals. Display inventory on a web page is vastly different than TV spots or direct mail.  How do you measure how an ad is shown to an audience on the internet? The industry chose the impression, defined as an ad served once a web page containing that ad was loaded. Then came CPM-based pricing, which is still the de facto pricing model today.

Over time however, advertisers realized something curious about buying impressions. People weren’t seeing ads! If a user blocked ads through software, didn’t scroll enough, opened a new tab, etc., an ad may not be seen but an advertiser is still paying for it.

If an ad is not seen, is it an ad at all?  

Enter Viewable Impressions.

This new metric added a dose of transparency to the digital ad industry and heralded the rise of 3rd party verifiers and ad tech companies like MOAT, DoubleVerify, and IAS. A display ad is viewable if 50% or more of its pixels appear on-screen for at least one continuous second.

Try and look at half of an ad for a second and let me know your thoughts on the effectiveness. Doesn’t sound like much of an improvement…

Here’s the thing: Advertisers aren’t actually buying impressions, viewable or not. They’re buying brand awareness, purchase intent, higher sales, and more. They’re buying real business results.

As an industry, we need to do better.

With 86% of audiences ignoring online ads, the metric needs to better reflect performance that matters. It’s not about being in view, it’s about making an impact.

We’ve moved from Impression to Viewable Impression, and now, we need to move to Engaged Impression.

Engage your audience. Have them interact with your ads, not just see 50% of them for half a second.

How? In all this talk about numbers and metrics, it’s actually the art that will make this happen. Brands need to invest in creative content that helps tell better stories, stories that are interactive, highly personal, and novel.

We are seeing immersive content breakthrough and capture audiences attention. 360 content, 3D content, AR lenses are creating opportunities for dynamic and immersive storytelling. However, flat and 2D creative continues to dominate most inventory and campaigns. We can do better.

Serve impressions that make an impression.