--ComScore study finds 54% of online display ads weren't
seen
--Missing Web ads blamed on technical problems, fraud
By Suzanne Vranica
The old adage in advertising--that half the money is wasted but
no one knows which half--turns out to be as true for the digital
world as it ever was for traditional media.
An astounding 54% of online display ads shown in "thousands" of
campaigns measured by comScore Inc. between May of 2012 and
February of this year weren't seen by anyone, according to a study
completed last month.
Don't confuse "weren't seen" with "ignored." These ads simply
weren't seen, the result of technical glitches, user habits and
fraud.
The finding implies that billions of marketing dollars are being
poured down a digital drain. Last year, $14 billion was spent on
online display advertising, estimated eMarketer, or 40% of all
online ad spending.
Advertisers can blame both technical snafus and more nefarious
factors for ads going nowhere. Technical issues include ads being
displayed on part of a browser not open on a computer screen--like
when an ad appears at the bottom of the screen and surfers don't
scroll down. Another problem: Some ads load so slowly the Web
surfer switches off before it comes up, comScore said.
And then there's fraud. A significant number of display-ad
"impressions" often paid for by marketers are based on fake
traffic. Malicious software makes a website think a person is
actually on a page and ads are served up to that fake visitor. In
other scams, ads show up on several Web pages but are hidden behind
a window on a website that is the size of a pencil point, comScore
said.
Tod Sacerdoti, who runs video-ad company Brightroll Inc, puts
the proportion of fake display-ad impressions at 30%, accounting
for 10%-15% of all display-ad revenue. That proportion doesn't
include video, where fraud is a smaller but growing issue, he
said.
Google Inc. (GOOG) has attempted to stamp out fraud, according
to ad executives. Google, which owns DoubleClick ad exchange--a
marketplace for buyers and sellers of ads--has invested in tools to
measure and remove fake Web traffic to ensure ads are "being viewed
by real people," Mr. Sacerdoti said.
Online measurement tools introduced two years ago, including an
ad-tagging system used by comScore, have made marketers more aware
of how many of their display ads aren't being seen, giving them the
ammunition to agitate for change.
Using comScore's technology, ConAgra Foods Inc. (CAG) learned
that its display ads were served up in non-viewable areas of the
website roughly 30% of the time. ConAgra's ads sometimes reached
its preferred demographic--women aged 25 to 54--only about 30% to
40% of the time. Its online video ads were hitting the right target
roughly 50% of the time.
"We were shocked to see what was out of view and when we go
after a certain demo what is not hitting a certain demographic
target," said Heather Dumford, global marketing manager at ConAgra,
whose food brands include Hunt's, Wesson, Banquet and Bertoli,
among others.
ConAgra is now demanding that all its display ads deals come
with some sort of guarantee from publishers that their ads will be
visible to the human eye and/or its online video, and display ads
will be seen by a bigger swath of its target audience. Ms. Dumford
said ConAgra will make sure that a Web publisher runs ads as many
times as it needs to ensure that its get the correct amount of
viewable ads it has paid for.
Kellogg Co. (K), similarly, found that "up to half of the ads
never come into view," said Aaron Fetters, director of insights for
the cereal maker.
Last month's study was prepared by comScore, using its
ad-tagging technology. It said the study showed wide ranges in how
different websites perform when it comes to ad "viewability."
Premium sites, that is, more popular sites that have at least
$100,000 in monthly ad revenue, generally performed much better
than ads that marketers have bought through some ad networks and
exchanges, which place ads on dozens of websites across the Web,
comScore said.
ComScore deems an ad visible when at least 50% of the ad is
visible for at least one second on laptops and desktop computers.
For the study, comScore said it measured about 76% of the ads
directly using the tagging method and projected the remainder of
ads because its technology can't measure some of the ads.
The study doesn't include ads that appear on mobile devices such
as smartphones and tablets, which have their own set of challenges
when it comes to measurement and visibility.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau, the trade group for Web
publishers, declined to comment on the comScore study, saying it
hadn't seen it. The IAB said, however, the industry is working on a
"uniform way of measuring if an ad is viewable." To improve an ad's
prospects for being seen, publishers have been experimenting with
new page layouts and site redesigns, the IAB said.
Google, meanwhile, is working on technology that helps marketers
deal with the problem. In April, Google said it received
accreditation from the Media Rating Council, which also accredits
comScore's measures, for a technology called "active view" that
allows marketers to "know when and for how long your ads were
viewable on a consumer's screen" and allows them to pay only for
"viewable" ads.
Website visitors are more than twice as likely to click on ads
that are viewable for more than one second versus ads that are
viewable for less than a second, Google said, based on its
data.
Google declined to comment on the comScore study.
Marketers have been using the data from comScore and Nielsen
Co., which can measure if ads are hitting the target, to tweak ad
campaigns, during the weeks and months the ad effort is up and
running, by moving ads around a page or to different websites.
Unilever (UNA.AE) said that, after going back to publishers and
requesting changes, its ads are reaching between 70% to 80% of its
target audience, whereas previously it was reaching just 30% to
40%, as measured by Nielsen. ConAgra has also seen dramatic
improvements.
"Improvement can be continued through ongoing monitoring,
conversations with publishers," said Jennifer Gardner, Unilever's
director of media investment for North America.
Spark, a media buying firm owned by Publicis Groupe SA (PUB.FR),
said it is now asking that all its display ad deals come with some
kind of "viewable" guarantee.
"We can't go back," said Shelby Saville, executive vice
president of digital at Spark.
-Amir Efrati contributed to this article.
Write to Suzanne Vranica at Suzanne.Vranica@wsj.com
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