PubMatic Adds Viewable Impressions to Suite: Gianluca Carrera Tells Us Why

The question of viable, sustainable and tangible metrics in digital marketing isn't one that is going away any time soon.  

More and more agencies are demanding better metrics from us and publishers too see the benefit in 'premium inventory'. 

We've been fully across the 'Viewable Impressions' metric that gained popularity last year here at AdMonsters for some time and upon learning the PubMatic had joined the party we were eager to see why and what their thoughts were on the subject. 

Where has this call for View-ability as a metric in Display come from and why are you embracing it?    

The first outcome of the Making Measurement Make Sense initiative (a consortium of the IAB, 4As and The ANA; see more info here http://www.iab.net/mmms) calls for redefining online ad impressions into those that are actually viewed by a human. (The original IAB definition of an ad impression involves ads being loaded into a computer browser; this old definition encompasses ads that never come into human's line of view due to the way pages and digital ad units are laid out below the fold on the web.)

This initiative was undertaken to make online measurement more cohesive with that of other media – especially television -- where measurement is based on the idea of “opportunity to see".

As a true cross-platform Strategic Selling Platform, PubMatic is interested in providing its customers with any measurement system that helps publishers and brands better understand the value of digital inventory across display, video, search, social and mobile.  

We collaborated with comScore because it did thegroundbreaking research on 18 campaigns – along with marketers such as KRAFT, Ford, Allstate, Kimberly Clark and Sprint – that showed the digital advertising industry that on average 31% of what are currently counted as ad impressions are never viewed.

We think the tool is a great way for publishers to figure out how to place their content and ads for maximum engagement and value.  

Many would argue that it's amazing the display market has grown at such a rate without a quantifiable viewable metric thus far - why do you think Display has grown so much and what do you see as the impact of adding View-ability as a metric on the market as a whole?    

Display has grown because it works.

No method of advertising has more data to support its efficacy than digital. As we rapidly move towards a world in which most forms of content consumption are digital, display will only grow in importance to brands and advertisers.  

In the long run, view-ability will help digital continue to evolve as a branding channel in addition to its heavy emphasis on clicks and taking an action.  It will help publishers better determine what parts of their inventory have contextual and behaviour power vs direct marketing power (for example, we know that on recipe sites below the fold ads perform best because that is where the actual ingredient list and recipes are).   

What other metrics are we lacking in Display? Is there anything in the pipeline from PubMatic specifically?  

No media measurement is perfect and I don't think display is actually lacking anything when it comes to measurement.  As I've said before, it is the most measured channel in advertising history.  

The trick is to find the right way to measure your achievement against your campaign goals.  Advertising is part science, part art and that is called the art of persuasion. The industry is developing what it needs: which choice of metrics to determine cross-platform performance and value.  

All brands use online and mobile primarily to drive an action but other than via the click, I think so-called engagement is very important but everyone would agree that it remains one of the hardest metrics to actually measure.  

How far away are we from universal metrics in digital advertising as a whole?  

Metrics help publishers better value their inventory, so we will continue to provide our own as well as third party metrics to our publishers and demand partners. Cross-platform measurement and attribution are critical for a world that is becoming increasingly digital and mobile (content everywhere) and we expect most of the next wave of measurement tools to focus their efforts there.  

What impact - if any - do you think this will have on the RTB Display market?  

We help premium publishers use our platform to properly value/package their inventory and audience in a real-time media world, so we think the future looks bright.    

What is PubMatic working on currently - anything we should be looking out for?

We are constantly working on ways to help publishers unify and simplify the technology required to make the most of their digital assets. We are working with our premium publishers to develop new audience management and scale expansion tools as well as enhancements to our industry leading PubDirect Suite.  In addition we will be adding more on-demand technology and services such as comScore via PubLink. In mobile, we are rapidly scaling our team and, given the mobile pedigree of people like Larry Harris and Bob Walczak, you should expect exciting new developments there.