Google Sets New Standard for Mobile Ad Viewability

Guest Author: Pranali Gotpagar, PBJ Marketing Intern 2017We have been able to obtain Ad Impression data (the number of times your ad was shown) for quite some time now with powerful tools such as Google Analytics. But, do you know how many people actually saw one of your mobile ads? Or, could you be paying for "views" that don't exist? Let us remember, Impressions do not = Views.Mobile Marketing is on the rise with no systematic measurement tool in place. Google has taken charge to change that by creating an open-source solution for measuring mobile ad viewability - Active View. Acting as a founding member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau Tech Lab Coalition For Open Measurement, Google wants to promote a Software Development Kit (SDK) that provides accurate measurement data of mobile advertising viewability.As most marketers would agree, getting hands on viewability data via multiple SDKs is a chore in itself. This inevitably leads to inconsistent data, since each SDK has its own reporting format. This is where Active View comes to the rescue. Abiding by the definition of viewability by Media Rating Council, Active View provides actual view counts that shed light on the quality of the ads.A single open-source solution will benefit advertisers, publishers, and consumers. A one-stop solution will result in faster and efficient reporting of data which would reduce the cost of acquiring data for publishers and advertisers. With an effective tool in place, more advertisers will adhere to the viewability guideline to benefit from advertising on a growing platform. This in return benefits consumers as pages and ads will load faster, enhancing the overall user experience. Improved user experience = happy consumers = loyal consumers.Active View can be enabled for free and is already available on most Google Ad products. This doesn’t require any additional activation from users. Google is continuing to make it available across their full product list.