InspireIn today's fast-paced, multi-media world of digital advertising, marketers face a significant challenge: making sure their ads don’t just reach their target audience but are genuinely seen and noticed.
The Reach vs. Attention Gap
Digital display and video ads offer unmatched reach through CPM-based models. Still, with the overwhelming amount of content on web pages and mobile apps, there’s a growing disconnect between delivering ads and capturing genuine viewer attention.
The advantage of these two channels is their vast ad inventory, with placements available across most websites and mobile apps. However, this also presents a significant challenge. Web and app pages are often crowded with publisher content and competing ads, meaning that simply delivering an ad impression doesn’t guarantee the user will actually notice it.
Understanding Viewability Metrics
To help marketers understand if their ads are visible to users, the industry uses viewability metrics. When running display and video ads, measuring whether the ads are "viewable" or not for the user is essential.
The IAB standard for viewability defines a display ad as "viewable" if at least 50% of the ad pixels are visible on the screen for at least one second. For video ads, at least 50% of the video ad must be in view and play for at least two seconds to count as a viewable impression.
Optimising Viewable Impressions
Marketers can analyse the viewability of their ads and aim to optimise the number of viewable impressions. This can be achieved by reducing vCPM (viewable CPM) or increasing the percentage of viewable impressions delivered. By delivering more viewable impressions, they can expect more users to "see" their ads, improving campaign performance.
However, it's important to note that "viewable" does not mean "viewed." Just because an ad is in view on the screen doesn't mean the user is paying attention to it. The user's screen may still include various content competing for attention. This is why the industry is now introducing attention measurement metrics to understand whether an ad is delivered in a placement that is likely to attract the user's gaze. To achieve this, attention measurement partners study eye attention on panels of users across various websites and apps using eye-tracking glasses. By analysing where users' eyes focus on the screen while browsing these pages, they can determine which parts of the screen are more likely to capture attention.
The data collected through these studies is used to assign an attention rating score to each display and video ad placement. The score is based on factors such as platform, screen size, domain, ad placement size, and more. Essentially, the score indicates the likelihood of the user paying attention to the ad placement.
Using Custom Bidding to Maximise Attention
Marketers can use these attention scores for measurement, simply analysing the attention score of the impressions they have delivered. However, to achieve better efficiency and performance, marketers should use the data for optimisation purposes. This is where Display & Video 360 Custom Bidding comes into play.
By creating a custom bidding script that includes data from an attention measurement provider, marketers can feed the bidding algorithm with attention scores based on various signals available in DV360, such as domain, creative size, device type, and ad position. This enables marketers to optimise campaigns to maximise attention rather than focusing solely on reach or viewability. Delivering ads in placements where users are more likely to pay attention can significantly improve campaign performance.
With attention score data provided in a custom bidding algorithm, DV360 can prioritise purchasing ad impressions more likely to receive attention and bid less aggressively on impressions less likely to be noticed. This approach helps deliver more ad impressions that are seen by the target audience, maximising the return on ad spend.
One key advantage of the DV360 custom bidding algorithm is that it allows marketers to customise the algorithm based on their own KPIs. This means they can score impressions based on other data signals and metrics, effectively combining attention metrics with other KPIs for an even more tailored approach.
In conclusion
By leveraging attention data and using tools like DV360 custom bidding, marketers can optimise their campaigns to focus on delivering ads in placements that capture user attention. This ultimately helps drive better campaign performance and more effective use of advertising budgets.
Marketers should not only measure the success of their campaigns but also use the data at their disposal to make real-time optimisations. By incorporating attention metrics into custom bidding algorithms, they can ensure their ads are shown in the right places at the right times maximising the likelihood of audience engagement.
If you're looking for more guidance on DV360 or Google Marketing Platform check out our range of GMP courses covering everything from Campaign Manager 360 and DV360 to Search Ads 360 - all delivered by our in-house experts.
Matthias Morin
