Ad Viewability Trends: Top Insights from the IAB Mobile Symposium

Consumers are increasingly relying on connected mobile devices in their everyday lives. And during the IAB Mobile Symposium last month, we learned that mobile video advertising viewability is crucial for advertisers in 2017.

In 2017, U.S. adults are expected to spend 1.5 times more media time on connected devices than on desktop computers, and on average, people are on their mobile phones over four hours a day. During much of this time, consumers are interacting with mobile advertisements.

But how can advertisers be sure that consumers are actually engaging? Follow these top takeaways to ensure that consumers are actually watching ads, and that marketing messages are getting through.

Invest in in-app advertising

About 90% of the time on smartphones is spent in-app, and in-app is the next phase of digital ad viewing. To ensure you’re doing right by the consumers, you need to use advertising technology designed specifically for apps. Too often, advertisers these days are relying on outdated desktop ad technology. Instead, they must switch to ad technologies that are compatible with the native viewing environment.

Hone in on visual content and queues

More and more advertising is image and video-based. In fact, 37% of marketers say that visual marketing is the most critical form of content for their business.

Advertisers must figure out ways to identify content by using image recognition and artificial intelligence. If they do this, they can provide more and more automated data signals to help out on brand safety metrics and invalid traffic. Using AI and automated data signals will help the industry identify bad actors in the space doing click fraud and help them eliminate this kind of behavior.

Focus on video load time

Consumers are constantly complaining about the “wheel of death,” also known as the buffering signal. If an advertisement or piece of content takes too long to load, consumers are going to get frustrated and exit right away.

Video ads should take about 6/100th of a second to load. There should never be a trade off between advertisers collecting the metrics they need for measurement and angering consumers while they wait for an ad to load.

Read more: How to Measure Mobile Video Viewability (Without Slowing Performance)

Measure different forms of video

Advertisers must determine what forms of video they are going to create. For example, they can put out portrait vertical videos or horizontal ones.

People are holding their phones vertical. These ads take up 100% of the screen, so it is a more user-friendly viewing experience.

It has been found that only 13% of users are going to turn their device horizontally to watch a video. However, that doesn’t mean horizontal videos and ads are always the worse option. Advertisers need to measure which form works best before making a final decision.

Determine the times when you will auto-play sound

Consumers understand that in order to receive free content, they are going to have to sit through advertisements.

It is up to advertisers whether or not they are going to auto-play sound or let users control the sound experience. While many web browsers allow users to block ads from auto-playing, this is not a concern in the in-app environment. Advertisers can measure KPIs and see if users are not watching auto-play videos, and then determine where to go from there.

By following these ad viewability trends, advertisements will better connect with consumers and ensure they are going to watch their content from beginning to end.