The Benefits of VAST, Mobile Tech Standards for ANZ Advertisers

This post is from Richard O'Sullivan, Executive Director, Australia and New Zealand for InMobi.

Throughout the Australia-New Zealand (ANZ) region, brands are devoting more dollars to both programmatic and mobile in-app advertising channels. In fact, a significant percentage of the $8.8 billion Australian digital ad market is now devoted to in-app channels and conducted programmatically.

But, as advertisers devote a greater share of their budgets to mobile channels, it’s crucial to make sure that they are not wasting their programmatic spends and are getting the greatest value from their campaigns. To this end, it’s critical that brands implement (and work with partners that implement) best-in-breed technology standards and benchmarks.

VAST over VPAID

For many marketers today looking to run video ads, there are two key video ad serving tags available: VAST and VPAID. Check out this blog post for more information on what these mean and what they entail.

As a leader in the in-app advertising ecosystem, InMobi has been committed to providing users a seamless video experience, which has consistently been a top concern for both publishers and advertisers. This is why InMobi adopted VAST over VPAID in 2017, as VAST ensured faster load times and buffer-free experiences.

While certain players preferred to stick to VPAID for its ability to deliver interactive experiences, many began leveraging VPAID for its measurement capabilities. InMobi chose to stick with VAST, as VPAID’s render and fill rates were unsatisfactory for publishers, while advertisers had concerns over viewability and completion rates. It is worthwhile to note, however, the IAB’s recent versions of VAST, VAST 4.1 and VAST 4.2, have made provisions for interactivity since 2018.

This is not an either/or choice, as we strongly recommend (and have for over two years now) that advertisers select VAST over VPAID. In the third quarter of 2019, video advertising grew 26%, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). It’s critical for brands investing in video advertising to make sure that people actually see the most important part of the ad. VAST gives them the best opportunity to make this happen.

“Numerous issues persist with VPAID, most notably related to latency, endless creative failures and multiple redirects - resulting in the worst possible scenario of both negative user experiences and repeatedly poor fill rates. In addition to this, huge opportunities for digital advertising exist and will continue to grow on mobile and OTT platforms, which VPAID cannot support. The industry must now look to adopt the latest version of VAST so as to standardise, enable and plan for the future as an industry with seamless, measurable video advertising running within all environments,” says Jonas Jaanimagi, Technology Lead, IAB Australia.

Tech Standards to Promote Transparency and Viewability

Regardless of whether an advertiser is running a brand or performance campaign, it’s critical to make sure that the ad is actually seen by real humans.

InMobi partners with several leading viewability vendors including Moat to ensure that our viewability rates are accurately monitored. InMobi’s current viewability rate in Australia stands at a healthy 93.71% compared to Moat’s benchmark of 49.8%.

Beyond viewability, one of the biggest points we’ve heard from our advertiser partners revolve around measurement. Is programmatic transparent enough that all components of a transaction are fully measurable?

One of the main ways that InMobi addresses measurement concerns is by implementing OMSDK, having received the IAB Tech Lab certificate in 2018. Further, by combining VAST, and OMSDK, InMobi is able to deliver superior video experiences that are accurately measurable.

The Importance of Supporting and Championing Industry Best Practices

We have long been committed to working hand in hand with industry bodies like IAB Tech Lab and the Mobile Marketing Association to develop and to passionately advocate for standards and technology like VAST and OMSDK, in addition to app-ads.txt and sellers.json. Through these efforts, we are helping to make mobile programmatic ad buying more transparent, more measurable and more effective for all ANZ advertisers.