Facebook has decided to get a move on with buying digital advertising based on impressions that are served in view on users’ screens. It was announced on Thursday that support for viewable impression bidding on all News Feed advertising, which includes text, photo, link and video ads.
Moat will be handling third-party video ad viewability verification. The Moat integration will be giving advertisers stats on Facebook video ads and view lengths.According to Facebook, Moat tech will, in time, be used to verify other News Feed ad units, as well as ads you see on Instagrams.
When it comes to the MRC standard for viewability for display ads, 50 percent of the ads’s pixels have to be in view for at least one second, and two seconds for video. Facebook’s viewable impression standard is 100 percent of the ad being in view, from top to bottom. But when you look at the scrolling habits of users through the News Feed, 100 percent viewability threshold isn’t very much of a stretch for Facebook.
A number of advertisers haven’t been very impressed with the lack of third-arty measurement on Facebook and Google’s YouTube. But by years end, YouTube has been reported by the Financial Times to be preparing to get started allowing outside measurement firms in. It look like Facebook is preempting YouTube’s moves in the realm.
The Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Unilever, Keith Weed said in the announcement:
“It is very encouraging to see Facebook joining the ranks of digital media partners who are setting themselves apart — and this commitment continues the momentum. Our hope is that these steps will lead ultimately to 100 percent viewability through third-party verification across the industry.”