It’s been reported by Financial Times that YouTube is going to begin allowing third-party verification of ad viewability by the end of the year. This is in response to a pushback of major advertisers.
The key instigators for this move for independent viewability, according to the report, is Unilever and Kellogg’s. Since Google doesn’t enable third-party, Kellogg’s has stopped buying ads on YouTube. Advertisers are able to buy ads on a viewable impression basis, but it all relies on Google’s Active View measurement tool.
91 percent of ads served on YouTube, according to a study this year, were found to be viewable using Active View. According to the industry standard for a viewable video impression, the ad has o be 50 percent of the ad’s pixels be visible on the screen for at least two consecutive seconds.
Although Google declined to make a comment, they did make a statement to The Financial Times,
“We’re committed to meeting all of our clients’ measurement needs” and “are taking our clients’ feedback into account as we continue to roll out new solutions.”