Viewability across video platforms: What our Moat partnership means

Viewability 2.0

We’re excited to announce an exclusive partnership with Moat for 2017, and look forward to working with our customers in ensuring video ad viewability across all of our YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter campaigns.

The gap in cross-channel marketing measurement became smaller in 2016 when premium video ad platforms such as YouTube started allowing third party ad verification for viewability. Viewability for video ads measures whether actual people (as opposed to bots) saw an ad, if they completed it, if they scrolled by or really saw it on screen, and if the sound was on. As advertisers struggle to measure their brand’s impact across open web, walled gardens, and mobile, this new wave of verification provides deeper transparency for highly effective video ad strategies.

We partnered with Moat earlier in 2016 to test the strength of our media buys across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube with regard to viewability. Moat’s independently verified data goes well beyond the standard definition of viewability and includes analytics about video completion rates, audibility, and many other view quality and viewer behavior metrics that are currently not available in the video platforms themselves. Additionally, Moat was the first advertising analytics platform to provide viewability measurement for in-app mobile viewing (over 60% of video consumption for these platforms occurs in-app).

Pixability’s cross-platform test took place across Q3 and Q4 of 2016, and we’ve confirmed that the premium social video platforms we work with have outstandingly high viewability rates as compared to the MRC benchmark of 57% — we saw an average of 97% across YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter as measured by the MRC definition. However, just like with other performance metrics, each platform has nuances that may affect an ad being seen. Target audience, creative length, and campaign objectives are three key items to consider when measuring video ad viewability across walled gardens. Initial data findings showed Facebook’s behavior-targeted campaigns led across most performance metrics for viewability, as did YouTube’s channel placements and remarketing campaigns. Additionally, our team found that utilizing GDN and Facebook Audience Network has an impact on overall viewability performance. Be sure to stop by our site for a more comprehensive report of our findings in Q2.

We look forward to continuing our partnership with Moat to expand upon our campaign reporting, and plan to continue our test efforts in 2017. Particularly, we’re interested in identifying creative best practices and peak targeting mix to achieve optimal view rates within the premium video ad space. If you are interested in participating in our upcoming study, or if you have additional questions about how the Pixability and Moat partnership could influence your campaign view rates, please contact us today.