Programmatic: Why optimizing only for Viewability can kill your campaign’s real effectiveness 😱

Every time I get the chance to chat with Media Traders, I ask them:
"Which KPIs do you use to steer your branding campaigns?"

👉 In 95% of cases, the answer is the same:

"Viewability, CPM, and Completion."

📏 You know the MRC Viewability standard; we’ve been hearing about it for over 10 years:
1 viewable impression 🟰 50% of the banner on screen for at least 1 second (Display) or 2 seconds (Video).

📖 Ten years ago, viewability was the central issue because back then, 50% of impressions purchased weren't appearing on the screen 😲

It took years of long, tedious advocacy from measurement providers like Integral Ad Science, DoubleVerify, and Adloox to get the industry to adopt this standard.

Today, viewability is a cornerstone of the programmatic ecosystem:
The average viewability rate is 76% according to the latest IAS Media Quality Report 👏

The catch? This KPI is increasingly being challenged, notably by measurement players using panel-based data like xpln.ai for good reason! 🕵️

⚠️ By being far too lenient, the MRC standard actually favors... the least effective formats and environments!

🤖 Here’s the deal: DSP bidding algorithms have one goal—to optimize for the requested KPIs. And they take those instructions literally!

So, if you set them to [Maximize Viewability], they will:

📌 Over-invest in Desktop (larger screens = easy KPI to hit).
📌 Prioritize tiny formats (320x50, 728x90), which are easy to keep "viewable."
📌 Prioritize MFA (Made For Advertising) sites, which offer massive amounts of "sticky" inventory and small rendering at highly competitive CPMs.

🎯 The Result:

• Campaigns with 90% viewability at unbeatable CPMs!!
• But more importantly: Abysmal attention scores and zero branding impact...

In short: investments going up in smoke. 🔥💸💸😲

At GreyFox Ads, we beleive the quality OpenWeb brings real efficiency to advertisers. We are the smallest Ad Network in France, but not the least competent : we've created Master Deals to bring Media Traders :
⭐clean supply,
⭐smart targeting,
⭐simplicity,
⭐cost transparency.

You want to work with a quality partner to operate Video/Display programmatic campaign on the french market ?
📩 Contact GreyFox Ads !

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