Marketers have been virtually unanimous in calling for credible, independent measurement in digital media. It now seems the message has gotten through: major online publishers such as Google and Facebook have caved to mounting pressure to allow third-party viewability measurement on their sites, ushering in an era of greater media accountability.
Allowing the owners to self-report is fraught with conflicts of interest and leads to suspicion
Last week, the Association of National Advertisers published a member survey illustrating how strongly marketers favour independent measurement. Ninety-seven percent of the 154 U.S. marketers surveyed agreed that larger digital media owners should allow their inventory to be measured by a third party. When asked how they would respond to a media owner’s decision not to allow third-party measurement, 56% said they would shift their budget to other online publishers and another 5% said they would shift their media out of digital entirely.
“It’s about financial accountability,” one respondent commented in the report. “Advertisers are expected to place investments in a responsible, effective manner. Without independent measurement, we cannot know if we are being responsible with our investments.”
“Allowing the owners to self-report is fraught with conflicts of interest and leads to suspicion,” wrote another.
Facebook and Google, the primary targets of criticism, provide their own tools for viewability measurement rather than offering access to independent technology providers they view as competitors and potential security risks. Google has even received MRC accreditation for its Active View solution for YouTube and display inventory.
But marketers have made it clear that self-reporting, while useful for understanding a campaign, is not objective enough to support financial decisions. The Kellogg Company took a strong stance on the issue last year when it stopped all buying on YouTube. At the time, Kellogg’s vice-president of global media Jon Suarez-Davis accused Google of attempting to “grade their own homework.”
Now, those publishers are beginning to soften their stance. Twitter and Facebook have signed partnerships with Moat, a viewability provider favoured by many media buying agencies, to allow independent verification of campaigns. (Moat was the first measurer to be accredited by the MRC in mobile viewability, where the majority of Twitter and Facebook’s ads run.)
Here in Canada, both Bell Media and Shaw Media have separately made deals with Moat to provide independent viewability measurement to buyers, citing a commitment to transparency.
Even Google has started breaking down the wall. It announced at the beginning of November that YouTube will integrate measurement services from ComScore, Moat, Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify, beginning early in 2016.
Another, more recent target of criticism has been Snapchat, which reportedly doesn’t yet provide impression or audience numbers to advertisers, much less outside verification. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Snapchat’s under-developed measurement capabilities have led some agency buyers to pull back on their investment in the platform.
