The Financial Times is reporting that YouTube will begin allowing third-party verification of ad viewability by the end of the year in response to pushback from major advertisers.
The report cites Unilever and Kellogg’s as key instigators for the move to enable independent viewability measurement. Kellogg’s went so far as to stop its ad buys on YouTube because Google does not enable third-party verification. Advertisers can buy ads on a viewable impression basis, but the verification relies on Google’s own Active View measurement tool.
In a study this year, Google said that 91 percent of ads served on YouTube were found to be viewable using Active View. The industry standard for a viewable video impression is that the at least 50 percent of the ad’s pixels be visible on the screen for at least two consecutive seconds.
Google declined to comment specifically but told 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.”
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