Viewability

About viewability

Viewability measurement determines if an ad which was served (impression) was actually served in a way that it could be visualized (seen) by the end user (viewable impression). For instance, a medium rectangle at the bottom of the page may be served (impression) but not viewed (viewable impression) by a user who did not scroll to the bottom. 

Viewability measurement is based on two criteria:

• Pixels: the percentage of the ad’s pixels (surface) which was viewable for the end user
• Time: the duration the ad was viewable by the end user (in seconds)

The Media Rating Council (MRC) has issued guidelines detailing when an impression is supposed to be counted as a viewable impression - see MRC Guidelines for display ads and MRC Guidelines for mobile ads. Equativ follows these MRC guidelines.
Viewability features are also supported in AMP integrations.

 

Viewability measurement rules

Equativ applies the following viewability measurement rules:
  

• Display web / in-app
  • an impression is viewable when 50% of the ad’s pixels (surface) is viewable during 1 continuous second
• Video web / in-app
  • a video impression is viewable when 50% of the video ad’s pixels is viewable during 2 continuous seconds of video playback; counting of the time is stopped when the video is paused; the 2 seconds are not necessarily the first 2 seconds of the video
  • this rule applies to in-stream video (pre-roll etc.) and out-stream video formats where only a video is shown
  • in case of out-stream video formats where the video is embedded in a display format, the “Display web” rule applies (see above), e.g. Smart Video-Read with the “Show banner first” feature enabled, Smart Video-Screening, Smart Video-Fold, Smart Video-Floorad)
• Large ads
  • ads larger than 242 500 pixels are considered as viewable when 30% of the pixels (not the usual 50%) are viewable during 1 continuous second; this rule only applies to desktop formats (not to mobile formats)

Official creative templates supporting viewability measurement

Viewability measurement is supported by most official creative templates, such as Default Banner, Parallax, Interstitial, Smart Video-Read, Smart Video-Interstitial, or app creative templates. To determine whether a creative template supports viewability measurement, check the corresponding ad format specification article, for example Default Banner.

Viewability measurement in custom creative templates

Equativ's viewability module, standard in official creative templates, is also available for custom creative templates. Usage in custom and official templates offers identical viewability measurement and reporting capabilities.
For more information about custom creative templates, see Creative template editor.
 
Viewability module for custom ad serving (direct) creative templates:
Viewability module for custom RTB (programmatic) creative templates:
The values of the parameters are macros that are expanded once the creative is delivered. For example, the [sas_tagid] macro is replaced by the HTML container ID where the creative is delivered (containerid).

Viewability measurement outside of creative templates

You can also use the viewability module outside of creative templates, for example in case of json ad responses where javascript cannot be used. As macros won't expand in this case, you must fill each parameter of the viewability module manually. For definitions of each parameter, see the table at the end of this section.
To learn more about the expected format of each parameter, you can inspect an impression pixel contained in an Equativ ad response, using Chrome DevTools. Impression pixels contain the string aip. The following is an example of a shortened impression pixel URL, as contained in an ad response from Equativ:
 
In this aip impression pixel URL, you can find actual values for each parameter, for example opdt=1751030202910 or fmtid=122770. The parameter baseurl is not contained in the impression pixel URL as a parameter. It corresponds to the domain of the impression pixel URL itself. For example, in the impression pixel URL mentioned earlier,  https://euw1.smartadserver.com  is to be used for the baseurl parameter.

Viewability module for use outside of ad serving (direct) creative templates:
Viewability module for use outside of RTB (programmatic) creative templates:  

Name________________	Type_______	Necessity__________	Description
baseurl	STRING	REQUIRED	The default base URL of your customer network—for example, https://www4.smartadserver.com. Read about how to retrieve the baseurl from an aip impression pixel in the previous section. The base URL can also be found in your ad tags. For more information about ad tags, see Setting up inventory.
opid	NUMBER	REQUIRED	The opportunity ID, as received by Equativ from the ad request. This identifier links the viewable impression event with all other events generated from the ad request, ensuring accurate attribution of the metric in reports.
opdt	STRING	REQUIRED	The opportunity date (timestamp), as received by Equativ from the ad request.  It links the viewable impression event with all other events generated from the ad request, ensuring accurate attribution of the metric in reporting.
iid	NUMBER	REQUIRED	The identifier of the insertion delivered in the ad response.
fmtid	NUMBER	REQUIRED	The identifier of the format where the ad is delivered.
cid	NUMBER	RECOMMENDED	The identifier of the creative delivered in the ad response, only relevant for direct insertions.
containerid	STRING	OPTIONAL	The HTML container of the creative of which the viewability is being measured, corresponding to the tag ID. The containerid does not originate from the ad response. The standard naming of the tag ID follows the pattern: sas_<format id>. For example, if the format ID is 12345, the associated tagId is: sas_12345.
rtbbid	NUMBER	REQUIRED*	Equativ internal RTB parameter
rtbet	NUMBER	REQUIRED*	Equativ internal RTB parameter
rtblt	NUMBER	REQUIRED*	Equativ internal RTB parameter
rtbnid	NUMBER	REQUIRED*	Equativ internal RTB parameter
rtbh	STRING	REQUIRED*	Equativ internal RTB parameter

* required only in case of RTB custom creative templates

Testing the viewability measurement

To test if your integration of the viewability module works properly, you can use a web debugging tool such as Chrome DevTools: simply check if the viewcount pixel is triggered by the viewability module once the ad is viewable.
The viewcount pixel contains key=viewcount and looks as follows:  

Viewability as a delivery goal

You can assign a volume of viewable impressions to an insertion to sell campaigns on a viewable impression basis.
In the Delivery section of your insertion, select the event “Viewable impressions” and define a volume (target):