Make it count: a Q&A on mobile viewability

In our recent webinar, “Make it count: practical tips to improve your viewability” we received a lot of great questions about the different aspects of media quality. (If you missed it, you can access the recording here.) In this blog post, we’re answering your mobile viewability questions.

Are there viewability standards for mobile in-app?

The existing MRC guidelines for mobile measurement covers both mobile web and in-app, 50% of the ad has to be in view for 1 second.

What’s the status of the open source SDK?

There are a significant number of publishers who are actively working on the integration of the open source SDK, and many more who have signed up and are part of the Open Measurement Working Group (OMWG). There are many benefits to implementing a single SDK: open and transparent technology, increased measurement rates and accuracy, all vendors can provide measurement through a single integrations and  publishers and sell-side platforms only need to integrate one SDK. In the interim, MRAID is a highly measurable and widely adopted format.

What are some pain points with measuring viewability mobile in-app vs. web browsers?

There are technical differences that make viewability measurement more challenging on in-app. Viewability measurement for desktop and mobile web can be collected solely through a JavaScript tag. For in-app viewability measurement, new strategies are required given environment differences. In order to assess and communicate the viewable state of an ad, both an SDK and JavaScript tag are typically required for measurement in-app. MRAID is also a key part of this discussions as every major mobile SSP and SDK runs an MRAID compliant environment. However, MRAID in its current state is not an MRC accredited solution to measure viewability, as it was originally developed to solve a creative issue.The reliance on an SDK to provide true, third party viewability measurement brings it’s own complexities. Read our transparent, efficient, and universal: making the case for open sourcing software whitepaper.

What’s the most accurate way to track viewability in-app? What pixels work best?

For marketers the most accurate way to track viewability in-app is to continues to use your universal tag, whereas for publishers using an SDK provides MRC certified measurement for both display and video.