UK overtakes Germany as online ad viewability rises

UK online ad viewability levels have been the bane of marketers’ lives for years but things could be finally looking up if the latest benchmarking figures are to be believed, with viewability hitting its highest level since the second quarter of 2014.
According to the latest quarterly report from ad verification company Meetrics, in the final quarter of 2017, the proportion of banner ads served that met minimum viewability guidelines rose from 52% to 56% – the first time levels have risen for three consecutive quarters.
The UK, which traditionally lags far behind the other seven European countries in which Meetrics measures viewability, is starting to look more comparable: it has now overtaken Switzerland (48%), Poland (50%) and Germany (55%). Austria (67%) leads the way followed by Italy (63%), France (62%) and Sweden (61%).
Although ads are only deemed viewable if they meet the rather inadequate IAB and Media Ratings Council’s recommendation that 50% of the ad is in view for at least one second, the average time a UK ad was in view (but not necessarily viewed) rose by 15% to 24.3 seconds.
“Despite previous, albeit small, jumps, we’ve been cautious about being too positive but yet another rise, the joint biggest we’ve seen in consecutive quarters, suggests the battle is being won,” said Philipp von Hilgers, Meetrics’ CEO and co-founder. “The jump is particularly impressive as in most markets viewability drops in the final quarter due to higher activity – driven by Christmas – which leads to lower quality placements resulting in lower viewability, so the UK has done very well to override this trend.”