Banner Blindness

Seen, Unseen, And Still Billed

This week, I was on a seminar that discussed the state of the nation in Banner Land, that troubled world of digital display advertising where viewability, ad fraud and getting what you paid for is far from assured.

And there was good news! Viewability is up, all the way to nearly half of the banners sold. Fraud is as low as 3%, or as high as 37%, which is in no way indicative of a massive problem that no one really has a handle on. And the fact that this might be the easiest and most prevalent way for criminals to operate, with opportunity all over the world, means that the presenter said, and I am quoting, "fraud will not disappear overnight." Good thing I was sitting down for that.

Now, none of this is especially new or novel, and the plain and simple fact of the matter is that Web ads still matter and still work, because when you A/B test search and email results without them, the banner audience shows a lift, assuming that the ads are, well, seen. But with the Internet Advertising Bureau still holding on to the plainly absurd standard of 50% pixels shown for just one second as a viewable ad, and viewability billing treating 70% as 100%...

Well, just what part of this should convince anyone that there's real improvement afoot? Or that if you aren't currently in the banner business, that it's one that you really should prioritize, moving forward?

Here's the crux of the problem for me. You've got an unloved ad unit that has never really worked for the consumer, especially in mobile, which is where the majority of traffic is going these days (and that trend isn't stopping). To get the same results as previous, you have to constantly scale up, which technology will easily allow you to do... but only at the cost of oversight, because no one has the time to monitor the untold number of Web sites that get in the mix for programmatic and retargeting campaigns.

So where we get to is an ad unit that can only work for brands with low concerns or market standing, for billing that has to be either so low that it can survive the low viewability, or in contracts that only pay off on rare events. It's just a perfect blueprint, honestly, for fraud.

And a few more points of viewability, or a greater focus on fraud, or a little more give back for the banners that were never seen, and honestly, should never be part of any billing moment?

Isn't really changing much...

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