In this post we’ll discuss viewability and measurement as they relate to contextual data companies. Contextual data companies are using web trackers to review sites across the web, and measure the activities that are happening on these sites and pages.

Two really important outputs of that data is viewability targeting and campaign measurement.

Viewability Targeting And Measurement

The value proposition is straight forward here. We need our ads to be seen for people to take an action.

These tools allow advertisers to mandate a minimum viewability targeting for campaigns across banner ads and video ads. There are two components of the contextual targeting framework happening here.

Sites are routinely scrubbed for user behavior to understand how people interact with an individual page, and where ads appear on the page.

For example, ads that appear above the fold, or on the top part of the screen when the page loads, are more likely to be in view.

There is also technology that allows ads to appear on the side of the screen even while a user is scrolling on the site. These are also in-view placements. The more in-view, the better it is for the publisher and the advertiser.

Reporting and measurement gives advertisers knowledge about the sites and apps that have the highest in-view rates.

Further, contextual targeting companies allow advertisers to exclude ads that don’t have minimum viewability metrics.

Measurement

When we talk about measurement we’re really interested in translating digital ad delivery to reach, frequency, and gross rating points.

In addition, these tools have the ability to report back on the types of users who saw our ads.

These measurement capabilities are really focused in on connecting traditional media and digital media in a unified measurement system.

For example, measurement has the ability to identify how many impressions went to people 35-54, which is especially important if the ad targeting is intended to people 35-54.

So you can see, while we really focused in on contextual targeting as the core capability, the underlying technology is deployed in a variety of uses cases and systems throughout the digital advertising ecosystem.