Fewer Than Half Of All Video Ads Are Viewable

Fewer than half of all U.S. video ad impressions were viewable in 2013, according to a report from video ad management platform Vindico, compiled by BI Intelligence.

• Ad networks, which sell advertising inventory on behalf of multiple websites, and internet brands, such as Yahoo and YouTube, had the lowest percentage of viewable video ad impressions among different types of digital publishers. Only 37% of video ad impressions that appeared on these publishers were viewable during the year.
• Major media publishers preformed dramatically better. Nearly four-fifths of video ad impressions that appeared on major media sites, such as NBC and The New York Times, were viewable.

There are a variety of reasons why a video ad may not be viewable, but common scenarios include ads appearing in an inactive window, ads being out of frame, and ads that are muted when they play.

That said, those ads there were seen performed extremely well, with 81% watched to completion.

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