The state of ad viewability
To better understand how ad viewability varies across the web and apps, we analyzed display and video advertising platforms using Active View. Here we explore viewability benchmarks and the factors that help determine display and video ad viewability.
Understanding ad viewability across regions and industries
Whether you're trying to reach a global audience or a local one, YouTube ad viewability continues to lead the industry. Globally, across web and apps, videos shown on YouTube have a viewability rate of 95% — that's significantly higher than the 68% viewability rate for video ads shown on any other site or platform.1 For display ads, only half of all impressions have a chance to be seen.
While these global figures reflect a larger, worldwide trend, viewability rates do vary by region.
YouTube ad viewability continues to lead the industry, globally
Viewability benchmarks across the globe
Click on a tab to reveal viewability rates across countries and channels.
Select one country to reveal its viewability rates across different channels.
Viewability rates don't just vary across regions, they vary across industries too. While average publisher viewability for video ads is 66.1% we found there are a few key content categories that surpass this benchmark.2 Industries known for holding users' attention with engaging content, like Games, Internet and Telecom, and Music and Audio, have the highest viewability. A few of these industries also show high viewability for display ads too, which suggests a higher interest in ads from these content categories across the board.
Categories that create captivating content have higher viewability
How to create more viewable ads
There are several factors that impact a video ad's viewability. And while some of them are harder to affect (region and industry for example), there are many steps you can take to ensure your ad has a better chance of being seen. Here are some tips to follow when considering video ad creation and placement.
- 1. Optimize for mobile
It's not just where in the world your consumers are watching that impacts ad viewability. Device does too. Across the board viewability for video ads and display ads is significantly higher on mobile and tablet than on desktop.
Viewability rates across devices and channels
Click on a channel to review viewability ratesMobile 0%Tablet 0%Desktop 0%Google advertising platforms data, Global, September 2018 - 2. Ad size and ratio matter
- 3. Ads are viewable below the fold