Pitfall 8
Short time-in-view
Is an impression that is visible for five seconds as valuable as an impression that is visible for 30 seconds or more? Most marketers would say "no," but the current method of charging for display ads (at least in the U.S.) does not distinguish between a five-second impression and a 30-second impression. Some sites, notably email and social media sites, tend to have a large number of impressions that are in view only a short period of time. If 80 percent of the impressions on a given site are visible for less than 10 seconds, then your advertising is probably not being seen.
Some publishers optimize their sites to increase impressions by using techniques such as auto-refresh, splitting articles into smaller pages, and slideshows. An ad verification service should help you detect, by publisher and by site, a high percentage of short impressions and help you decide whether to continue running ads on these sites.
Summary
There are many potential issues with online display advertising, but a few bad apples should not be allowed to spoil the entire market. Ad verification services have the potential to catch and correct these issues, and to give marketers the trust, transparency, and faith in display's effectiveness necessary to bring more dollars into the industry.
Jim Ewel is CEO of Adometry.
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