YouTube Opens Up to Third-Party Video Viewability Metrics

YouTube is the biggest property on the board for online video marketers, but many brands are still shy about spending their money with it. While YouTube can rattle off stats for days about how many viewers it has (YouTube execs love to rattle off stats), brands fault it for not being open enough when it comes to metrics. After all, big brands want to know what they're getting for their investment.

As part of its efforts to be more open for advertisers, YouTube announced that it will soon offer third-party viewability reporting. Besides using Google's own Active View viewability technology, advertisers can choose to get viewability measures from Moat, Integral AdScience, ComScore, and DoubleVerify. Keep in mind that when YouTube talks viewability it's using the MRC's official definition—that a video ad is viewable if half of its pixels appear on screen for at least two seconds. Strange that YouTube, which brags about its high viewability rates, wouldn't set the bar higher.

Viewability measures from Moat will be available first, in early 2016. YouTube promises to use these partnerships to broaden the measurement tools it offers marketers. It will also offer more third-party partners in the future. Even YouTube can't operate with a closed system, and viewability is certain to be central to video marketers in 2016.

Troy Dreier's article first appeared on OnlineVideo.net