Advertisers are striving for increased viewability across their digital advertising campaigns, but is this the right approach? ExchangeWire speak with Paul Lowrey, strategy director, Collective, who thinks it’s great that ad viewability has risen; but when it comes to driving campaign effectiveness and reducing ad blocking, it’s clever targeting and the quality of advertising content that hold the key.

Ad verification has been a growing requirement for marketers, so it was encouraging to see the recent report from Meetrics, which revealed that overall online ad viewability in the UK had increased to 54% in the first quarter of this year.

Improvements in measurement, the quality of viewable programmatic inventory, the use of rich media formats, and quicker ad-serving systems, have all helped to improve the benchmarks.

However, while optimising towards viewability is a way to ensure that an ad is being seen, it does not provide a measurement of, or any insight into, campaign effectiveness. It is just as important that we maintain and improve the quality of audience targeting and the ad content on the page.

The demand for impactful, and often intrusive, units that drive viewability has been a rich growth area for the industry, with display increasing by 24.5% in 2015, according to the IAB/PWC Digital Ad Spend 2015 report. However, this has helped contribute to a rise in ad blocking.

There will be a natural ebbing of the tide in the use of technology to combat ad-blocking with limitations of European Law and publisher-backed counter solutions; but we must accept that what lies at the heart of matter is that many people simply don’t like digital advertising. Or advertising full stop.

Both advertisers and publishers have often been blinded by the assumption that users want to see and engage with the advertising content that has been positioned in front of them, instead of what might be most relevant to particular consumers at a specific time.

If DR has been self-destructive in contributing a ‘race-to-the-bottom’ in driving cost efficiency, we in the digital creative industry have been blinkered participants in a competitive ‘race-to-the-top’ to strive for the next media first or showpiece format.

The IAB is assisting with the recent introduction of LEAN (Light, Encrypted, Ad choice supported, Non-invasive ads) guidelines that will help set improved standards that provide choice for marketers, content providers, and consumers.

As an industry, this is a responsibility we must take on board and the effective use of audience data, relevant frequency capping and improved creativity will need to play a more prominent role in this process.

This, of course, is nothing new. Traditional media, including Cinema and TV, have long been involved in the ad-blocking evolution – whether that involves arriving just before the film or using a PVR to chop 15mins off your favourite hour-long drama. Both have continued to perform strongly, however, as they have embraced the need to demonstrate a value exchange and position advertising as part of the experience.

With respect to the digital arena, a greater understanding of creating relevant content for the right screen and target audience that’s distributed in a non-invasive manner will be key to delivering viewability and engagement between brand and consumer.

Nearly all ads are intrusive, and with such a knowledgeable audience, there’s no hiding from consumers that ads are designed to sell them a particular product or service. Simply making them more viewable will not be enough.

We must shift our mindset from ‘Think Big’ to ‘Think Clever’. This will require a collaborative approach between a broad range of industry experts. It certainly won’t be easy, but simplicity will be key to the relationship.

The growth of native will provide a valuable contribution; but only through a greater understanding of how content is delivered and consumed will we be able to refine the effectiveness of campaigns – and that comes down to the quality of the user experience.