Integral Ad Science, a global leader in digital media quality, published a case study conducted in partnership with Catalina, a leader in shopper intelligence that personalises the shopper journey.  The study aimed to understand how media quality influences return on ad spend (ROAS) and sales lift in correlation to in-view advertisements and time-in-view. The measurement period was recorded from May to July 2022.

To measure sales for a major CPG brand through the use of display advertisements in both mobile and desktop environments, Catalina used a test versus control methodology to calculate campaign sales lift. The test group consisted of 14.6m anonymised households that agreed to be exposed to the promoted brand campaign. 

Some of the key takeaways from this study include the following:

• 180% lift in incremental ROAS for the in-view group versus not-in-view. In-view ads have a massive impact on ROAS compared to those that do not meet viewability standards.
• 74% of incremental sales from the test campaign were driven by the in-view audience. IAS and Catalina broke the test group into an in-view and not-in-view decomposition. Incremental sales from the in-view ads drove higher sales lift and incremental sales compared to ads that are not in view.
• 3 to 10 seconds is the ideal time-in-view range for driving incremental sales.

Advertisements that were in view for 3-10 seconds outperformed both shorter and longer time-in-view rates with an incremental index of 118. This insight further highlights the strong correlation between time-in-view as a proxy to attention that drives key outcomes. This drove sales and directly impacted ROAS. 

“As a leader in personalisation and shopper intelligence, Catalina has been partnering with brands and retailers for a long time to understand the value of media as it relates to consumer responsiveness, purchase activity, incremental sales, and ROAS, both in-flight and post-campaign,” said Brian Dunphy, SVP of strategic partnerships at Catalina. “Through our partnership with IAS, we are thrilled to jointly help CPG brands, and agencies get the most out of their media investments by combining IAS’s industry-leading media quality capabilities with Catalina’s ROAS and sales lift analyses to deliver deeper insights around overall media quality, viewability and time-in-view.”

“While viewability is an important metric, metrics such as time in view can be even more precise indicators of attention and outcomes. What is powerful with this study is we see a clear link between time in view and in-store sales: a direct impact on better outcomes. By partnering with measurement companies like Catalina, we can better understand the importance and impact of media quality on driving attention and outcomes for our clients,” said Yannis Dosios, chief commercial officer, IAS.

The full Case Study can be viewed here.