UK Digital Video Advertisers Converge on Measuring Viewthroughs

Viewthrough rate solidifies its position as the No. 1 success metric

October 21, 2016 | Marketing | Advertising

More UK digital video ad buyers rely on viewthrough rates to measure success this year than in 2015, according to a September 2016 report from digital advertising solutions provider Collective. Over 50% of those surveyed named viewthrough rate as their primary metric for measuring success when buying digital video ads.

While viewthrough rate was also the No. 1 metric for measuring digital video ad success in 2015, its lead has grown significantly this year. In 2015, 35.0% of those surveyed named viewthrough rates as their primary metric, while about 25% were most concerned with the incremental reach video ads gave them over and above TV.

Fast-forward to 2016, 52.4% said viewthrough rate was their primary measurement, while just 13.6% named incremental reach—still the No. 2 metric, but trailing significantly.

Aside from viewthrough rates, brand lift was the only success metric that become more popular in 2016, and the overall picture is clearly of convergence toward one primary metric.

Perhaps counterintuitively, that does not appear to be because advertisers agree they have settled on a particularly good metric: Many still aren’t sure video advertising works at all.

Over a quarter of UK digital video ad buyers surveyed in September said the biggest barrier to spending more on digital video was a lack of proof that it works—which is to say they are not satisfied with their video ad measurement. About one in five also listed a limited premium inventory and the need to manage levels of frequency across broadcast and online video channels as the biggest barrier to spending more.

Also in September, eMarketer projected UK advertisers would spend £1.09 billion ($1.66 billion ) on digital video ads in 2016, amounting to 11% of all digital ad spending this year.