Active View is Google’s ad viewability measurement solution, tracking the viewability of ads served by AdSense. Viewability helps determine how likely it is that an ad was actually seen by a user. An ad is counted as viewable if at least 50% of its area was displayed on screen for at least one second (the minimum criteria according to Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) standards). Two important factors are (a) what portion of an ad appears in a viewable space on screen and (b) how long that portion of the ad remains visible.
Measuring viewability helps publishers and advertisers to assess the value of an impression. For example, consider a placement at the bottom of a web page. If a user needs to scroll down to see the bottom of the page, then that user might not see the ad before navigating away from the page. Yet for a user with a larger screen, the entire page might appear in a viewable space – which means that the ad is visible, too. Both scenarios count as impressions, but only viewability tracks whether an ad actually became visible to the user.
You can use Active View data in reporting to help you increase the long-term value of your display inventory. For example, for impressions with a CPC bid type, Active View data gives you more information about how likely it is that a user will click on your ad; after all, your ads need to be viewed to be clicked. It also improves the attractiveness of your ad inventory to brand advertisers who want to know that their ads actually have a chance of being seen, and typically pay higher RPMs for viewable impressions. Additionally, Active View data provides insight into which of your ad units or areas of your site have the highest and lowest viewable rates and where you should concentrate your efforts on improving viewability, e.g. by looking at your ad units or Custom Channels reports.
To access Active View data, use the following reporting metrics, which you’ll find under the “Active Views” metric family tab above the main graph area:
-
Active View Measurable: The percentage of impressions that were measurable with Active View, out of the total number of impressions.
Even when an ad has Active View, some factors may prevent the tag from capturing data. For example, if the publisher ad tag is placed within a cross-domain Iframe, then its viewability may not be measurable. Also, when an ad's backup image displays or a default ad serves, the impression does not count as measurable. This metric only includes impressions from regular AdSense for content and AdSense for video ad units. It doesn't include data from link units, or data from dynamic allocation in Google Ad Manager.
-
Active View Viewable: The percentage of impressions that were viewable, out of all measurable impressions.
All viewable ads are measurable, because you can't confirm that an ad has met the criteria for viewability unless it can be measured. For example, say that the ads on your site had 100 measurable impressions. That means that there were 100 impressions where Active View tags were able to measure viewability. If only 10 of those 100 impressions were measured as viewable, then the site would have 10% Active View Viewability. This metric only includes impressions from regular AdSense for content and AdSense for video ad units, it doesn't include data from link units, or data from dynamic allocation in Google Ad Manager.
-
Average Viewable Time: The average length of time (in seconds) that at least 50% of your ads' pixels were visible on-screen.
