Advertisers have cause to question the video inventory they’re buying.
A recent report by Adalytics claimed brands are paying premium prices for YouTube TrueView ads that mostly appear on less desirable third-party Google Video Partner (GVP) sites. Advertisers also have to contend with evolving standards for in-stream and out-stream video.
But whether an ad is in-stream or what site it appears on is arguably less important for campaign performance than whether people are paying attention.
To capitalize on this moment of uncertainty and provide more clarity around media quality, Playground XYZ announced today that its Attention Intelligence Platform is now compatible with YouTube ads.
The view on TrueView
The integration represents PXYZ’s first foray into measuring attention on YouTube and its first attempt at doing so within a walled garden, said Ben Dimond, global head of commercial.
The solution is currently only compatible with pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll video ad placements that appear on YouTube’s website within the video player. It is not compatible with display ads that appear around the video player.
And the solution won’t help advertisers avoid buying placements on YouTube itself instead of the GVP sites covered in Adalytics’ report – at least for the time being. PXYZ does not currently have the ability to measure attention for YouTube ads that appear on third-party sites.
However, because of the TrueView controversy, PXYZ is prioritizing adding that capability, Dimond said. Once it is added, advertisers will be able to more easily identify whether their campaign performance is being harmed by GVP placements.
The GVP inventory highlighted in the Adalytics report was running on the side of the page with the volume off by default. Both the location of the ads and the lack of sound would likely result in the GVP placements receiving a lower attention score than proper on-site YouTube ads, Dimond said.
In that case, real-time reporting of the attention scores would raise red flags for buyers that something might be amiss with their campaigns.
How it works
PXYZ does not have a direct integration or contractual relationship with YouTube. Instead, the solution works by integrating into a buyer’s existing workflow for YouTube campaign reporting.
The measurement algorithm attempts to quantify how long an average user is likely to make eye contact with an ad placement. Its training data includes volunteer eye-tracking panels and proxy signals such as scroll depth, cursor hover time and whether an ad has been muted or unmuted.
PXYZ provides the Attention Time scores in real time within the advertiser’s campaign reporting dashboard, which can then be compared against its benchmarks for similar ads.
It also provides attention scores for different ad creatives, formats and target audiences, then breaks these scores down further using variables like device type, time of day and geolocation.
Creative decisioning and optimization
Being able to compare in real time how attention scores vary across ad inventory assists campaign optimization, said Esme Wood, programmatic director at the7stars, which was a beta tester for the integration.
The7stars recently ran a campaign for an investment firm that centered on retirement pensions and was able to compare attention scores, then optimize the campaign according to which creative worked best depending on the audience, Wood said.
Advertisers can also conduct cost-per-attention analysis using PXYZ’s Cost-per-1,000-Attention-Seconds metric. “Some formats like non-skippable placements get more attention, but they might be three times the price,” Dimond said.
Peeking over the garden walls
Controversies like the YouTube TrueView scandal or Facebook infamously inflating its video metrics keep happening because walled garden platforms aren’t always forthcoming about what inventory is being bought or how it performs.
But attention metrics can help advertisers gain their own insights into the inner workings of these platforms, Wood said.
“We’re never going to walk away from the walled gardens,” she said. “We can’t push YouTube to allow us to have this level of control, but we’re happy with how [PXYZ] is helping us navigate that.”
Even if attention metrics can’t immediately solve the walled garden controversy du jour, PXYZ’s YouTube integration produces insights for marketers on the most attention-grabbing inventory.
For example, the sweet spot for YouTube ads is between 10 and 15 seconds, because they garner 23% more Attention Time on average than other ad lengths, according to PXYZ. And, on average, consumers pay attention to YouTube bumper ads (meaning the shorter, unskippable ads that appear between videos) for 45% of the ad’s duration, compared to only 25% for skippable ads.
PXYZ isn’t stopping its walled garden tour with YouTube. The company currently has integrations in alpha for Meta and TikTok, too, Dimond said.
“It’s not about policing these platforms,” he said. “It’s about giving agencies and buyers another tool to extract value out of these platforms.”
