DV Now Supports Open Measurement for Web Video for Expanded Viewability Measurement

For years, standardizing video viewability measurement has been a challenge for marketers. Originally, Video Player-Ad Interface Definition (VPAID) was used to enable video ad viewability measurement, but, over the years, publishers didn’t enjoy the lack of transparency and control that implementing VPAID required. Eventually, VPAID adoption hit a wall as it’s not supported on mobile in-app and CTV environments and it’s not implemented on a huge portion of web video inventory. Today, DoubleVerify (DV) estimates that about 60% of web video impressions remain unmeasurable.

As such, the IAB Tech Lab has been pushing a new standard, Open Measurement Interface Definition (OMID), that solves these issues and encourages adoption of technology that enables  measurement of ad viewability. In 2017, this culminated in the release of the OM SDK for in-app, which finally unlocked ad viewability measurement in mobile applications. DV was one of the first verification providers to support OM SDK measurement as part of its viewability product.

The IAB’s Open Measurement Working Group consists of General Participants and the Commit Group. DV is a part of the Commit Group, which is actively involved in the development and the implementation of Open Measurement technology – with the latest iteration covering web video ads. This recent release will standardize how viewability and invalid traffic (IVT) signals are gathered in web video advertising, which streamlines measurement and further progresses DV’s mission to ensure that every impression can be measured and verified for quality.

Now, DV is proud to announce our support for OMID for Web Video via the OM SDK is live, enabling measurement of viewability and IVT on web video players for both desktop and mobile web ads – especially where VPAID is not supported. DV estimates that the introduction of OM Web Video SDK is expected to make the majority of web video inventory measurable within the next couple of years.

The OM Web Video SDK only needs to be implemented by a relative handful of web video players and Ads SDKs to achieve wide adoption and make an impact.

As part of this release, we’d like to answer a few common questions about OMID for Web Video.

As a DV client, do I need to do anything to enable OMID for Web Video measurement?

No, we’ve released OMID for Web Video support as part of our viewability product and do not require any extra implementation steps in order to activate further measurement.

I’m not seeing any big raise in my viewability measurement rate. When should I expect to see an increase?

We have seen strong interest and adoption with major web video players, however, most of them have also implemented VPAID in the past and were already measurable by our tags. There are no metric or measurement differences in reporting when an environment supports both VPAID and OMID.

As more web video players or Ads SDKs implement the OM SDK, we should start receiving more measurable traffic.

How long will it take for all the major web video players to adopt OM Web Video SDK?

Most major web video players are working to implement the OM SDK and we should see wider adoption throughout 2022.

Are there any plans to expand OMID to CTV?

Yes, DV is working as part of the Open Measurement Working Commit Group to establish the OMID technology standard for CTV. We also expect this upcoming release to unlock another wave of inventory that is currently unmeasurable. Please stay tuned as IAB Tech Lab will be announcing when it’s available in the coming months.

Currently, DV is able to solve for viewability challenges in the CTV space with our MRC-accredited Fully On-Screen solution, providing insights into:

• Whether ad pixels are 100% on screen and impressions fire after the TV is turned off across certified inventory
• How much of an ad was played through quartile measurement

Does OMID offer post-bid blocking support?

No. However, DV offers the MRC-accredited Video Filtering solution that lets advertisers reduce quality infractions and associated wasted investment across all video environments and devices — even where blocking is not supported.

Contact your DV Account Manager or email DV at sales@doubleverify.com to learn more about DoubleVerify’s viewability solutions, or other verification products.