Dive Brief:

• After advertiser pushback, YouTube will begin allowing third party verification of ad viewability by the end of this year.
• Unilever and Kellogg’s are the two brands specifically cited as causing this shift in YouTube policy, according to The Financial Times.
• Before the coming change the only standard used to determine if a YouTube ad was viewed or not was its own Active View measurement tool.

Dive Insight:

Google-owned YouTube is changing its long-standing policy of only using its Active View measurement tool for ad viewability and will begin allowing for third party measurement tools for viewability verification by the end of the year. The move comes after pressure from large brands, particularly Unilever and Kellogg’s, calling for independent verification options. In fact, Kellogg’s supposedly stopped advertising on YouTube because it couldn’t independently verify ad viewability.

In its own study, Google found Active View reported 91% viewability on YouTube ads. This contrasted with the report’s finding for viewability across all its video ad networks which came in at 54%.

Google told The Financial Times, “We’re committed to meeting all of our clients’ measurement needs” and “are taking our clients’ feedback into account as we continue to roll out new solutions.”