Dive Brief:
- Snapchat is charging advertisers for video ads viewable for less than one second, according to buyers who spoke with Digiday.
- Video ad standards per the Media Ratings Council and Interactive Advertising Bureau are viewable for two seconds.
- In separate Snapchat news, the ephemeral messaging app also recently added three new publishers to its Discover portal.
Dive Insight:
Snapchat has undergone issues moving to a revenue model, and the news that it’s charging advertisers for video ads that are “viewed” for less than one second isn’t a good sign for improving those prospects. There are no set standards for viewability for online ads, but the Media Ratings Council and Interactive Advertising Bureau suggest a standard that 50% of a display ad’s pixels appear onscreen for at least two continuous seconds for video ads to count as an impression. Digiday, citing buyers close to the matter, reported that the messaging app has been charging brands for video ads viewed less than a second.
An industry insider told Digiday, “Snapchat is using this measurement that just seems off from what brands and clients want and where the rest of the industry is going. If an ad is on the screen for less than a second, it’s hard to imagine it made an impression.”
Snapchat does offer marketers the entire screen for video ads and has been a leader in the vertical video trend. Separately, Snapchat also recently expanded its Discover publisher portal adding three new publishers, Mashable, Tastemade and IDG – through which the messaging app is seemingly planning to make a main revenue stream.
