Dive Brief: 

• Online video ads are up 205% in the past year while the audience has only grown 4%. 
• According to ad-serving firm Vindico, this disparity is because 57% of the 2.7 billion ads it tracked over a two-month period were not viewable. 
• In the top 20 sites ranked by number of ads shown, there was no YouTube, Hulu or Yahoo present, offering even more evidence that the real views don't match the impressions reported. 

Dive Insight: 

Part of the problem comes from unclear industry expectations as to what constitutes a real video impression, but other factors are also in play. A big driving factor in false impression reporting are the unrealistic expectations coming from brands and agencies. As long as they expect huge numbers in CPM, publishers will find ways, ethical or not, to fulfill their requests. With so many publishers struggling to stay afloat, it's easy to turn a blind eye to fake impressions if it keeps advertisers interested.