Active View is a Google technology used to measure if an impression was viewable and for how long.
Active View tags track the viewability of ads served by Google Marketing Platform, which helps you determine how likely it is that an ad was actually seen by a user.
What's considered a "viewable" impression?
A display ad is considered viewable when:
- At least 50% of the ad is visible for at least 1 second and the ad is less than 242,500 pixels (970 x 250).
- At least 30% of the ad is visible for at least 1 second and the ad is 242,500 pixels (970 x 250) or greater.
A video ad is considered viewable when at least 50% of the ad is visible while the video is playing for at least 2 consecutive seconds.
Ads on connected TVs are considered viewable when they are served on a known connected TV device on a top publisher while the video is playing for at least 2 consecutive seconds. Learn more
Why measure viewability?
Measuring viewability helps advertisers better assess the value of different impressions, since not all impressions are equally likely to be seen. For example, consider a placement at the bottom of a webpage. If a user needs to scroll down to see the bottom of the page, the user might not see the ad before navigating away from the page. Yet for a user with a larger screen, the entire page might appear in a viewable space—which means the ad is visible, too. Both scenarios count as impressions, but only viewability tracks whether the impression was actually seen by the viewer.
Active View reporting data can help you increase the long-term return on your display advertising investment. Active View data provides insight into which of your campaigns, sites and placements have shown the highest and lowest viewable rates, and can help you target inventory with higher viewability. This is particularly useful for brand advertisers buying on a CPM basis who want to know their ads actually have a chance of being seen.
Viewable, measurable, and eligible impressions
Not every impression is viewable — that's why you're checking viewability — but to understand your viewability numbers in Campaign Manager 360, it helps to understand two additional concepts: measurable impressions and eligible impressions.
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Active View eligible impressions are your ad impressions for supported types of creatives and tags. If you're using a tag type or creative type that isn't supported, the impression won't be considered eligible for viewability measurement. Learn more about Active View support
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Active View measurable impressions are the eligible impressions for which we're able to gather viewability data. There are cases where the impression is eligible for measurement, but for some reason we aren't able to tell whether the ad was viewable.
Keep in mind that when we show the percentage of your impressions that was viewable, it's the percentage of measurable impressions.