UK ad viewability drops to 18 month low

The last time levels were lower – at 46% – was in Q4 2014. 

This means that the UK lags further behind other European countries in terms of viewability levels: Austria stands at 69%, France at 62% and Germany at 60%. 

“Viewability in the UK is more volatile than other major European markets due to the higher penetration of programmatic and automated ad buying,” said Anant Joshi, Meetrics’ director of international business. “The surge in ads bought programmatically contributed to the decline in viewability, which was compounded by publishers upping the speed at which ads are re-loaded or auto-refreshed to raise inventory levels and revenue.

"Around 20% of ads weren’t viewable because they weren’t in the frame for long enough – the highest rate we’ve seen due to this reason for some time.”