Why do advertising industry bad practices persist?
When advertising standards result in a lose-lose for customers as well as for advertisers, we should adopt new standards.
As users and customers, our web experience is too often marred by the bad practices and ‘dark patterns’ of the advertising industry. Users’ frustration is easy to observe in usability testing as ‘ad-blindness’ and avoiding anything that looks like an ad. The root cause is the industry’s avoidance of measuring outcomes and the adoption of weak standard metrics.
Almost since the World-Wide Web existed, we (as ‘users’) have been dogged by general unpleasantnesses foisted on us by advertisers, marketers and agencies, such as:
- ‘splash pages’ (pretty much gone, thank goodness!)
- adverts crammed into every available space
- auto-play videos
- carousels
- ‘native’ adverts (adverts disguised as part of the content)
- click-bait adverts
- click farms
- persistent adverts (that remain on the page as you scroll) – especially annoying if videos
- adverts-disguised-as-information
Once upon a time, these bad practices were the result of individual marketers’ or designers’ decisions, on individual websites. Now, however, these practices are industry-wide, embedded into advertising’s very measurement standards and business models. They persist despite the negative impact they have on customers and the actual advertisers.
So why do advertisers and marketers continue in these practices? Because they’re rewarded for them, of course. Let’s take a quick look at video adverts, as an example.
The new video ad standard will have unintended consequences
Advertisers need standard measurements, so that they can compare the effectiveness of advertisements, channels, platforms and vendors. Most advertisers follow the standards set by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Media Rating Council (MRC).
The Media Rating Council has just released a draft of its proposed new Cross-Media Audience Measurement Standards, which proposes to raise the requirements for ‘viewability’ of a video: now, a full 100% of the pixels must be on-screen for a minimum of 2 seconds (The previous standard only required 50% of the pixels to be on view for 2 seconds).
As a result of this standard, it’s obvious that advertising industry players – especially platform vendors – will do whatever they can to make sure their videos appear and stay on your screen for more than 2 seconds! And increasing the pixel-count requirement to 100% will make their efforts even more strenuous. What gets measured gets done, after all. Yes, auto-play videos, in-line and persistent videos are here to stay as long as these standards persist.
Another predictable unintended consequence is fake or exaggerated metrics by platform vendors. With estimates that there are more than 5,000 platform vendors out there, the field is extremely competitive, so faking positive results should come as no surprise. A 2018 survey by the CMO Council showed that “Inaccurate, questionable or false digital media reporting have led 21% of marketers to cut back on their advertising spend.”
The Lose-Win-Lose advertising business model
This advertising standard also damages the industry: it creates a lose-win-lose business model:
- Advertisers lose, because the video platform providers’ practices annoy customers and reduce brand value
- Advertising platform vendors win, because with their ‘dark pattern’ practices, they achieve what they’re measured on – and get paid for it by the advertisers!
- Customers lose, because their experience is degraded, they get annoyed, and it gets harder to complete their tasks and achieve their goals
The problem is that, yes, an advertisement must first be seen in order to be effective, but to make ‘viewability’ a prime metric is to put the cart before the horse and to invite all kinds of questionable behaviour on the part of the industry.
But ‘Viewability’ is such a great metric for the advertising platform providers. At the time of the 2017 standard, Google boasted that “In 2017, YouTube ad viewability continued to lead the industry. The average viewability of YouTube ads globally increased to 95%…”
Advertisers and Marketing need to measure quality and outcomes
I was also astonished to see that only 40% of CMO respondents wanted fees based on outcomes. And, as a 2019 Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) survey shows, “Advertisers report that they expect, on average, to spend $18M in 2019 in digital video—nearly 25% [increase] over last year.” So obviously there’s no incentive to change.
We can’t blame the platform vendors – they’re just doing what they get paid for: following the money! The root cause lies with the advertisers (and their bosses) who are happy to measure and report on what’s easy to measure, and unwilling to measure (or demand) outcomes. Is this because measuring outcomes might expose the ineffectiveness of the vast majority of Internet advertising spend – the ‘emperor’s new clothes’?
Advertisers and Marketing need to focus on quality and outcomes, not quantity and viewability. Yes, outcomes are much harder to measure, but until most marketing and advertising executives (and their bosses) start measuring – and paying for – outcomes, they will continue to enrich the advertising platform providers while damaging their customers’ experience and brand perception.
Remember: Outcomes are the only reason your business survives and you have a job.
Tell the Media Rating Council what you think of the new standard –
Before the May 24 closing date!
See the MRC draft for comment (PDF): http://mediaratingcouncil.org/MRC%20Cross-Media%20Audience%20Measurement%20Standards%20(Phase%20I%20Video)%20Public%20Comment%20Draft.pdf
Comments should be submitted to Ron Pinelli at
Bonus! The scariest ‘advertising dystopia’ video I’ve ever seen (oops! is that clickbait?)
This 2-minute video by Keiichi Matsuda captures a potential advertising-based dystopia better than anything I’ve seen: there are so many layers, so many disturbing aspects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSfKlCmYcLc
Further reading / sources
21% of marketers cut back on spend due to poor digital measurement (CMO Survey results): https://www.marketingdive.com/news/study-21-of-marketers-pull-back-ad-spend-due-to-poor-digital-measurement/522199/
Google: “The average viewability of YouTube ads globally increased to 95%…”: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-ca/advertising-channels/video/video-ad-viewability-rates
Advertisers expect 25% increase in digital video spending (2019 IAB survey): https://www.iab.com/insights/ad-spend-report-2019/
