Different types of digital ads -- display ads and video ads -- have different levels of productivity when you subtract out NHT (non-human traffic -- aka "bots"), the ones that are not viewable, and the ones that are blocked by users with ad blockers.

1. marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Effectiveness of Digital Ads
2015 Update
July 2015
Augustine Fou, PhD.
http://linkd.in/augustinefou
acfou @ mktsci .com
212. 203. 7239

2. July 2015 / Page 1marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
100 million impressions
- 60% bots / NHT
Source: Incapsula, Dec 2014
40 million impressions
- 60%
~10 million impressions
ad-blocked by user
Source: PageFair, Sep 2014
Paid $0.45 CPM on 100M impressions ($45k) and got 10 million productive impressions = $4.69 eCPM
Avg. $0.45 CPM
10X higher effective cost
16 million impressions
- 40%
Source: Turn Oct 2013
Display ads: Programmatic and RTB
Distil Networks says 59% bots, May 2015
40% in-view (RTB)
Source: DoubleVerify, Q1 2015

3. July 2015 / Page 2marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Three firms corroborate webwide bot levels: ~60%
Distil Networks May 2015 – 59% botsIncapsula Dec 2014 – 56% bots
SolveMedia Jan 2015 – 56% bots

4. July 2015 / Page 3marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Viewability rate of Programmatic, Exchanges, RTB: ~40%
Source: Sizmek, Apr 2015
Source: DoubleVerify April, 2015
Source: Vindico April, 2015

5. July 2015 / Page 4marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
100 million impressions
- 2% bad bots
Source: Marketing Science July 2015
98 million impressions
- 40% 60% in-view (publisher direct)
Source: Sizmek, Apr 2015
35 million impressions
ad-blocked by user
Source: PageFair, Sep 2014
Paid $0.45 CPM on 100M impressions ($45k) and got 35 million productive impressions = $1.28 eCPM
Avg. $0.45 CPM
59 million impressions
- 40%
Source: Turn Oct 2013
Display ads: Premium Publishers
“premium publishers typically earn around $1.35 CPM from open exchanges” Source: DCN, May 2015

6. July 2015 / Page 5marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Premium publishers have real human visitors and low bots
confirmed humans
77% overall average
confirmed bots
2% overall average
declared / search bots
1% overall average
Note that 1% confirmed bots does not mean 99% humans; and vice versa 87%
humans does not mean 13% bots. Using a deterministic approach, there are visits
that cannot be sufficiently, accurately labeled and hence are marked uncategorized.

7. July 2015 / Page 6marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Viewability rate of premium publishers: ~60%
Source: Sizmek, Apr 2015
Source: DoubleVerify April, 2015
Source: Vindico April, 2015
Source: Marketing Science, July 2015
Directly measured, only
premium publishers (60)
60% viewable

8. July 2015 / Page 7marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
100 million impressions
- 60% bots / NHT
Source: Incapsula, Dec 2014
40 million impressions
- 46%
~13 million impressions
ad-blocked by user
Source: PageFair, Sep 2014
Paid $10 CPM on 100M impressions ($1M) and got 13 million productive impressions = $77 eCPM
Avg. $10 CPM
8X higher effective cost
21 million impressions
- 40%
Source: Turn Oct 2013
Video ads
54% in-view
Source: Google, May 2015

9. July 2015 / Page 8marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Three firms corroborate webwide bot levels: ~60%
Distil Networks May 2015 – 59% botsIncapsula Dec 2014 – 56% bots
SolveMedia Jan 2015 – 56% bots

10. July 2015 / Page 9marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Viewability rate of video ads webwide: ~54%
Source: Google, May 2015

11. July 2015 / Page 10marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Top priorities for increasing digital ad productivity
Served ad impressions
-11%Display ads
-23%Video ads
-52%
NHT(“bots”)
Sourced traffic
Source: WhiteOps / ANA Dec 2014
Display ads
Source: Google Nov 2014
-36% Average NHT (bots)
Viewability
-56%Video ads
-80%Views Source: RealVu 2014 “1 in 5 ads are viewable”
-26%
Ad Block usage
Source: Marketing Science 2014
-34.5%
Display ads
Source: PageFair 2014
AdBlocking
-54% Source: comScore Jun 2013
-60% Average Viewability

12. July 2015 / Page 11marketing.scienceconsulting group, inc.
Dr. Augustine Fou
Dr. Augustine Fou – Digital Consigliere
“I advise clients on optimizing their advertising,
across offline and online channels. I assess ROI
by analyzing the measured productivity of
different forms of advertising and advise on re-
allocation of budget to the most productive
types of ads or channels.”
FORMER CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER, HCG (OMNICOM)
MCKINSEY CONSULTANT
CLIENT SIDE / AGENCY SIDE EXPERIENCE
PROFESSOR AND COLUMNIST
ENTREPRENEUR / SMALL BUSINESS OWNER
PHD MATERIALS SCIENCE (MIT '95) AT AGE 23
ClickZ Articles: http://bit.ly/augustine-fou-clickz
Slideshares: http://bit.ly/augustine-fou-slideshares
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/84444-augustinefou