The Media Rating Council (MRC) announced that it has lifted its advisory on “Viewable Impressions” for display advertising. This means the industry can begin transacting on the metric for the first time in a shift from served impressions to those that are essentially guaranteed as actually seen.

The council, along with the IAB’s Emerging Innovations Task Force has released a set of Viewable Impression Measurement Guidelines aimed at showing advertisers exactly how they should be measured. You can find this document here.

The guidelines say that 50% of pixels must be in the viewable portion of a web browser for a minimum of one continuous second to qualify as a viewable display impression.

The IAB says the switch to viewable impressions is “a momentous occasion for consumers, brands, and publishers, adding, “This shift in media currency will help brands connect with engaged consumers, and do the kind of multi-platform campaigns across media properties they’ve been eager to do almost since the internet was born.”

“The Viewable Impression metric represents a huge step forward in the online advertising landscape,” said MRC CEO and Executive Director George W. Ivie. “By adopting this standard for viewable display impressions, the entire marketplace – agencies, marketers and publishers – will benefit from the improved quality and accountability of digital advertising. This shift will ultimately benefit the entire advertising ecosystem by paving the way to better cross-platform campaign planning and analysis.”

Now that the green light has been given, advertisers are going to expect publishers to offer ads via this metric.

Image via YouTube