TikTok, Snap, and other apps call for new mobile measurement standards

A coalition of platforms including TikTok, Snap, and gaming platform Unity are calling for better measurement standards for ads that run within mobile apps.

The group, led by analytics company AppsFlyer, is proposing new metrics related to how long ads are viewed within mobile apps, and whether ads are viewed longer than what’s minimally required to be considered a “view” on different platforms.

AppsFlyer and the consortium are introducing new measurement standards based on engagement, with the hope that new metrics will provide greater transparency to the mobile ecosystem, which has faced obfuscation in recent years due to privacy changes.

The proposed new metrics include an “engaged view,” when someone watches a skippable video for a minimum amount of time, or a video is completed in less than a determined number of seconds.

The second metric is called an “engaged click,” when a user engages with an ad and isn’t redirected to an app store or another app. An example could be an ad for a game demo, Karen Cohen, AppsFlyer VP of product marketing, explained.

View from the top: Outside of a few niche but growing metrics, digital advertising is often sold based on views, impressions, and clicks. In the mobile marketing space, there’s no consensus about how long an ad needs to be viewed to count.

• TikTok currently lets advertisers bid on people who view ads for at least six seconds, or who click on the ad.
• Snap, meanwhile, offers the same tools, but considers a view to be only two seconds.

That difference is something that the consortium is trying to account for, Cohen said.

“Viewability has been a problem for a very long time,” she said. “All those different companies have had their own definitions for it; the standard has always been a problem.”

Instead of forcing partners to agree to a minimum standard, the hope is that the engagement-based metrics will help offer more transparency to the ecosystem, Cohen said. Some of the details of the new standards, including the minimum amount of time for some videos to be viewed before being considered “engaged views,” will be determined in early 2024.

The new metrics may help some platforms stand out more than others. In practice, an engaged view will be a stronger metric than just a view, because the user either didn’t skip the ad or spent more time watching it, Francesco Renzo, VP of go to market at Moloco, a DSP that works with mobile apps, said.

“I’d rather give credit to the network with the engaged view than the network with the simple view,” he told Marketing Brew.

Correction 11/22/2023: This piece was updated to clarify that the coalition has no official name and to more accurately describe the involved companies.