Buyers Struggle to Find Quality Video in the Open Auction

Increasingly, more buyers are coming to terms with the fact that the open auction is no place for premium video. Earlier this summer, YouTube faced a backlash from some buyers after research outfit Adalytics found that ads often aired not on YouTube videos themselves, but on the Google Video Partner network. Some buyers redirected their YouTube strategies to ensure their ads would not end up on nefarious GVP content, which could be low quality, including in sound-off, obscured video player placements and on websites full of misinformation, per the report. But GVP is just the online video inventory available on the open internet that Google chooses to make available to YouTube buyers. The quality issues the report revealed are not just a YouTube problem, but an internet problem, buyers told Adweek. “More than YouTube, [the report] shines a spotlight on some of the programmatic video supply [issues] because that’s all GVP is,” said one media buyer source, who requested anonymity to protect industry relations. The buyer says their team only buys via direct deals and does not buy online video via the open auction after finding limited quality available there several years ago. Private Marketplace Deals, Billed as More Premium, Have Nearly as Much Made-For-Advertising Inventory Programmatic video has been an area of buyer consternation for years, given the higher prices it commands, compared with display, and the relative lack of inventory available that truly meets buyers' expectations. However, experts say the problem of low-quality inventory has not improved and has even gotten worse. Ad-tech researcher Augustine Fou found online video CPMs in the open exchange can sell for as low as two cents, so cheap that it's unlikely to get a brand a quality placement. The fallacy of quality open exchange video Other buyers share similar experiences. A second media buyer pulled a weeklong sample of an always-on online video campaign, purchased through the open exchange, that was supposed to be only running within sound-on video placements. The truth is we’re in a muted, outstream, autoplay video bubbleAnonymous ad buyer The buyer worked with a verification firm to measure for a given domain or publisher site how many impressions aired with the sound on. Sound played for only 7.6% of domains. For less than 3% of domains, the sound played for more than half of the impressions delivered. It's worth noting that the sample was small, relating to $3,000 worth of ad spend. The verification firm measured only 19% of impressions delivered for audibility, as verification firms typically don’t measure all the impressions in a campaign. But the buyer says it’s reflective of their experience buying online video on the open web. CTV Buyers Are Still Struggling to Know Where Their Ads Ran “The idea that there is a premium video market large enough to scale against the types of budgets currently being pushed into it by media buyers is a fallacy,” the buyer said. “The truth is we’re in a muted, outstream, autoplay video bubble.” As a result, savvy buyers are working to execute as much control over their online video buying as possible, transacting directly with publishers and limiting exposure to the open exchange. However, full elimination of junky video inventory is still difficult. "It’s important to remember that abundant streamed video is relatively new," said Ruben Schreurs, chief strategy officer at media quality ad-tech firm Ebiquity. "Video streaming was very expensive to host and serve, and loading video content on a user device was limited by bandwidth costs and speed. That included video ads, so the economics didn’t work out until about a decade ago. Today, any website can host video content—which serves ads—at near-zero costs, which has definitely worsened the quality of inventory available." Despite these challenges, buyers still want to buy online video. The top 50,000 spending brands increased spend by over 200% on desktop video between 2018 and 2022, while decreasing spend on desktop display by 29% over the same period, according to Pathmatics data shared with Adweek by a media buyer. Several layers of protection The first media buyer said that several years ago, their agency, which is focused on Europe and U.K. regions, tried to serve a campaign where all videos were audible, viewable on completion, and in sufficiently large video players. Ultimately, such little inventory was available that met these criteria that they gave up. “There’s no point in buying online video at scale in Europe,” via the open web, the buyer said. “We look to trade directly with media owners.” Schreurs said the open exchange isn't necessarily a no-fly zone, but buyers have to apply caution. "There isn’t an issue with the open auction model in principle, but the fact is that it’s rife with fraud and mis-declared inventory," he said, adding buyers who choose to buy via this route should add several layers of protection and verification. The long tail is the elephant in the room. It fuels so much and it’s the cause of so many problemsGeoffrey Litwer, vice president of display, Tinuiti Direct deals with publishers may be a safer way to avoid the problems of unviewable, sound-off video inventory. At performance agency Tinuiti, around 60% to 70% of deals are bought direct, said vice president, display, Geoffrey Litwer. But private marketplaces, especially those with multiple publishers bundled by an ad-tech firm, can have their own quality inventory issues. "If the recommended solution from supply-chain sellers, which includes agencies, is to buy viewable audio-on video via PMP, then that’s an easy way to stuff bad quality with decent quality in order to achieve CPM price caps set by advertisers," said Tom Triscari, economist at programmatic consultancy Lemonade Projects. In order to help buyers better sift through online video inventory, trade body the Interactive Advertising Bureau adopted a new classification for video inventory earlier this year, which would help better delineate sound-off, contextually relevant video. However, publishers are still working to adopt the specification. In the meantime, accidentally purchasing unsavory video inventory can be inevitable, especially for buyers looking for massive scale and hitting performance metrics. “The long tail is the elephant in the room,” Litwer said. “It fuels so much, and it’s the cause of so many problems, but everyone still lets it flow through the pipes. It’s really hard for a buyer to stop it.” This article was updated to correct Geoff Litwer's title.