Tierney Rocky's Blog

Ever wonder how effective “likes” on Facebook actually are at estimating the impact a post has had on users? Even worse, what about the impact of an ad that is next to that post? Recently, the term viewability has become a common metric of success for social media. However, although viewability captures one component of ad effectiveness, when used alone, it can lead to a step back for marketers rather than a step forward.

For example, a marketer could tell its client that it is putting its ad display on a  publisher site where it is 100% ‘viewable’. But just because it is viewable does not mean the ideal publisher was chosen, or that the ad has influence amidst the clutter on the page. Therefore, when accumulated across good and bad sites, viewability stats can be manipulated and misunderstood.

These issues, among others, are the reason for skepticism about Facebook advertising. Many companies question whether their money will be well spent if they choose Facebook as their channel for promotions, and the way I see it, this suspicion is well-deserved. As a marketer, I would like to believe in the power of targeted sidebar advertising, especially on a site with such high traffic and continual conversation as Facebook. However as a user of the site, I have a hard time truly believing in the effectiveness of viewability, as I too am guilty of ignoring ads (even when they are relevant to my personal tastes) when I just want to creep my friends’ photos in peace!

Source: http://www.adexchanger.com/data-driven-thinking/optimizing-for-viewability-know-the-risks/