All Impressions Are Not Created Equal

Here's an interesting article in AdAge about display advertising: http://bit.ly/T7kxxc

The online ad industry has made steps in the right direction, by advancing "viewability" as a new standard/metric.  But it's pretty obvious that "viewability" does not necessarily mean the audience actually saw the ad.  It just means pixels loaded into the open window frame.

The argument the author makes is that "noticeability" should also be factored in by addressing the quality of the page on which the ad is placed.  The example included in the article is a great example.  On cluttered pages, we get overwhelmed and essentially have no recollection of what we have seen.  When the page is clean, the ad actually stands out.

What this basically boils down to is that all impressions are not created equal.  Advertisers should pay up for the cleanest pages and demand a discount for cluttered pages.