Vivvix’s Mobile Web measurement covers ads served on mobile, browser-based sites in the U.S.

Coverage

Vivvix systematically collects Mobile Web advertising on approximately 3,800 main domains, subdomains, and content pages. On an ongoing basis, Vivvix reviews coverage to continuously add sites, manage for redirects, confirm ad supported environments, and ensure URLs are still live.

Ad Collection and Classification

Mobile Web ads are collected using both a spider/bot technology and human panel, operating interchangeably in both an iOS and Android mobile smartphone browser environment. Outline below are the collection methods for each.

Spider/Bot Collection

Vivvix’s spiders systematically monitor and collect ads served on each site. Sites are crawled multiple times throughout the day. All sites are monitored from a central facility, which is augmented by a second tier of spidering from within 50 top local markets. The local market spiders visit local market sites for the purpose of collecting geo-targeted advertising.

A spider starts at a specific entry URL and navigates through the site by following page links. Once on a web site page, the spider examines the markup, identifies every image and assigns each image a signature which uniquely identifies it. The signature of each collected image is compared against signatures maintained in a master library of previously detected advertising and non-advertising images.

If a match is found and confirmed as advertising material, a record is entered into the occurrence file indicating the site, the date/time of collection and the associated Vivvix Central details (e.g., product name, brand, advertiser and category).

If a matching signature is not found in the master library, the spider has potentially found a new advertisement. The unknown signature, image and markup are saved and routed to an editor for visual examination. Once identified as either a valid ad or a non-ad, the signature is sent to the master library for permanent storage and future use in the matching process. For a new ad, the editor classifies it into our proprietary Vivvix Central database of advertised products. A record is entered into the occurrence file indicating the site, the date/time of collection and the associated Vivvix Central details (e.g., product name, brand, advertiser and category).

Panel Collection

Panel collection is driven by live human interest and behavior of 1.2 million panelists, comprised of 850 thousand desktop and 375 thousand mobile panelists. While the panel is representative of a cross section of consumers throughout the United States, the panel is fully anonymized, and as such personally identifiable information is not collected, such as demographic and geo-location details. Ads are passively collected as panelists organically browse the internet, using a similar imaging matching algorithm deployed in the spider collection for the purpose of classification.

Placement Detail

Vivvix collection of Internet Display activity captures a variety of details pertaining to the ad placement. Outlined below are key dimensions available in Vivvix’s reporting taxonomy.

Ad Types and Sizes

Mobile Web advertising of all sizes and types are captured and reported. This includes ads with text and/or images, whether static or dynamic (e.g., rich media). It also includes, but is not limited to, standard ad sizes and units defined by the IAB.

Video ads appearing in streaming video content are excluded from our definition of ‘display’.

Transaction Type

When available, Vivvix collects information about the type of buy (direct vs. indirect), identifying the intermediaries participating in the deployment chain and defining the transaction type (programmatic direct, programmatic RTB, etc.). Each valid ad occurrence is used to identify ads served from a defined list of ad networks. When a match is found, the ad network identification is added to the record in the occurrence file. (Note: our reporting rules do not permit (1) site level detail within ad networks, or (2) spend estimates for ad network activity).

Ad Impression Estimation

Vivvix measures ad impressions using a combination of engagement and experience metrics for each site. Engagement metrics are provided by SimilarWeb for site visitation, average pages per visit, and average duration per visit (Prior to 2017, mobile page view estimates were provided by comScore Mobile Metrix)

Experience metrics measure ad exposure for each site and are derived using industry benchmarks (Google ad rules for banner and video placement), observational data obtained from spider collection, and primary research replicating the site ad-to-content experience.

For Mobile Web, on a site-by-site basis, Vivvix uses engagement and experience metrics to calculate ad impressions by taking the product of Mobile Visitation and Average Pages per Visit to derive Total Page Views, which is then adjusted by a ratio reflecting the ad-to-content experience to estimate total impressions delivery. Vivvix then analyzes the sample of a site’s spidered ad occurrences to determine the distribution of ad impressions for all brands participating on that site. Each spidered ad occurrence that was collected across all pages and the full period of monthly coverage is assigned a weighted ad impression for that site. This weighted value becomes the projected impression estimate for that unique ad occurrence and the brand associated with that occurrence.

Ad Expenditure Estimation

Monthly ad expenditures are calculated by applying a cost-per-thousand (CPM) estimate against ad impression values:

Expenditure = (CPM) * (Impressions / 1000)

Site specific CPMs are aggregated from multiple resources, including published rate cards, publisher survey submissions, third-party analysis, and ad tech intermediaries and aggregators, where available. Rates are analyzed to determine the relative value of inventory served on a specific site. It is important to highlight that Vivvix counts all collected activity as paid media, including make goods, bonus, and added value inventory. Vivvix’s CPMs generally reflect a more premium, direct buy for a site’s inventory.

In instances where a site-specific CPM is not available, Vivvix uses the site category average. In rare instances where a site category average is not available, Vivvix will use the average for the media type.

Preliminary Expenditure Estimation

Prior to the release of final monthly ad expenditures, preliminary estimates are updated daily and based on a weighted value informed by the most current month of final spending estimates. Weighted values are defined at the property level. In instances where the most current month of final spending is not available at the property level, the weighted average for the total media channel will be used. Brands reported in preliminary daily expenditure estimates reflect confirmed sighting of ads served on the site.