We get it - digital advertising is rife with acronyms, and most of them just sound like gibberish!
But these acronyms actually represent very important Key Performance Indicators on your campaign (KPI's - see there's another one!). So, we created a handy guide to help you understand what each metric means and how to judge your campaign against common industry benchmarks.
Here's a quick review of terms you can expect to see on your Analytics Dashboard, and what they mean to your Campaign:
Impressions: The total number of times that your ad is shown on a screen to a target viewer.
Viewable Impressions: The total number of times that your ad was in-view to a targeted viewer for at least 3-seconds before they scrolled on.
Three seconds is considered an 'engaged view' and is the industry standard for allowing a message to 'burn in' before the viewer moves on.
Viewablity Rate (%): The rate that your ad stays in view for at least 3-seconds. Calculated by dividing viewable impressions by total impressions and converting to a percentage rate.
This industry benchmark is only 22%...but Turn It Blue optimizes all campaigns to achieve a much higher view-ability rate—our internal goal is to keep this rate above 50%.
*For CTV / Streaming campaigns, viewability is always above 99% because it is a guaranteed view!
Viewable Click-Thru Rate (vCTR): The rate of how frequently someone who views your ad then clicks on it. Calculated by dividing total clicks by total viewable impressions, then converted to a percentage rate.
The industry benchmark is 0.08%*.
*For CTV / Streaming campaigns, clicks are very rare because ads are most often shown on a big-screen TV. In the rare circumstance it is shown on a tablet or mobile device, you may see a few stray clicks.
Cost Per 1,000 Impressions (CPM): CPM stands for 'cost per mille' which is the latin word for 'thousand'. This one is pretty simple: It is simply the raw cost of delivering 1,000 total impressions.
Industry benchmarks for CPM range widely depending on the ad type (display, video, or CTV), placement location, how much targeting is layered on top of the the placement, and a few other considerations. You can click the following links to learn more about what goes into the final CPM cost and the standard ranges of CPMs you can expect.
Cost Per View (CPV): Cost per view is tied to viewable impressions in much the same way that CPM is tied to overall impressions, but for CPV we see the raw cost of EACH individual ad view (that was in-view for at least 3-sec), rather than the cost for 1,000 impressions.
The industry benchmark for CPV is typically between $0.02 - $0.05 for display and video ads. For CTV ads the cost is higher (because all CTV ads are 100% viewable), and the benchmark is between $0.04 - $0.10.
On-Target Frequency: The average number of times that your targeted audience saw your ad(s) during your campaign.
This metric will vary based on your audience size and total budget, so there are no standardized benchmarks industry-wide...but we advise trying to aim for an on-target frequency of at least 6x for the best chance of message 'burn-in'. To figure out what budget will help you accomplish this for your target audience, click here to read about our Budget Estimator Tool.
Video Completion Rate (VCR): Wait! Ive heard of this one before!
(Image Credit: HouseBeautiful)
Okay, no, not that contraption. But worth the trip down memory lane...
The video completion rate (VCR) is the percentage of all video ads that play through their entire duration to completion. The industry benchmark to strive for is 60%*.
If your video is not reaching the benchmark VCR rate, it means you should re-evaluate your creative and determine if there is a way to make it more engaging for your audience. The rule of thumb with most videos is that you have to 'hook' the viewer in the first 3-seconds to keep them engaged through the full video. You may need to edit your creative or reach out to our Creative Shop for professional assistance if your VCR rate is not what you want it to be.
*For CTV / Streaming campaigns, video completion rates should be above 95%.