Sometimes, yes. Platforms such as Adform allow you to measure metrics such as Avg. Viewability Time (indicates how long the ad was visible on the user’s screen). But it mostly depends on what kind of ads we are running.

If we are talking about small display ads, viewability time is likely less relevant. Ads are placed next to page’s actual content and therefore many users might stay looking for the page content for a significant time, yet not really looking at the ads. Banner blindness, right? Even though the ads could be on the view for a significant time, users are often looking at the page content and paying little attention to the ads.

For large display ads and especially High impact formats that cover most of the user’s screen, viewability time is often a more relevant metric. Users need to scroll through these ads and a significant viewability time indicates the users are actually stopping to see the content of the ads (such as video) or interacting with the ads.

So I would say in general, the bigger the ad is, the more relevant metric the viewability time is. Especially if the user needs to scroll through the ad to continue consuming the page’s content. If they stopped when they saw the ad, that indicates they are paying attention to the ad, and the viewability time becomes more relevant.

So what is a good average viewability time on High impact ad formats? According to Adnami, the benchmark for Average Time In View (Avg. TiV) for TopScroll Mobile ad format is 2,8 seconds. You can find all benchmarks from Adnami’s platform (requires login). According to Adnami, the benchmarks available in the Adnami platform are representative of a global benchmark.