Q is for Quality Environments
For the next in our A-Z of adtech we take a look at how to decide whether a site is quality/premium.
If you work in the advertising sector you’ve most likely heard of quality or premium environments. This idea of quality environments grew and really took off around the time that negative stories around social media first emerged in the press.
Where did this all begin?
Stories like fake news being spread through Facebook, and ads appearing alongside extremist and degrading videos on YouTube have really driven awareness for advertisers and brands around where their ads appear.
We now have well-know advertising moguls, brand leaders, multiple reports and research studies from across the globe that confirm the idea that advertising in quality environments is an effective way to reach consumers and build brand recognition.
“45% of consumers trusted advertising they saw on original content sites” (AOP and Comscore).
“Consumers are 50% more likely to engage with advertising encountered in a quality environment” (Newsworks).
“Ads run on trusted titles are 85% more likely to drive customer acquisition” (IPA)
“Ads viewed in high-quality mobile web environments were perceived 74% more favourably than the same ads seen in low-quality environments” (IAS).
This is all well and good, but how do you define quality?
The difficulty with quality environments is that everyone sees quality differently. Your age, ethnicity, background and gender can all affect what sites you visit and how you define quality.
At Unruly, in order to decide whether a website can be classed as quality or not, we ask ourselves five questions.
1. Does it contain user-generated content (UGC)?
Social media and sites like Wikipedia and Quora are all powered by UGC. Usually, with these sites, anyone can contribute and in many cases, the content is not audited meaning it could contain false claims.
2. Is it produced by professionals?
By professionals we mean are people paid to run the site. Most news sites are considered premium because they pay journalists to report and write stories which are then audited and published on the sites.
3. Is it industry compliant?
There are a number of industry standards that now exist to combat fraudulent sites. Initiatives from trade bodies like the IAB, like ads.txt, help advertisers and brands know which sites have passed certain guidelines and committed to meet specific standards.
4. Does it contain adult or discriminatory content?
If a site contains adult or discriminatory content like hate speech or extremism, it’s a good sign they aren’t a premium site. If you spot content that you wouldn’t want to be associated with it’s a good sign that you should steer clear.
5. How does it look?
It may sound simple but in a lot of cases, you can tell within the first few seconds of landing on a site whether it looks quality or not. Sites that contain more ad space than content, have multiple pop-up windows or take forever to load are all signs that the site is likely not somewhere you’d want your ads to sit.
There are of course many more questions you can ask to asses whether a site is quality or not, but these 5 questions are a great start.
We’re lucky enough to work with some of the globe’s leading premium publishers. Click here to discover the full list.
