In an effort to add another layer to its analytics, VivaKi has partnered with comScore to offer its VivaKi Nerve Center Audience on Demand users ad viewability metrics that measure how often a digital ad is actually viewed (as opposed to just served).

A “viewable” advertisement displays at least 50 percent of its pixels on a user’s screen and remains there for at least one second.

This new metric will allow VivaKi Nerve Venter customers to pre-optimize their campaigns using insights about which of their ads are most viewable to end users, and thus performing better. However, advertisers will need to opt-in to use the new measurement.

In January, comScore reported that nearly 31 percent of online ads that were purchased by the 12 major brands it studied were not viewable. Just last week, the Media Rating Council accredited comScore’s Campaign Essentials metrics, which include exciting new metrics like brand safety, engagement, in-country geographic delivery and removal of non-human traffic, in addition to viewability.

Measuring viewability over simply impressions is a testament to the progress that has been made in ad analytics. In fact, last year, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) said that it wanted the ad marketplace to begin moving towards viewability as the standard metric for studying ad impressions. Another industry coalition wants to get it recognized as the standard by the beginning of 2013.