Earlier this month, the New York Times reported the staggering finding that, “more than half of online video ads are not seen, either because they are buried low on web pages or run in tiny, easily ignored video players on those pages, or run simultaneously with other ads.”

From our perspective, the Times report was long overdue. Perhaps more than anything, it exposed the dangers of navigating the ad-buying waters alone or with other, less than qualified firms.

The good news for DSPolitical clients is that we identified these issues long ago and implemented several solutions to protect their ad-buying dollars. Here are a few of the ways DSPolitical avoids these industry-wide problems and makes certain our clients ads are actually being seen by their intended audiences:

• Our Exclusive Filter: DSPolitical is the only voter targeted ad network to filter out “cookies” that do not have a match to actual people who have been verified as registered voters in the Catalist voter file. This practice is the foundation of DSPolitical’s network and inherently protects our clients from “bots” (NOT real human users), which artificially inflate impression rates. Such work keeps our client’s ads in front of their real targeted voters.

• User vs. Host Initiated: DSPolitical only buys user initiated, non-skipable pre-roll video. That means targeted voters only see client ads when the play button is pressed on a video the user has chosen to view. In other words, we do not buy pre-roll on those annoying websites that automatically play videos when a webpage is loaded.

• Brand Safety: DSPolitical works with several brand safety partners to make certain client ads do not run on unacceptable websites. In fact, we actively block websites that are suspicious, pornographic, filesharing, fraudulent, spam, phishing, or otherwise suspect.

• Technology with Built-In Ad Verification: DSPolitical purchases video inventory only from vendors with built-in viewability technology who partner with comScore, Moat and Integral Ad Science. The industry leaders who provide accredited viewability. Beyond this, DSPolitical’s ad serving technology includes a native ad verification solution scanning every single ad served. These steps confirm that client ads run only where targeted voters are most likely to see them.

That may sound like a bunch of technological mumbo-jumbo but it simply means DSPolitical had the foresight to implement a variety of safeguards that help make sure our clients are getting what they pay for.

That’s because we want them to win.

Unlike many in the digital ad space, DSPolitical is a proudly progressive company. Our partners and staff are progressive. Our clients are exclusively Democratic and progressive. And our voter data is maintained by Catalist exclusively for progressive causes. At our core, we want progressive causes and Democratic candidates to be successful. That means making sure client ad dollars are used to reach and impact intended targets in the most efficient and technologically sound ways possible.

In the end, we hope the Times will stay on this story because it clearly demonstrates the unique value of DSPolitical to progressives and Democrats alike.

We remain committed to providing our clients with the digital advertising advantage they need to win and are happy to discuss the strategies that best fit your needs and answer any questions you may have.