At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Google made a couple of big advertiser-related announcements. For one, they’ve added over 30 broadcasters, premium publishers, and major brands to Google Partner Select, the premium video service they launched last year. Second, they’re rolling out viewability reporting across their ad platforms.

The Google Partner Select Marketplace is a programmatic marketplace for connecting publishers who wish to invest in “top-quality” video with brands that want to buy against it. New broadcast and publisher brands include CBS Interactive, Fox News, Discovery, Animal Planet, TLC, HGTV, Food Network, Cooking Channel, Travel Channel, Hearst Television, Rolling Stone, Us Weekly, Men’s Fitness, and PGA Tour. Brand advertisers include Allstate, BMW and Netflix.

“In our early tests, we’ve seen video ads running through Google Partner Select driving significant audience engagement with 74% video ad completion rates, demonstrating that when brands pick the right moments, engagement follows,” says Neal Mohan, Vp of Video and Display Advertising at Google.

Regarding viewability reporting, Google says it will start offering it to all marketers and publishing using the DoubleClick platforms for video campaigns in the coming days. It’s also coming soon to reserved inventory on YouTube, including all of Google Preferred, across desktop and app views.

Eventually (as in the coming months), Google will start offering the ability to target viewable impressions in DoubleClick, and the ability to buy only viewable video impressions across the Google Display Network. Then, later this year, Google says it will report on audibility for video ads and the total amount of time an ad was viewable.

“We’re adhering to the industry definition for video viewability (as set by the MRC and Making Measurement Make Sense): 50% or more of the video being on screen for two seconds or longer,” says Mohan. “Viewability, though, is just the starting point, not an end in and of itself. With the confidence that their ads can be seen by a real person, marketers can then go on to strive for–and measure–what really matters, impact and engagement. Along with our commitment to viewability, we’ll continue our investments in other ways to help marketers drive engagement, like our TrueView format (where advertisers only pay when consumers engage) and Brand Lift surveys, which help marketers measure the impact of their campaigns on their branding goals.”

Google first expressed its aspirations to improve viewability reporting over a year ago. Last month, the Interactive Advertising Bureau released its State of Viewability Transaction 2015 report, which offers guidance on how to manage the “shift of digital media’s audience currency to 100 viewability.” According to that, 100% viewability measurement simply isn’t possible. Instead, it recommends 70% as the best threshold for buyers and sellers. This year, it says, will be a year of transition.

Image via Google