This month, Adobe released its first Digital Video Advertising report. The 2012 report shares data extracted from over 2.5 billion video ads that Adobe served in the second half of 2011 across multiple premium video providers and its customers, such as MLB, Fox News, E!, Comcast, and more.
The 2012 Digital Video Advertising report makes it clear that the number of video loads is going up and viewers are becoming more tolerant of online video ads. Some highlights from the report’s key findings follow:
- Mid-roll video ads have the highest completion rates at 87%. That’s 20% higher than pre-rolls and 30% higher than post-rolls.
- Video ads served to mobile audiences get higher completion rates (94%) than they do in any other environment.
- The completion rate for video ads shown during live content is 85%, which is 23% higher than ads shown in video-on-demand content.
- On average, 5.5 video ads are served within long-form, professional content with a completion rate of 70% vs. 3.4 ads per stream for short-form (less than 5 minutes in length) professional content, 0.6 ads per stream for long-form user-generated content, and 0.4 ads for short-form user-generated content.
- Completion rates in professional content are higher (72%) than completion rates in user-generated content (63%).
- Most overlay ads are delivered with user-generated content while most linear ads are delivered across professional content.
- Mid-roll linear ads in professional content are performing better than mid-roll linear ads in user-generated content.
- Click through rates are higher for ads in video-on-demand content (2.17%) than live content (0.43%).
This study shows that broadcast and online ad delivery and consumption are becoming increasingly similar. Completion rates for pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll video ads increased between the first and second halves of 2011, and viewers are becoming more and more willing to watch ads in order to get access to premium video content.
Online video advertising might still be in its infancy, but these trends show that the practice isn’t necessarily viewed as negatively by consumers as brands might think. The trade off has to be perceived by consumers as valuable enough for them to sit through an online video ad in order to view content. The trick for brands is striking the right value balance.
What do you think? Leave a comment and share your thoughts on the state of digital video advertising in 2012.
Image: Adobe
Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.
