Category: Video Advertising

A GUIDE TO OUTSTREAM ADVERTISING

Ever been reading an article on an editorial site and a video ad starts playing when you scroll over it? This is outstream advertising. As they tend to feel more natural in the environment they are displayed, they are also often referred to as native video ads.

What’s so great about outstream video advertising?

• Capable of achieving 100% viewability
• Considered less intrusive
• People view outstream videos for 25% longer than in-stream ads
• The flexibility makes it compatible with nearly any publisher
• Increases click-through rates

What is outstream video advertising?

The word outstream means that this format doesn’t need existing video content to exist. The benefit of this is that publishers don’t need to host videos within their articles to display your ad, and this opens up for a much wider range of publishers to distribute your video ad across.

This ad format offers an engaging ad experience with minimal disruption. The video only plays when the ad is in view. By default, outstream videos are played without sound to cause minimal disruption, but users who wish to engage could opt in to hear the sound.

Compared to in-stream ad format, outstream offers greater viewability and longer viewing times.

A GUIDE TO IN-STREAM ADVERTISING

In-stream video advertising is the most common form of video advertising and comes in three forms: pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll. 

The in-stream format is designed to quickly and efficiently grab users’ attention, making it a firm favourite among many advertisers. 

What’s so great about in-stream video advertising?

• Offers impactful storytelling
• Increases conversion rates
• Drives traffic to your website
• Offers a great return on investment
• Allows you to increase engagement with your audience
• Can help explain complex products

What’s the difference between pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll?

Pre-roll
The most common type of in-stream video advertising. As the name suggests, pre-rolls are ads that are played before an intended video starts and are a great option for brands looking to increase awareness, recollection and purchase consideration.

These ads are typically 15, 30 or 60 seconds long and can be both skippable and non-skippable. To create a successful pre-roll video campaign, it is vital that the first few seconds of the video are as attention-grabbing and engaging as possible. In that way, even if a user doesn’t watch the full ad, they’ll leave with a good impression of your brand.

The right targeting can help display these ads in the right context so that users are likely to engage with the ad.

Mid-roll
Mid-roll video ads play in the middle of a video and tend to be shorter than pre-rolls. As the users have already invested time in watching the video, abandonment rates tend to be lower compared to pre-rolls.

Completion rates tend to be higher for mid-rolls and they are therefore a good option for brands wanting their full ad to be viewed.

Post-roll
Post-roll video ads are the least used in-stream format and play at the end of a video. It may seem counterintuitive to play the ad after a video, but under the right circumstances and with the right strategy, this format can go a long way.

Users are more likely to click through to your page after watching an intended video. They’ve already consumed the video they wanted to watch in the first place, and are ready to jump to another page, so why not yours? For this reason, post-rolls are particularly beneficial when you’ve got a clear CTA.

Interested in hearing more about in-stream video advertising? Speak to our sales team.

To read more about other types of video advertising, read our posts on outstream video advertising and rewarded video advertising.

WIN-WIN: REWARDED VIDEO ADVERTISING

Think you crushed your last candy? Think again.
Ever played a game and ran out of lives and got angry birds at your friends for not sending you an extra life? What if we told you there’s an easy, fast and free way to keep on playing? Just watch a video ad and you’ll get rewarded with a new life…or access to premium content…or virtual currency. You can basically crush candy until the cows from Farmville come home.

This is what opt-in, or rewarded video advertising is about, and we’re all over it.

What is so great about rewarded advertising? 

• The power is with the user. Don’t feel like watching the ad? No problem (but you’ll have to wait a minimum of 30 mins to get a new life. And anyone who has played Candy Crush knows Candy Crush minutes are equal to about 300 real minutes) 
• How great is the brand who just helped you reach that new level? A lot better than your so-called friends who refuse to send you extra lives, that’s for sure.
• It’s a win-win situation where both user and advertiser gets rewarded. In our case, as advertisers who play, it’s like the best thing ever.
• The target audience is broader than you may think with the average mobile gamer aged 38 years and female

Still not convinced? These numbers talk for themselves:

• A Facebook survey showed that nearly three in four gamers would happily watch in-game ads  in order to enjoy free games
• The average CTR (click-through rate) is 7.5 times higher than display ads
• They can be 86% less expensive than video ads overall
•  52% of apps say that this type of video ads are the most lucrative type of in-game advertising
• 71% of players prefer watching in-game video ads than paying for an app
• 62% of players regularly choose to engage with rewarded video apps by choice
• 62% of apps saw user retention increase or maintain after the introduction of rewarded video ads

We’ve had great success with rewarded video advertising for many clients. Check out some of our customer success stories from Shore Projects and Activision Blizzard.