Read this blog to learn about Video ads best practices and guidelines for publishers to follow in 2023.

Just like the entire industry of online advertising, the domain of online video advertisements is also in a constantly changing environment. Therefore, it becomes imperative that you would have to remain updated with the ever-evolving trends and practices. This would not only help you avoid issues related to ad serving but also instances of penalization.

Social media trends have shown and continue to demonstrate that video content is basically the King. Not just in Social Media but across most digital advertising channels like Connected TV, programmatic video, Programmatic Out of Home, YouTube, etc. In order to capitalize on all this, the brands should make sure that they are approaching their target audience at the point of maximum engagement with an omnichannel approach that is based on strategies. 

The entire scenario is put into perspective by the fact that in 2022, the quantum of videos crossing the internet every second is about to approach 1 million, which will translate into about 82% of the entire online traffic. Also, video consumption via mobile has increased by 100% YoY. In fact, as far as ad spending on social media is concerned, video advertising might account for as much as 35% of all social ad expenditures in 2023. 

Keeping this in mind, we will be discussing the following points to give an insight into the best practices of the video ad industry for the benefit of the publishers:

• Why are Digital Video ads so Effective?
• Video Ad Best Practices that Publishers Should Follow in 2023
• Conclusion

Why are Digital Video ads So Effective?

Video is undoubtedly a rather impactful medium when it comes to storytelling. But it is much more than that. There is actually a neurological reason that creates the compulsion for users to consume videos more than anything else. Research shows that the brain can process images to the extent of 60,000 times faster than text. Keep in mind that we can process only 5 words every second, and the span of our attention is roughly around 8 seconds. So it’s obvious why the videos are becoming increasingly popular. 

In fact, 4 times as many consumers prefer watching videos instead of reading about the same subject over and over again. Also, the fact that video ads are shareable contributes to a great extent to their popularity. In fact, more than 700 videos have been found to be shared by Twitter users per minute. Brands find a great way of expressing themselves through videos, which compels many people to find them worth sharing.

The factor of better storytelling also contributes to their higher click-through rate, apart from their obvious ability to get better engagement.

So, though video ads are more expensive and time-consuming to create, they will narrate your story better and get you better engagement and click-through rates. But for that to efficiently impact your ad campaign, you should consider following some best practices of the industry.

Video Ad Best Practices that Publishers Should Follow in 2023

So let’s take a look at the actionable points for publishers to make the most of video ads in 2023:

Prioritize Viewability

What advertisers look for is effective messaging, and that does not become possible if viewers will not even be able to see the ads. So, effectively, viewability can be defined as the video being viewable to the users at least 50% of the time and should be playing for at least 2 seconds. As far as monetization is concerned, better viewability equates to higher revenue. A lot of advertiser campaigns will not even choose to bid on unviewable opportunities. 

Pay Attention to the Tech Part

Keep a close watch on the loading time of your page as well as your video player. You can directly increase your viewability if you can decrease the loading time of your page and the chances of viewers actually being able to view it increase exponentially. 

The same purpose is served by responsive websites and video players, which are optimized for mobile devices. Especially the mobile optimization factor becomes all the more important because of, the smaller screen size in comparison with desktops and laptops.

It’s All About the Content

It is important to know your audience and the type of content they will find interest in. This is the most important way of keeping your viewers engaged and, at the same time, creating viewable opportunities for serving ads. You should also remember to keep the videos short and precise, as it has been proved time and again that the attention span of viewers is ever-decreasing.

According to Vidyard, in 2022, 58% of users have expressed that they will tend to watch an entire video if it’s anywhere near less than 60 seconds in length. In fact, if the ad can portray the brand’s worth in as much as 6 seconds, it might be able to engage viewers for the rest of the ad length.

Use of Captions

It has been found in surveys that videos which have captions tend to receive 40% more views, and viewers are 80% more likely to watch them till the very end. This also makes the ads all-inclusive as it would cater to the audience who are hard of hearing or deaf. Irrespective of the channel, accessibility is the key for video advertising to be successful.

Take Care of the Placement

In this context, looking at the context will make your job easier. Find out which of your web pages have the most traffic and test by placing dedicated video placements on these pages. Best practices will always be there, but do your own testing and optimization as per your placements.

Place your videos in a central position of the most trafficked area of your website and you will be able to make them viewable to more and more viewers. 

Size Does Matter

The size of the video player is also another important factor. Increasing the size of your video player may increase the rate of viewability by approx.. 15% and in turn, increase the CPM rate by 25%. 

Bidding of Video Headers

Once you have established the relationship with your demand partners, bidding on video headers will become your best way to grow as well as monetize the revenue you can make with them. 

Header Bidding increases the overall revenue by giving the option for bidding to lower tier as well as higher tier partners, as a result of which the CPM reaches a very high level. This will also help you find out small but quality partners who will generate stable revenue for you. Also, for every opportunity, header bidding will generate higher fill rates considering all your partners will be competing, generating higher demand coverage.

Be it waterfall or header bidding, whichever approach you use, you should constantly be pruning the demand sources. What you have to do here is take a look at your metrics and deprioritize the demand sources which have high time-out or opt-out rates. 

Conclusion

So, making the most out of your video advertising will mean paying attention to strategic planning as far as content and placement are concerned. But even more important is the monetization method you choose as per your needs.

It is important to remember that the monetization and publishing landscape is forever changing and you must always remain updated with the latest innovations on the technical side so that you can get the best out of your digital assets.

FAQ

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