How to expand your ad network with video advertising
If you’re familiar with media buying, you may have noticed that publishers are going all-in for video.
Video ad spending in the U.S. topped $10 billion in 2016, and by 2020, it is expected to exceed $18 billion, according to eMarketer.
For an ad network, however, entering the video advertising battlefield requires a decent amount of preparation. So here’s exactly what you need to know before expanding your ad opportunities and embracing video.
Essential list of Ad Server video features
For starters, take a closer look at the ad server you’re currently using. Sadly, many of them offer poor or non-existent video features..
A proper Ad Server, on the other hand, should allow you to easily launch and manage large, complex, and deeply targeted video advertising campaigns on mobile and desktop within one ad serving app. The following list outlines the necessary features an ad server should offer to make video advertising effortless.
- VAST/ VPAID tags
The actual video advertisement a user sees is wrapped up along with respective static banners and tracking pixels (the little snippets of code that measure viewer engagement: video start, halfway point, completion, click through, etc.) into a larger piece of code called a tag.
The ad server, which stands amid of the media buying process, shares the tag with different publishers to enable delivery and performance tracking across all of them.
There are two types of commonly used tags in video advertising: VAST and VPAID.
VAST is a set of standardized code that is placed on the publisher’s site or in the app. It communicates to the ad server what type of ad to display based on the targeting criteria.
VPAID tags can have more complex elements, like interactive features, and more advanced measurement capabilities to assess viewability and engagement. Most publishers accept VAST tags, but only some accept VPAID. Here’s a quick video from IAB explaining more about tags:
2. Waterfall Algorithm
This algorithm determines the optimal order of ad delivery. It can be adjusted on both server and the advertiser’s side. Waterfalling occurs when a publisher couldn’t sell the premium ad slots that are usually fulfilled through direct ad sales conducted by the publisher’s internal sales team.
During the waterfall-like process for selling this inventory, the demand sources are initiated one at a time, one after another.
Lately, I was often questioned about the so-called “simultaneous waterfall” — a term yielding almost zero results if you google it. Simultaneous waterfall is Epom’s tailored solution that allows to request demand tags simultaneously, thus saving a lot of time for unit to get filled and shown to a specific user.
3. Ad Formats
The ongoing evolution of immersive digital video formats is transforming users’ viewing behavior, taking it from a passive to a highly interactive experience. Among the vast variety of ad formats, it’s worth keeping an eye on the following ones:
Outstream
This is an auto-playing or user-initiated video that is inserted into a traditional display ad space, typically between paragraphs of text or images. They are designed to play only when in view, which ensures extremely high viewability.
Video Slider
This 100% viewable ad format encompasses highly customizable in-content video ads with advanced features. Best part — no video player needed. The unit can be white-labeled for a specific brand or campaign needs, which delivers additional value to advertisers.
In-read
Video unit is placed into the middle of editorial articles for optimal user experience. The video plays when visible on the user’s screen.
Push up/push down video banners
Once the user hovers over the banner, a video expands to a nearly full-screen view and it remains open until user moves his mouse away.
4. Third-party verification
Tracking mediabuys protects clients from bot fraud by cutting off sources of bad traffic.
If your ad server is integrated with one of the these digital ad fraud checkers, you have an additional advantage:
- WhiteOps;
- DoubleVerify;
- MOAT;
- Forensiq;
- The MediaTrust;
5. Customizable Video Player
The best option is to look for an ad server, which allows selling different types of inventory: display ads, mobile ads and video ads (e.g. Epom Ad Server). Such servers can provide you with their own video player to serve ads in a more sophisticated and customizable manner.
Interpret the Key Metrics Wisely
How engagement is measured changes from software to software. The industry — and programmatic ad buying specifically — has been hounded by issues relating to viewability, engagement, and outright fraud in recent years, and the general business press regularly covers the subject. Which metrics should you keep a close look at? Not sure what metrics to track to avoid fraud? Here’s a general overview:
What’s important for Publishers and Advertisers
Once you have video advertising running and have already established control over the important metrics, you should think about your publishers’ and advertisers’ needs.
Though their demands constantly evolve and push forward the advertising standards, their basic needs remain constant.
Publishers
CPM
Video CPMs generally refer to the amount paid by advertisers to have their ads shown (specifically, CPMs indicate how much it costs to show an ad 1,000 times).
Note! When video inventory is sold out with guaranteed placements, CPM is the metric that works. For other publishers, CPM can be very misleading. Many less experienced publishers don’t account for the variable delivery that can occur through video demand sources that affect top-line CPM.
Fill Rate
Fill Rate, represented as a percentage, reflects the conversion rate between actual requests and actual ad impressions for a given period of time. The Fill rate formula is represented like this:
Impressions/requests*100% = Fill rate %
The percentage of ad page loads that are filled by companion ads is important too. A high fill rate indicates that ad responses were delivered regardless of the eCPM of the ad. This gives publishers a better chance of earning greater revenues by displaying as many ads as possible in the desired integrated placements, seizing all the opportunities to show ads.
Non-intrusive ad formats
Use native ad formats: video slider, in-read etc. Deciding which ad formats are best for your website will require some trade-offs. Ultimately, the ad efficiency will depend on your own assets, such as the form of content, your audience preferences and the advertising space on your website.
Advertisers
Ads.txt
This is an IAB-approved text file that aims to prevent unauthorized inventory sales. This file is a plain text file that lists names and information about authorized ad networks, SSPs, and exchangers that have permission to sell the publisher’s inventory. It gives almost ultimate transparency of ad-serving on every website.
Viewability
This online metric or KPI tracks and measures impressions that can only be seen by users on a website. If an advertisement shows up at the bottom of a webpage and the user never actually saw it, the impression is not counted as viewable. Since advertisers are always striving to optimize their campaigns, cutting down the wasteful impressions, specifically impressions that are not actually seen, can help you reduce the ad budgets dramatically.
Fraud-Checking Tools
According to the latest Bot Baseline Report, bots accounted for almost 23% of all video impressions observed.
Yet, bot views are not the only concern. There’s a great variety of other fraudulent actions such as redirected traffic view, injections, hijacked impressions, invalid or intransparent views. One of the top priorities for the advertisers remains reviewing, understanding, and ensuring their ads are being seen by their target audience: humans that is.
Advanced Analytics
Sometimes, ad server’s statistics is just not enough. Advertisers may demand a third-party analytics tool to measure ads across different platforms. For example, MOAT is a third party ad technology company employed by marketers and publishers to track how many of their digital ads were seen by people. Based on MOAT data and analytics, advertisers can buy and sell mobile ads-and ensure they are viewable.
CTR
A recent study shows that digital video will reach nearly $5 billion in ad revenues thanks to new delivery channels, amplified engagement and the highest average CTR of 1.84%. Here are best practices to keep the advertiser’s CTR high:
- Invest in quality production.
- Adjust video content to devices and audience interests.
- Keep content targeting relevant.
- Pay by view or compleаtion to keep impressions and conversions high.
- Display strong calls to action at the beginning and end of videos.
- Tell your story with and without sound
Video advertising is something that will bring you solid revenue if you spend some time to study the rulebook. Hope these tips will help you successfully embrace video advertising!
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