Brand marketing executives are starting to pay attention to the buzz around online video advertising, but really, it needs to be a focus. The seismic audience shift from TV to video viewing now has hundreds of millions of consumers ready to engage with brand messages across multiple screens.
But why does this shifting audience and the technology propelling them create such a once-in-a-generation opportunity for marketers? Here are four reasons....
1) People crave relevance
In a recent study by Ad Age and Google, consumers were asked about which features were most important in getting them to interact with ads.
The results are encouraging for video advertisers because it turns out consumers want “…information on products or services that I want to learn about and the ability to interact.”
It’s about reaching viewers with relevant messages and enabling them to engage on their own terms. The prime way advertisers can create and deliver relevant messages is by combining two powerful technologies (both integrated in Sightly’s platform): ad personalization and audience micro-targeting.
Interactivity is inherent in clickable online video but it’s incumbent on advertisers to encourage interaction by following best practices and including compelling offers and calls to action in their ads.
2) Relevance drives engagement
Online video ads actively engage consumers and move them to take action, especially if the messages speak to them and they can choose to watch or skip them, like with YouTube’s TrueView video ad format that doesn’t force the viewer to watch an ad but allows them to skip after five seconds.
A couple telling indicators are the 94% of people who engage with ads (e.g., choose to watch and/or click on them) frequently make their buying decisions based on online advertising and the 40% “ad engagers” who buy online often or daily. In other words, brand CMOs, take note: people who engage with online video ads buy stuff.
Ads with relevant forms of engagement promise to deliver superior engagement and purchase intent results. Advertisers can better align themselves with consumers’ future purchase decisions by scaling relevant ads to meet the needs of viewers across all screens. It’s a numbers game: relevant ads increase views, increase engagement and ultimately, increase sales.
3) Views lift other interactions
Brands that use video advertising to gain relevance and engagement build deeper brand relationships quicker. This is due in part to something we call the multiplier effect, where viewers of online commercials also engage with advertisers’ other media during video ad campaigns, producing surprising increases in “indirect” activity across the marketing mix in the forms of social validation, organic and paid search lift, website traffic, etc. Moreover, we find this occurs whether target viewers watch the full ad or just part of it before skipping it.
A Microsoft advertising study showed that users who spent time interacting with ads make 34% more brand term searches and are 70% more likely to visit the brand site. We’ve seen this happen in every video ad campaign; 100% to 200% increases in brand term searches are not unusual.
4) Campaign data produce actionable insights
Target, Tailor and Track—that’s the video advertiser’s mantra. Best practice is to repeat the cycle over and over to maximize performance:
- Target your precise audience using micro-targeting technology that delivers your personalized message to the viewers based on myriad criteria including location, demographics, viewing context, interests and behaviors, keywords, etc.
- Tailor your message for each viewer micro-segment by creating personalized ad versions for them.
- Track your results, analyze the data and use insights to continually optimize message creative, audience targeting and budget allocations.
Every viewer interaction with online video ads is measured and captured, providing a trove of rich data that informs not only the video ad campaign management but provides insights to align and change messaging on the fly based on the specific target— which changes the way consumers interacts with your brand.
Brands can now use actual data about the viewability of their commercials, which campaigns resonate with which micro-targeted consumers, optimize in real time, and have a clearer understanding of KPI’s at every level.
The next big thing is here now
Online video advertising is building critical mass as brand marketers realize the exponential value it bring to the marketing mix in terms of creating greater brand relevance, engagement, the “multiplier effect” and generating rich data that continually improve performance and provide deep insights to their audiences.
If you’d like to learn more, let’s chat. Just click the button to schedule a call. We love to talk about this stuff!