Online video advertising is the fastest growing digital media, with worldwide revenues projected to hit $5 billion next year. This growth has created a lot of opportunities but also a lot of confusion.
One area of confusion for advertisers and agencies is just what to ask for in an online video advertising RFP. As a result, many RFPs are not as specific as they could be or they tend to fall back on familiar approaches that have worked for years with TV and traditional digital media.
A Fresh Look at RFPs
We’ve analyzed scores of RFPs for online video advertising and listened to many brand marketers and agency media strategists to really understand what they want from online video ad campaigns.
And we’ve conferred extensively with industry colleagues about what online video can deliver that other media can’t.
Now, we’ve distilled what we learned into a document that hopefully helps advertisers and agencies easily create RFPs that produce great responses and ultimately, great campaign results.
We call it The Perfect RFP.
Eight Steps to Video Ad Bliss
Of course, this guide is a work in progress and we welcome your feedback to improve and clarify it. And even though it takes several pages to explore all the steps, we think anyone could easily write a great one-page online video RFP using this template.
Here’s the quick summary:
- Step 1—the Campaign Backstory—is optional but we’ve found that setting the stage is extremely helpful in focusing providers’ creative ideas and strategies.
- Step 2 is to articulate the Campaign Objectives. When it comes to OLV, our recommendation is to always include Awareness, Brand Lift and Audience Verification as objectives. Many clients also want Response and Actions objectives as well, which are great as long as the KPIs and Strategies follow.
- Step 3 is to indicate how you want to measure campaign success—i.e., the KPIs. And here is where you have the best opportunity to get the greatest value from what OLV ads can do better than any other media.
For example, we feel the best practice is to always REQUIRE Completed Views…and then PREFER that those views be “chosen” vs. “forced.” Why? When viewers choose to watch an ad, engagement shoots through the roof by 75% or more.
Step 4 is to ask for specific Campaign Strategies. Here’s where you separate the diamonds from the rough when it comes to providers.- Steps 5 and 6 are to provide your preferences for optimizing the campaign and reporting results.
- Step 7 is about the Budget. Not just how much but also how scalable, where the money comes from and how it should be allocated across line items.
Step 4 is to ask for specific BTW, we’ve found that the dollars allocated to online video advertising are often arbitrary, so we’ve made it easy to formulate campaign projections with our Media Planning Toolkit. Now creating budgets or calculating market reach is a breeze. Contact us for more details.
- Finally, Step 8 is for articulating your Added Value requirements or allowing providers the opportunity to describe their value adds.
Get Your Copy and Share It
Advertisers and agencies expect those dollars that are shifting to online video advertising campaigns to perform. We hope this guide will help them ask for proposals that drive exceptional campaign performance and really deliver on video advertising’s promise.
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