Finding the Right Mix of Online Video Ads to Display Ads for Optimal Results

May 06, 2010

an time-targeted mix of video ads and display ads can deliver optimal results

A recent ComScore research that showed only 16% of internet users clicked on a single ad during March 2009. That is down from 32% two years earlier.

So is it time to stop analysing CTR’s so religiously, and for the industry to adopt new ways to measure the relative success or failure of online campaigns? I believe the answer is a resounding yes, and in the case of video pre-roll advertising, it should have never been measured that way in the first place.

So ComScore set out to see if display and video advertising had any tangible benefits beyond the click. They used a test and control panel, and a series of brands, and measured the percentage of the control group that visited the advertiser’s website without seeing any advertising, and then looked at the test group, and measured the same.

Looking at ad campaign results:

if the test group were exposed to video advertising between 1-5 times it resulted in a 3.3% uplift in visits to the advertiser’s website, without clicking on any advertising.
Straight display advertising achieved a 1.2% uplift in visits, if the consumer was exposed between 1-5 times.
With 6-9 exposures the percentage uplift dropped for video to 2.9% and increased for display to 2.4%
With 10+ exposures the uplifts were 4.3% for video and 3.8% for display.

What’s interesting is that video is a clear winner when measuring 1-5 exposures, but display effectiveness catches up with more impressions. This is great news for the industry, as it will no doubt help convince marketers that online brand advertising can increase awareness and spark the quest to find more information, even if users don’t chose to click as soon as they see the advertising.

It also looks as if a mixture of video and display creative are along the right track to deliver immediate uplift, as well as slow burn uplift. Leveraging automated video commerce solutions like Activate can tubroboost ROI for online marketing initiatives.