Digital advertising has undergone an incredible transformation in recent years, and the rise of video advertising has played a significant role in this shift. According to a report by Statista, US digital video ad spending is expected to reach $78 billion in 2023, up from $55.34 billion just two years ago. This growth is fueled by the increasing popularity of video content among audiences, the effectiveness of video ads in engaging consumers, and the adoption of video content by publishers who have only in recent years discovered how vital video is to their business strategies.
In this blog post, we'll explore how digital publishers are shaping the video advertising landscape and the key factors contributing to their success.
Engaging Video Content
Understanding how to create compelling video content that will resonate with audiences and keep them engaged is key. Visualizing content versus reading an article is always more captivating for audiences and is especially convenient viewing for mobile users. Video is easy to digest and can also help bring in revenue for publishers via subscriptions. Today, it’s easier than ever for publishers to generate video content, as RSS feeds can also be repurposed into moving images.
Programmatic Technology
With programmatic digital video ad spend set to reach $75 billion in 2023, it is the most cost-effective, efficient, and transparent way to buy and sell advertising inventory. In short, programmatic is the automated way for this entire process to happen and is done so via data-driven software in real-time. An increasing number of publishers are adopting programmatic to conduct their business and as a result, more transactions are able to be made.
Ads Within Video Content
There are all kinds of advertising on a web page but video ads within video content have provided publishers with new opportunities to generate revenue. These types of ads play before, during, or after a video and are extremely effective at generating brand awareness because viewers are more likely to remember a brand after watching a video ad versus seeing a standalone video that disrupts reading an article by appearing between two paragraphs. These video ads are sometimes referred to as pre-roll or mid-roll inventory. Moreover, in-stream ads are highly lucrative for publishers in terms of revenue earned.
Cross-Platform Distribution
Although not necessarily new, digital publishers are extremely savvy at distributing their video content across multiple platforms including social media like Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube footprints, streaming services, and other websites via syndication. This allows a publisher to describe their “total audience” as much larger than the amount of visitors to their site.
Some media companies–like Jukin Media and Vevo–are considered to be “MCNs,” or multi-channel networks which means they are third-party service providers that work with multiple channels and content creators to consult and assist them towards success on platforms like YouTube. They may help with everything from audience development and content programming to digital rights management and monetization, or more. These companies get a percentage of every ad sold on YouTube and can help creators amplify their audience.
Using Data for Ad Targeting
As per usual, data is the name of the game. Publishers use a plethora of data sources including demographic, behavioral, and contextual data to serve the most personalized, relevant ads and target users who are most likely to engage. By leveraging various ad targeting strategies, publishers allow advertisers to reach their audiences at the right time, thereby making their inventory more attractive to media buyers with a better return on investment (ROI), and while driving higher revenue.
Growing Subscriptions with Video
We’ve established that video content improves engagement but did you know that it can also drive subscription growth? Creating video content that speaks to a particular audience, whether the content is high-quality/ low quality or about a niche topic, specific videos can attract a wider audience, help publishers earn more revenue, and entice viewers to subscribe. For example, sports publishers often use special video interviews or game commentary to promote their subscription offerings, giving audiences a taste of the type of high-quality content they can access by subscribing. Similarly, news publishers may gate video content from their broadcast channels such as must-see interviews behind paywalls to attract viewers to subscribe.
More Brand Partnerships
Digital publishers understand the importance of aligning their content with a brand’s messaging and on occasion, will work closely with advertisers to create branded video content or sponsored content. This type of partnership is mutually beneficial because publishers have enormous knowledge about their audience and can provide brands with information about what stories will work best. By working together and sharing insights, the end result will inherently be a piece of content that deeply resonates with the target audience. Brand partnerships open up an entirely new stream of revenue and allows publishers to build more long-term relationships with both brands and agencies.
Staying Mobile-First
Americans spend over 50 minutes consuming video content on their mobile phones every day, according to a recent Statista report. As mobile consumption grows, it’s more important than ever for publishers to ensure they are maintaining a mobile-first business strategy and keeping the mobile user experience top-of-mind. For example, video ads that pop up over content while readers are in the midst of reading an article are extremely disruptive and could potentially alienate audiences.
Publishers have been opting to create more vertical video content, particularly on social platforms and on their own mobile apps, as most users hold their phones in portrait mode. This type of video also gives advertisers a larger canvas in which to deliver their message. Vertical video creation is also now taking over newsrooms and helps publishers remain attractive to younger readers who prefer to consume their content on mobile devices.
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