Photo credit: ColourBlindfilms
Online video, already popular with consumers, is gaining greater acceptance among marketers and advertisers.
Advertising agencies are feeling more optimistic about the benefits of video advertising, according to a survey by STRATA, which provides a media buying/selling software platform for advertisers and marketers. The first quarter survey indicates that 44% of agencies are confident about obtaining a good value for online video ad purchases – a 43% increase from the previous quarter. The number of agencies that are unsure about online video ROI declined 25%.
In addition, 65% of the agencies say they are more interested in streaming video sites like Hulu and YouTube than a year earlier, and 82% say it is very important or important to access online video sites such as YuMe, Videology, or Tremor.
Although focusing on advertisers, the survey highlights the growing fondness of videos in general. Even as videos become more popular, however, marketers face challenges in measuring their effectiveness.
Even determining their impact on revenues is difficult. Video content is not delivered or experienced the same way as digital ad campaigns, writes Jonathan Hunt, vice president, global marketing, at Vox Media, for AdAge. Measuring the impact on revenues relies on loyalty cards or exit surveys and the participation of both the customer and the retailer. Accuracy of results can vary depending on the size of the survey sample.
Questions on Methods of Counting Views
The common video-viewing metrics face issues due a lack of widely accepted definitions. Lack of a standard definition for views, the video marketing version of reach, means tracking views can be difficult. Some video players or platforms define a view as a video watched for at least a second; others don’t consider it a view unless run for three seconds or more. A video viewing of one or three seconds makes it almost impossible for the viewer to identify the brand or product being sold. How worthwhile is that view?
The Media Rating Council states that video ads are “viewable” if half their pixels are in view for at least two seconds. A STRATA consumer survey reveals that 75% percent of viewers need at least three seconds to identify the product. Only a quarter of viewers can identify the brand in 1-2 seconds. Almost half (44%) need at least four seconds. Some advertisers and their agencies have yet to catch on that products must be shown immediately in online videos to optimize value.
Viewability is also subjective. Most brands don’t consider a video is viewable if it’s below the “fold” and not physically viewable on the page. Some don’t consider video viewable if it starts automatically or if the sound is muted.
Mind share, or general awareness, could be one of the most important measures of success. It might also be the most subjective, Hunt says. It’s typically manually measured by surveys or by analyzing the sentiment of a sample.
Engagement Metrics
Engagement is another key metric for video measurement. The problem is the large and apparently growing number of engagement-related metrics. Marketing leaders typically cite retention rates, shares, comments and likes as the most important. Retention is gaining more importance. A main question for marketers: How many people actually watched the entire video?
Facebook recently introduced “time on task” as a measure of the level of engagement of the reader or viewer. That metric would seem to be the most relevant piece of data to gauge reach and message delivery for online videos. Most site owners cannot or do not yet share that data – maybe because they fear that the data will reveal how few viewers actually see significant portions of online videos.
For online video to flourish as a marketing and advertising media, measurement standards for video viewability and engagement are mandatory – ASAP.
Bottom Line: More marketers are embracing video and are increasingly confident about its ROI benefits. Site owners and advertisers must address the lack of accepted definitions for commonly used metrics – and jointly develop new metrics that authenticate the actual reach and impact of online videos.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
