Publishers Increase Video, Hybrid Advertising Formats
Publishers are increasing video ad capabilities on their sites while advertisers come online with hybrid agendas, an Advertising.com survey finds.
The number of publishers supporting video ad formats has increased by 80 percent since last year, according to Advertising.com’s fourth annual online publisher survey. Along with the increase in broad-based publishers offering video advertisements, 100 percent of sites with streaming content said they are monetizing it with video advertising.
“The big finding for this year is the hype for video and whether or not it’s going to take off, but now we’ve proved that more publishers are going to be supporting it,” said Lauren Weinberg, director of research for Advertising.com. “The :15 spot was supported by more publishers than the :30 spot, which is also not surprising because we’re finding that shorter ad units work better online.”
Other findings include that as video advertising gains support from both publishers and advertisers, text links are losing market share. The three-year trend of traditionally offline advertisers moving dollars to online properties is expected to continue as marketers adopt hybrid buys that mix both branding and direct-response units.
“We had been seeing for the past few years that text links were the leading ad format and they dropped off this year. I think that’s because text links are being linked to direct response objectives and we’re seeing a decrease in that,” said Weinberg. “The majority of the advertisers coming online are interested in hybrid campaigns that [pursue] branding and direct response objectives simultaneously.”
User-generated content saw incremental growth, though it is expected to continue in uptake. The category is still viewed as risky because content is not effectively filtered or monitored by publishers. “A lot of publishers have user-generated content on their site, and it’s an area where there is more to come. Publishers do really like it. It helps create loyalty and stickiness for the site, but the one concern is how to police the content,” Weinberg said.
Advertising.com’s fourth annual online publisher survey was conducted through an e-mail questionnaire which received approximately 100 responses. The survey asks about expected ad sales for the coming year.
