Google AdSense's product management director answers the big questions about developing a strategy to reach specific consumers through targeted, multi-platform online video ads.
A quarter century after it "killed the radio star" (and gave birth to the MTV generation), video is vaulting online advertising to a whole new level of effectiveness. Thanks to its precision targeting, its multi-sensory engagement with consumers, its multiple delivery mechanisms and its unparalleled tracking capabilities, online video advertising is fast becoming an essential tool for today's savvy marketer.
Video advertising falls into two models-- lean-forward advertising and lean-back advertising. The lean-back implementation of video is more akin to TV-style entertainment-- the viewer "leans back" and watches the ad. However, there is one key difference -- the viewer's ability online to start and stop the video with the click of a mouse. This provides the distinct advantage of making the ads less intrusive.
In contrast, lean-forward ads quite literally cause the viewer to lean forward to interact with the content on the screen. More fully leveraging the interactive nature of the internet, they provide users with a richer and more engaging experience. For example, a lean-forward entertainment ad could allow the user to watch the trailer of a movie, learn more about the actors and crew, find directions to the nearest theater showing the film and even buy tickets for a 7 p.m. screening. Companies like Eyeblaster, PointRoll and Unicast have all made a business of delivering this genre of lean-forward advertising.
Whether you select a lean-forward or lean-back model, online video advertising allows you to choose from multiple delivery vehicles. Video ads can be incorporated within existing ad units on a web page, sent via email, sent over mobile phones, embedded in video games or embedded within video streams. As media consumption becomes more fragmented, the ability to deliver online video advertising across multiple platforms and on specific content makes it possible to reach more of the specific consumers you want.
So why care about video?
Is online video advertising a passing fad; the digital equivalent of Mike ("A Flock of Seagulls") Score's distinctive but long outdated hairstyle? To the contrary, it is proving to be a powerful branding tool. According to the Dynamic Logic MarketNorms database, online video ads can provide the same branding effects of traditional banner ads, which provide far fewer impressions. On average, a video ad will be three to eight times more effective at increasing brand awareness than a regular banner ad. The same study showed that video ads can also provide significant percentage point increases in other branding metrics: message association (+14.4 percent), brand favorability (+5.0 percent) and purchase intent (+4.8 percent).
Is it OK to repurpose my TV content?
Repurposing TV content is one option, but to truly maximize the impact and positive brand association, the quality and composition of the ad creative need to be optimized for web delivery and, more important, for a web audience. Some technologies offer automatic detection of connection speeds, and then serve up the most appropriate ad to that user, based on the ad's bandwidth needs and the user's internet connection. Because the viewing area of these ads will typically be smaller than your traditional TV, it is essential that the scene be uncluttered to help the viewer focus on the creative elements. Elaborate lighting and excessive camera movements should be avoided so as not to annoy the viewer. And finally, sound quality should not be ignored-- remember, most users will be listening to your ad over computer speakers or headphones. Avoid using complex audio or audio that is so loud that it risks sounding distorted.
Obviously, though, the most important element is the actual video itself. Make sure that it is entertaining and doesn't have a long build-up. For marketers to more fully leverage online video for the targeting of customers, marketers must think like content providers, creating entertaining video, not just placing ads.
Atomized audiences demand precision targeting
In the 1980s, advertising on three television networks reached more than 80 percent of viewers in America. Such tremendous reach made the media buyer's job relatively easy. Selling razor blades? Sponsor a boxing match? Selling laundry detergent? Soap operas were your audience. Then came the cable news channels and a fourth major network, and the marketing pie began to be re-sliced into thinner and thinner pieces.
Now, in the age of atomized media and constantly changing viewing habits, a carpet bombing approach to advertising is no longer effective. This is where targeted online video advertising now offers tremendous value. Unlike TV advertising, online video ads allow for precise user and media targeting. On the user front, you can choose to run a national campaign that will expose your ad to millions of targeted consumers. Or you can focus your marketing efforts on very specific communities.
On the media front, you can have your video ads automatically placed next to contextually relevant content, or individual sites can be selected based on the demographics and/or psychographics of your target audience. Some technologies will allow you to show different versions of an ad at different times of the day. Imagine selling orange juice as the prefect breakfast drink in the morning and a healthful pick-me-up drink in the afternoon.
All of these targeting options help you run more efficient and effective video advertising campaigns. Recently, Universal Pictures used video ads to promote the release of "Accepted"-- a new movie targeted at consumers between the age of 15 and 30. They used their movie trailer as the ad, and ran it on entertainment, celebrity, movie blog and demographic-specific sites. This campaign reached close to six million targeted users at a fraction of the price they would have paid via TV or other online video advertising channels.
Did it work?
The scientific tracking capabilities of today's online advertising may soon retire that old industry saw, "I know that half of my advertising dollars are wasted. I just don't know which half." More than any other form of advertising, online ads can track the level of user-engagement and interaction.
Where search and banner ads register impressions, clicks and conversions, video ads enable you to track the number of people who actually engaged with your brand. For example, Google's video advertising program allows you to track the number of users who watched 25 percent, 50 percent, 75 percent or 100 percent of your ad. Because Google's video ads are user-initiated, you can be sure that the user actually watched the ad. These statistics, coupled with third-party panel studies, can give you a comprehensive picture of the performance of your campaign. In the previous Universal Pictures example, they also tracked the view-through effects of their video ad campaign and noticed that users who watched their ad were 40 percent more likely to visit the site or search for the movie on Google.com or other search engines.
Is video advertising for you?
This is a question that comes up often, and the answer is an emphatic yes. Regardless of whether you are a big or small outfit, online video advertising works. Video ads have already been adopted by some of the biggest names and newest startups in the industry. And this trend continues to grow. According to a recent Jupiter Research study, online video ad spending in the U.S. will quintuple in the next five years. Online video advertising is here to stay, and it will become an even more critical component in the entertainment marketer's creative arsenal.
Gokul Rajaram is product management director for Google AdSense. Read full bio.