7 Tips for Publishers to Increase the Programmatic Video Ad Revenue
The programmatic ecosystem experiences several new trends over time and currently, video advertising tops the list in terms of brand building and expanding its reach. The programmatic video ads have an unimaginable amount of potential as indicated by the numbers available from a research study where:
- 94% of respondents shared that watching a video has helped them make a purchase decision at least once.
- 99% of respondents enjoyed watching video content from brands online.
Moreover, according to Statista, the expenditure on programmatic video ads is expected to reach nearly $43 billion by the end of 2022. Thus, with an increase in the CPM being a cherry on the cake, video advertisements are here to stay and to benefit the most out of it, let’s discuss a few tips that can open avenues for earning more revenue.
1. Use Header Bidding to the maximum advantage
One of the most sought-after bidding techniques that help in increasing video ad revenue is header bidding. In this technique, the ad calls are first passed to the external bidders which then goes to the publisher’s ad server for a secondary auction to win the ad space eventually based on the highest bid. This provides a level playing field to all the bidders.
To implement header bidding for video ads, the traditional approach of inserting a JavaScript code in the header of the webpage works well for out-stream ads. For in-stream video ads, you can use various video players that ease the complexity in the implementation of this technique. By doing so, the monetization opportunities for publishers increase since it gets easier to integrate with video bidding players.
2. Improve Ad Viewability
Ad viewability is the most important factor to be considered as far as ad network deals on a CPM basis are concerned. To fetch greater revenues through maximized impressions under the CPM model, it is necessary to improve the viewability of ads. To do so, publishers must perform the following functions:
- Optimize the content based on the verticals and strategies which grab quick attention.
- Optimizing ad placements by placing the ads where they can be seen the most. For example: placing ads above the folds assists in achieving higher viewability.
- Using sticky player in out-stream ads, which follow the users as they scroll down a webpage thereby increasing viewability and engagement.
- Optimizing the page load speed which will increase the engagement on the videos as the video player will also load faster with the page.
3. Video Docking
Video docking involves allowing the users of the webpage to interact with the content without pausing or stopping the video player. Once a video is played, the user can continue surfing on the page and the video player would crawl across the page based on the user’s movement. This technique helps in increasing the viewability of the ads. Moreover, user experience is not compromised in any manner as docking the video wouldn’t limit the user’s interaction with the rest of the elements on the page. Thus, for campaigns involving CPM deals, video docking is an efficient method of increasing the video ad revenue.
4. Enable Auto-playing of Ads
Now that video ads have been docked, what if the user doesn’t play the video? It would be more like a dead video player occupying a part of the page; troubling the user experience, eventually. Thus, to ensure that maximum revenue is generated, especially using the CPM technique, you must enable the auto-play option for your video ad creatives. The auto-playing feature will start the video as soon as the page is loaded. Thus, the user will view the video in the first instance and if it attracts them, they shall continue watching for a longer period thereby contributing a genuine impression.
Before enabling the auto-play feature, please ensure that you are aware of the IAB standards which state that any ad that auto-plays cannot have the volume on. Thus, before implementing this feature, ensure that the video is on mute. It must be manually unmuted by the user if they desire to do so.
5. Target Audience Optimization
The most successful campaigns are not the ones with the best creatives or ad formatting. It’s the one with the most amount of relevancy to the users. To do so, you must set the right targeting for your video ads. Apart from the targeting options available in multiple video players, you can also use several tools to collect first-party data. Platforms like Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel can provide data points as specific as the total clicks across the page, user’s session time per page, downloads or newsletter sign-ups, etc.
While optimizing the target audience, make sure that you exclude data originating from bots. Such invalid traffic can exhaust your campaign budget by generating ineffective results.
Also, read How does Google Analytics help you increase the quality of traffic
6. Use Ad Pods
Ad Pods are pre-rolled short advertisements that are designed sequentially. This feature allows you to queue and play multiple ads in a row in a pre-designed sequence. Consider watching a thriller movie on an online platform and right when the suspense is about to be broken, an ad starts. This is what we call going through an ad pod.
When focusing on long-form video content, ad pods are the most effective way of maximizing your video ad revenue. Instead of a 1-minute ad, you could optimize your revenue strategies and consider setting two ads of 30 seconds each.
7. Use out-stream videos
The programmatic ecosystem is synonymous with flexibility in terms of producing ad creatives in different forms. While producing video ads initially was possible only by having more amount of video content, out-stream ads have eased the challenges arising out of such arrangements. Out stream ads are those that appear at different places in the website irrespective of the website producing video content. These are available in multiple formats. A few known formats are:
- In-Article Ads which appear between paragraphs of a page article/blog.
- In-App Ads appear in mobile gaming applications and usually reward the users of such apps for watching the advertisement.
- In-Feed Ads are usually placed inside content feeds of news websites or product feeds of e-commerce websites.
