New study sheds light on video viewing habits
Video is a medium some publishers and content marketers have opted to explore, especially since its popularity has grown online.
For producers going this route, how can they make video content that people will enjoy and fully watch?
A recent study from Limelight Networks showed that throughout the first half of 2010, video ads that were 15 seconds were watched to completion 76.6% of the time while video ads that were 30 seconds long were viewed to completion 54.8% of the time.
However, ads running 15 seconds and 30 seconds were viewed nearly the same, according to FreeWheel, when they were supported by long-form content.
To provide some background, according to IAB, long-form video content “always has a content arc with a beginning, middle and end which in its entirety typically lasts longer than 10 minutes.” It can be professionally produced or user generated and can include TV, cinema or personal video content.
When it came to specific ad types, mid-roll ads were completed more than 90% of the time. These ads however cannot be skipped and appear when the viewer is already partially through the video content they’ve invested in watching.
The completion percentage for re-roll and post-roll ads was much less than the mid-roll ad type. In Q1 of 2010, pre-roll ads were completed 66% of the time while post-roll ads were completed 68% of the time. By Q1 of 2011, these numbers dropped to 60% for pre-roll ads and 54% for post-roll ads.
Conclusions
As always, great content is necessary for success videos and a high ad completion rate, regardless of the lengths or positioning.
Long-form video content has been placed with longer ads while shorter video content has been placed with 15-second ads.
Distributing great content with aligned ads that match accordingly with the length of the video will allow producers to provide the best possible viewing experience.
For more information on this topic, take a look at this article from eMarketer.
