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Tips to optimize video ad serving (part 2)

Visitors spend more time on sites with videos because people love seeing and sharing video content much more than just images and text content. It is much more entertaining, informational and engaging. Because of these benefits, video ad serving is a natural integration for video publishers. In the previous article, we discussed how specific devices and platforms can affect your video ads. In this article, we will continue our discussion about ideas that you can use to improve your video ad serving strategy.

Consider length and resolution

One of the most important video ad serving goals is for your audience to view the entire video and hopefully engage with it. Therefore, the duration of the video ad is crucial. You do not want the ad too short because it will not be enough to convey the story or the product benefits. On the other hand, it is very easy to have a running time that is too long, which could cause potential customers to skip or turn off the video ad before they get all the information. Basically, shorter is better because you want a video ad that is as short as possible while still delivering enough information and incentives for viewers to engage with it.

You want to pay special attention to the first few seconds because that is when viewers decide if they want to continue watching the ad or simply skip it. Additionally, you not only want your video ad to have high quality, which often means a bigger file size, but also is quick to download. In order to achieve both of these seemingly conflicting objectives, you will likely need to experiment with the resolution and bitrate settings to get the proper balance. Often, you will need to export multiple files from the original video footage into different durations and resolutions for different devices. For example, you might need a compact and short ad version for mobile devices and a longer one for smart TVs.

Measure events

In order to know that your video ads are or aren’t getting the results that you want, it’s important that your ad server provides video event reports. You should dig into all available ad reports, especially the video tracking events, to see what is happening. Are people skipping, muting, or failing to watch all the way to the end? Did they experience any error while loading the ad? These tracking events tell you the signs that your video content needs to be tweaked, which could mean making it shorter or perhaps a little more entertaining. Any error should be identified and corrected as soon as possible because both publishers and advertisers want their ads delivered and seen.

Narrow your target audience

Video ad serving is not really different from other ad formats. It is all about reaching the right audience that will most likely respond positively to your ads. Therefore, the more specific audience you target, the better your video ad performs. When adding your creative into the video ad server, explore all available targeting criteria and restrictions to ensure different ad versions are served to suitable audience segments and devices. Drill down on your target audience to discover which types of videos will be most appreciated, and which platforms work best. There will be some trial and error here, but it’s worth taking the time to do it to maximize conversion rates and minimize wasted impressions.

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