Understanding Video Ads

Akamai FASTER FORWARD Understanding Video Ads' ABANDONMENT RATE COMPLETION RATE X. Percentage of viewers who have abandoned before a Percentage of ads that a viewer watches completely without abandoning. given point in the ad. TIMING IS EVERYTHING Ads placed in the middle of a video have higher completion rates because viewers are more engaged with the video then. ll 74% 97% 45% COMPLETION RATE COMPLETION RATE COMPLETION RATE FOR PRE-ROLL ADS FOR MID-ROLL ADS FOR POST-ROLL ADS PATIENCE 100 80 Viewers watching a long-form video HD 60 NEWS (such as a TV episode or a movie) 40 are more likely to complete ads than viewers watching short-form videos 20 (such as news clips or highlights). Short-form videos Long-form videos SLOW VIDEO VS. ADS People have more patience for ads than for slow-loading videos. Viewers abandon 3X faster when waiting for a video to start than when they are watching a pre-roll ad. THE FIRST After ten seconds, 46% of viewers FEW will abandon a slow loading video, while only 13% of viewers will abandon SECONDS a pre-roll ad. LONGER ADS MEAN LOWER COMPLETION ill Because viewers have less patience for longer ads, they complete fewer. WELCOME BACK 85% 78% COMPLETION COMPLETION RATE FOR RATE FOR REPEAT ONE-TIME VISITORS ll VISITORS Repeat viewers are likely more interested in the video content offered by a site than a viewer who only visits occasionally. Repeat viewers tend to have much higher ad completion rates. To learn how you can improve video performance and maximize engagement, visit akamai.com/sola 1. "Understanding the Effectiveness of Video Ads: A Measurement Study" – S. Shunmuga Krishnan (Akamai Technologies), and Ramesh K. Sitaraman (University of Massachusetts, Amherst & Akamai Technologies), ACM Internet Measurement Conference, Oct 2013. The data analyzed for this study spanned: 367MM videos watched | 257MM ads | 65MM unique viewers | From 3,000 publishers around the world Completion Rate (%)