How to Measure Success of Video Ads?

How to measure success of video ads?

Summary

Despite soaring digital video ad spend, advertisers lack measurement tools. Most agencies still use traditional display metrics, i.e. impression and click, to measure the impact of video ads, but they are not keeping pace with the needs of advertisers. Measuring the success of a video campaign will seem more difficult and tricky than a blog post. But it’s far from impossible. So in this essay, the author think the trick is to set a clear business objective for your video, and pick the right metrics to support that goal.

Introduction

Digital video advertising is expected to grow 41 percent to top $4 billion this year, according to eMarketer. That’s double what advertisers spent on digital video ads just two years ago, and spend is projected to more than double again by 2017, topping $9 billion. However, according to a new report by BrandAds, measurement tools for video advertising campaigns are not keeping pace with the needs of advertisers.

In a survey of 106 brand and agency marketers, nearly 60% of digital video advertisers said that beyond basic delivery metrics, they do not have the tools they need to adequately measure the effectiveness of their campaigns on consumers.

For those who are currently using tools to measure the impact of their digital video advertising campaigns, over half said the tools are too expensive or create too much operational overhead. Another complaint is that it takes too long to get campaign data. Eighty-one percent of video advertisers have to wait at least 24 hours to get campaign data. Only 12.5 percent of surveyed advertisers are getting data in real time.

Currently the majority of digital video advertisers are relying on impression and click data –traditional display metrics — to measure the impact of their campaigns, with 86.5 percent using impression data and 82.7 percent using click data from third party vendors.

Analysis

Despite soaring digital video ad spend, advertisers lack measurement tools. Is impression and click data actionable metrics for digital video campaign?

There is a disconnection between what marketers want to measure and what they actually are measuring with third-party data. While an average of just 37 percent of those surveyed are currently measuring viewability and brand lift impact of their digital video ad campaigns, 75.5 percent said they would like to measure viewability and 74.5 percent would like to measure brand lift.

These findings tell us, as an industry, that only trustworthy and accurate measurement of digital video ads across connected devices will unlock the true power of digital video advertising.

Recommendation

The key is setting a clear business objective or goal and picking the right metrics to support that goal.

So what’s the objective or goal for the video? Are you trying to sell a product or service, generate leads, increase social media engagement, or track customers’ behavior? Or maybe you want to charge viewers to watch the video or use it to train employees? The list could be endless, depending on the type of video you’re creating. We’ll touch on choosing the right metrics depending on your goal below.