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Google will begin testing "skippable" pre-roll ads in videos on YouTube Wednesday that could lead the Mountain View, Calif. search engine toward a new advertising model. The small sampling, which runs indefinitely, will allow people who find the videos to click on the link and skip the ad, which takes them directly to the content. The ads will run on videos from content partners, which have already opted into the test.
The goal to move the industry toward more engaging high-quality ads requires a lesson in human behavior. The test that determines if and when people watch the video clips will provide Google with insight into the type of person who may skip an ad, what type of ad they might skip, and what piece of content does better than another. Google also will look at whether some ads are skipped in a specific portion of the session. Does the person skip the ad in the first video versus the third during a 30-minute time slot while on YouTube?
The research also examines the correlation between television and video ads. The results could lead Google toward a different type of advertising model other than pre-rolls, overlays, and traditional display ads. The model is cost per engagement, where advertisers would only pay for opt-in engaged views of the ads. "We're already down that road with promoted videos," says Phil Farhi, product manager at Google's YouTube. "We see the ability to skip ads as another form of engagement."
Farhi says Google eventually sees a model where the advertiser only pays for a completed view of the ad. Quality and user signals would determine the correct place in the video to serve up the ad.
Google often questions theories, but rarely provides a glimpse into the thinking behind the tests. In fact, research based on pre-roll ads in videos has been ongoing since 2007. A high abandonment rate by people watching the ads in clips made it difficult to find a model that worked. So, pre-roll ads in videos took a backseat for a bit to some of the other projects. Since then, a more effective model emerged that initially found its way to long- and short-form videos.
When Google first tested in-stream ads in 2007, it learned that abandonment rates -- especially for pre-rolls -- were as high as 70%, and users were far more likely to watch and engage with overlays. It turns out that pre-roll ads in short-form video content work.
Pre-rolls in short-form videos, defined as less than between 15 and 20 minutes, can keep the attention of people watching the clip. The test will also run on long-form videos. But when a pre-roll ad runs 15 seconds, YouTube registers completion rates as high as 85%.
Creativity and quality also matter. Google's research suggests that a high-quality advertisement can influence someone into sticking around to finish viewing the ad three times more than if that same person watched the ad on television.
"On television you might need 30 seconds to make sure people know the Web site and phone number, and tell them the offer three times," Farhi says. "Online, you can run a much shorter industry ad, and use the companion ad space for the call to action."
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We are working the analytics side of ad skipping and other consumer preference and intent measurement. This goes to measurement of brand value, product preferences, in-market and purchase intent, overall sentiment, and author-rank response ratings and scores.
Ad skipping is, for us at EyeTMedia, just one more form of consumer preference behavior measurement, which we augment with other discovery and expression activity. We sit at the bookends of the process - at the publisher and at the ad network or ad sever. Our proprietary scores and federated data is a compilation of actions that include ad skipping, and a basket of entertainment-specific behaviors that go far beyond content.
We are happy to find others treading in this heretofore forbidden territory in the entertainment sector.
The importance of Google experimenting with this is that they are the industry's open laboratory, with an unlimited budget and a lot of urgency to solve the ad rate and campaign performance problem. We applaud Google for *finally* starting to get more aggressive and (perhaps) serious about making the consumer the center of the whole process.
And by that, I mean the consumer's experience. We call this "Content, Control and Community."
By creating consumer control over their ad stream and over their total entertainment viewing, discovery and sharing/expression experience, the ad selection (with our help) becomes much more relevant, impactful, effective and (-gasp-) perhaps even invited or at least welcomed.
That's where we play. Helping marketers create a consumer engagement contract that works for consumers and creates a dialogue between brands and consumers to determine preference and sentiment.
Good on 'em. Matt Weeks CEO EyeTMedia mweeks at eyetmedia dot com 650 520 8808 twitter @mattweeks see you at StreamingMedia West.
The one single thing that human behavior on the Internet, along with remote controls and DVRs, has told us all, loud and clear, is that consumers do not want any more "push" marketing, thus "The Death of Frequency": http://preview.tinyurl.com/yzast9p . The end of endless repetition in advertising means that no one, not now and not ever before, wanted to see the same TV ad, no matter how funny or clever (although of course making every ad funny or clever/informative is job one), more than a couple of times.
Give people the chance to skip it and they will, just as they'll skip over the same episode of Dexter if they just saw it last week. This isn't a problem, exactly, since they will watch an ad that is relevant to them, or REALLY funny/clever, more than once. We just have to produce a lot more ad versions to surprise and engage them.
Wouldn't acknowledging this simple fact be an excellent starting point for at least BEGINNING to put "push marketing" to death and reinventing the way we approach advertising strategy on the WWW? Apple and Lee Clow already get this.
Just a thought. http://AdvertisingBusinessModelRedefined.BlogSpot.com/