• by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, November 10, 2011

Remember that time we talked about  the challenges in measuring ROI in online video? (Just two weeks ago!) And how a lot of media buyers had said it’s hard to measure the return on online video spending?

Well, it seems the metric online video advertisers most want is a relatively simple one to procure and it’s the completion rate. When it comes to online video, brands want to know if the consumer actually watched the ad all the way through.

Completion rate was the key data point that’s most important to brands and agencies in measuring the success of an online video campaign, they said in a just-released study from Adap.tv. Brand lift was second, followed by sharing of the video via social channels, and then click-throughs. The findings are particularly noteworthy when viewed in concert with results from the recent Casale Media survey on growth and ROI in online video.

When these two studies are paired together, a more cohesive picture of online video, its challenges and opportunities, crystallizes. On the one hand, agencies have said they want to better measure ROI. And they also say they want to know completion rates and to achieve brand awareness and brand engagement through online video. Perhaps, marketers and data firms can pair completion rates, brand awareness and specific campaign objectives more closely together, then develop tailored ROI plans for online video campaigns.

“Interactivity generally is viewed as delivering the highest ROI among video ad units by brand advertisers and agencies,” the report said. “Advertisers put ‘rich media overlays’ at the top of their performance list, while, for agencies, it’s ‘content integration.’ Pre-roll remains a staple for online video for both buyers and sellers.”

The good news is buyers aren’t snaring dollars from TV budgets for online video advertising, as had been previously thought. In many cases, online video buying is now a complement to TV, the report found. That’s because advertisers say they’re better able to measure engagement with online video, due to factors like completion rate and interactivity, and that’s a key metric in any marketing campaign.