TrueView Ad Format Ups Returns

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In late 2010, YouTube debuted its TrueView in-stream ad format, which allows consumers to skip in-stream pre-roll ads and only charges advertisers for those ads that consumers actually watch.

How’s it doing? After examining 92 TrueView campaigns, Google reported Tuesday that within two weeks of a campaign’s debut, every dollar invested in YouTube returned (on average) $1.70 in sales. According to the search giant, that is 2.4 times more efficient than TV ads.

Google also found that TrueView ads led to a 36% increase in site visits on average, and a 36% boost in searches for featured brands.

Yet as Tod Sacerdoti, founder and CEO of BrightRoll, recently reported, the average skip rate for TrueView ads remains greater than 80%. For its part, Google recently reported that between 15% and 45% of YouTube viewers choose to watch TrueView ads -- and that about 65% of all ads that play before YouTube videos on computers are skippable.

How can brands improve their odds that viewers will stick around for their entire message?

“Force yourself to create new content,” Suzie Reider, head of industry development at YouTube, told an audience of marketers and publishing executives at OMMA Global on Tuesday. Too many brands continue to repurpose content that was created for TV and other media channels.

The important thing is that marketers recognize the value of viewer choice, Reider notes. “When people choose, they remember."

Ad models aside, Reider also took time on Tuesday to discuss modern media viewers, and why TV can’t meet their needs. In particular, there’s not a cable channel in the world that can meet consumers’ increasingly niche content demands, Reider insisted. “That’s where online video comes in."

How niche can the wide world of content get? We’re not talking 600 channels, according to Reider. “We are headed toward a world of 600,000 channels.” But how big can these niche audiences be? Due to continued industry-wide audience fragmentation, niche online audiences are slowly approaching the audience size of top TV programming.

For example, Reider noted, ABC’s hit sitcom "Modern Family" averaged 4 million viewers last season, or a 6% share of viewership.

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1 comment on "TrueView Ad Format Ups Returns".

1. Dev Horn from iProspect
   

   commented on: October 5, 2012 at 5:41 p.m.
   True View can be a great value, especially for a niche market. Create new video content that grabs people from the very beginning, because they make that kill or watch decision in 3-5 seconds. Then, throughout the video or at the end provide links to get them to SUBSCRIBE to your brands YouTube channel. Best ~

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