• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, September 9, 2016

A June 2016 study by ad tech firm FreeWheel (http://www.freewheel.tv/), of ads on its network, found that completion rates were better with larger screens and longer content. This and following material, sourced from eMarketer, shows that in Q1 2016, completion rates for US digital video ads on over-the-top (OTT) devices such as connected TVs were 93%, compared with 78% for smartphones and rates in between for tablets and desktops.

Measuring effectiveness across devices and content platforms is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor, says the eMarketer report. Key performance indicators (KPIs) can vary widely by advertiser, device, campaign objective and even daypart. But at some point, most marketers need to take stock of completion and clickthrough rates.

Continuing, eMarketer says that these findings make sense considering the lean-back aspect of the OTT experience. A user watching on a living room flat screen is less likely to skip an ad than someone using a smaller, more tactile and more mobile device like a smartphone. Along those lines, live and long-form content (more typical of OTT services) also saw higher completion rates than shorter content, says the report.

Separate May 2016 data by ad tech firm TubeMogul, of completion rates for US digital video ads by device and format, also found a correlation between screen size and completion. In Q1 2016, completion rates on connected TV were 95%, compared with 72% for desktop pre-roll and 64% for mobile (which included smartphones and tablets). Like the FreeWheel study, TubeMogul’s was limited to activity on its platform, says the report.

In addition, a Q1 2016 study by Extreme Reach measured completion rates and CTRs by platform, and found connected TVs had the highest rate of ad completion, at 88%, compared with 51% for tablets (which ranked below smartphones in this study). CTRs were higher with 30-second pre-rolls than with their 15-second counterparts, and also higher on smartphones than desktops or tablets.

For additional information, please visit here; eMarketer PRO customers can view the full report here.