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Five Questions Video Buyers Should Ask Themselves Before Every Ad Buy

As the old saying goes, "People can't buy what they don't understand." This saying applies to the world of online video. Brands, agencies and marketers need to know what they're buying in order to understand the true value of their video ad purchases. Not a complicated proposition; however, it becomes more complex given the landscape we are doing business in.

Here are five questions that buyers should ask before placing a video ad buy:

1.     What type of video content is my client's ad running on?

The web is littered with examples of nefarious and misdirected targeting due to de-coupling of audience and content. Video is an advertising environment that requires a "re-coupling" of audience and content. Yes, the ads cost more -- but they also do more. If the ad doesn't match the content in some way, it is as impactful as a banner ad. 

2.     What type of video player is delivering my ad?

Nobody worries about how a display ad gets delivered. Banner formats don't crash browsers, and it doesn't matter if you use Atlas, Dart, Mediaplex or let a publisher serve it -- the ad ultimately gets on the page with little fuss.  This is not the case with online video advertising. There are over 70 online video players (OV's) and that's just on the sellers' side.  Buy-side tools, like third-party ad servers, were not designed to deliver multi-megabyte video files across billions of streams. They were not built for today's real-time media buy. With third-party data, verification, rich media and brand studies attached to it, trafficking a video ad is very different from display or search. I see huge discrepancies every day between what a publisher says was served and what the clients' reporting states. This should be settled before any video campaign goes live.

3.     Where on the page will my ad show up?

Video buyers need to know the difference between linear in-stream pre-roll that is above the fold and on a page where the only other advertising on the page are companions or mastheads of the video advertiser, versus in-banner, auto play, below the fold placements that are increasingly being thrown into the "video" bucket. TV is generally not a cluttered ad environment and for online to gets its share, buyers need to see and understand the placement location as well as they do in TV.

4.     What type of video ad am I getting?

Advertising placed in linear in-stream content either as pre-, mid or post-roll is the most valuable form of video advertising. The viewer is engaged in content they chose and the ad is in a prominent and uncluttered environment, as opposed to video advertising placed within a masthead or tower banner ad. Often, these in-banner video units auto play or easily play with a simple accidental mouse-over.  By pointing this out, my intention is not to knock the in banner video unit, but only to reinforce that a buyer needs to know what he/she is paying for.

5.     Is anyone actually watching my ad?

In video, we can finally bid farewell to the old click-through rate and instead look to more meaningful metrics like: Did someone watch my ad? Who was it? How long did they see it? Of course there are social metrics like: Did they share it? Tweet it? These metrics can also be incorporated into a data profile the TV ad industry can't offer at the moment. Buyers need to demand these metrics from any seller, no matter how big or small the buy. 

In conclusion, ask the simple questions but demand proof of the answers. In online video advertising, it's important to know where your ad is running and along side what kind of content. Finally, pay attention to how it's delivered and measured.  Video commands a premium price  -- and it should command a premium amount of your attention.

1 comment about "Five Questions Video Buyers Should Ask Themselves Before Every Ad Buy ".
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  1. Michel Giasson from NuCaptcha, August 13, 2011 at 7:18 p.m.

    Excellent article Jason. In order for video to continue to command a premium price and to increase that price over time, it's critical that video not only be perceived to command the attention of the user but that it actually does so. Asking the fundamental questions you suggest is the first step and benchmarking the answers is the natural follow-up. Regarding point 5, measuring engagement with a video is another indicator worth considering.

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