• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, September 28, 2012

According to a worldwide analysis by MediaMInd of more than 1 billion in-stream video ad serving template (VAST) impressions worldwide showed that, during the first six months of 2012, they received an overall click-through rate (CTR) of 2.84%. During the same period, nearly 2 billion video player-ad interface definition (VPAID) impressions experienced a lower overall CTR than VAST but solid interaction rates: 1.63% and 9.57%, respectively.

Online and mobile video usage is growing, says the report. ComScore reported that more than 1.2 billion internet users watched almost 200 billion online videos worldwide in June 2012. And, according to Nielsen, 74% and 57% of internet users worldwide reported watching online and mobile video in Q3 2011, respectively, a slight increase over 2010.

In addition, more internet users watched video on computers (84%) than TV (83%) for the first time. Other devices with potential internet connections also had significant audiences, including non-phone handheld devices (36%), game consoles (33%) and tablets (28%)

According to comScore, internet users watched almost 36.9 billion videos and 9.6 billion in-stream video ads during July 2012 in the US. Those ads reached approximately 51.6% of the US population.

MediaMind analyzed a sample of more than 1 billion impressions worldwide during the first six months of 2012 and found that in-stream VAST‘s CTR of 2.84% was 27.4 times the rate of standard banners, and almost 12 times that of rich media.

In addition, the data shows that as the industry has standardized the implementation of in-stream VAST ads, CTR increased from 0.77% in Q1 2011 to 3.05% in Q2 2012, but topped at 3.09% in Q1 2012.

According to the IAB, the April 2012 VPAID standard attempts to accomplish three goals: standardize video ad supply technology across publishers, ad servers and networks; provide common creative specifications for advertisers; and to improve video ad supply liquidity. 4

Among the ads analyzed, VPAID experienced a lower overall CTR than VAST– 1.63% vs. 2.84%. This can be explained from several angles, says the report:

• The campaigns focus on branding rather than direct response
• Viewers interact within the ad and don’t always click-through
• They are often served within long-form video content (tv shows and movies) where directing viewers to landing pages or dedicated sites is seen as disruptive
• While CTR for YPAID may be lower, the format allows advertisers to capture data about how, and how often, the viewer interacted with the ad. 

The overall interaction rate for VPAID, (the number of interactions divided by the number of impressions), was 9.57%.

All of the video ads analyzed, including Rich Media with Video, VAST and VPAID, were between 10 to 30 seconds in length. VPAID ads registered a higher average completion rate than both VAST and rich media.

The report concludes by noting that Online video is becoming an important staple of any marketer’s repertoire. The report shows that 169.3 million U.S. Internet users will watch video in 2012, and expects that number to increase to 201.4 million by 2016. Online video ad spending is estimated to increase from $2.93 billion in 2012 to $8.04 billion in 2016, and includes video ad spending delivered via computers as well as mobile devices.

For more information from MediaMind, and access to the complete Video report as a PDF file, please visit here.