• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, October 5, 2005

Consumers tend to wait about 21 seconds before shutting off 30-second online ads, according to new data released by Klipmart Corporation Tuesday.

The online video services company examined about half a billion 30-second video ad impressions that ran on around 200 Web sites in the first six months of this year. The ads all ran in banner units, and most of them played automatically when users opened the page, said Aimee L. Pamintuan, the company's research director.

On average, visitors waited around 21 seconds before either leaving the page, hitting the stop button, or closing the ad, Pamintuan said. "People are attuning to about 70 percent of the 30-second video," she said. The relatively long play, she said, indicates that the 30-second TV spot "can be repurposed for the online format, and be successful."

But there's a wrinkle in the research: Because the display pages had content other than just the ad, it's not clear that visitors actually watched the ad for the entire time it was playing. Nonetheless, Pamintuan said, the research provides at least as much insight as television advertising research that examines, for instance, whether a set is turned on--as opposed to whether viewers actually paid attention to the show.

"We're following along the same lines as broadcast advertising research--where we're saying, okay, it reached this many people," she said.

Klipmart found that ads promoting DVDs or other videos were viewed for the longest amount of time--22.51 seconds on average--while those touting financial services were viewed for an average of just 19.14 seconds. Other entertainment-related ads to draw viewers for longer than average were for music--22.12 seconds--and movies--21.45 seconds.

Ads in the technology vertical--including ads for Internet service providers and wireless carriers--were watched for the second-longest amount of time--22.2 seconds. Such ads frequently included enhanced formats--such as user-initiated expanded picture--which, Pamintuan said, tends to correlate with longer viewing. "Across the board, what we're finding is that when we're using enhanced features, it will enhance the view rate."

Other verticals studied by Klipmart include travel (21.32 seconds); consumer, including consumer packaged goods and retail (21.22 seconds); automotive (21.08 seconds); gaming (20.58 seconds); and television (20.08 seconds).