Have you ever imagined going a day on the internet without seeing a video Ad?
Following a 2020 survey by Wyzowl on the effectiveness of video marketing, people watch an average of 16 hours of online video weekly. And more than 35% of those videos are certainly Ads – making them a good source for users to learn about products or services of brands.
This article will explain the recent concept of Outstream video ads—their effects on digital marketing and business growth. But before we dive into Outstreams, let’s hint a bit on Instream video ads.
Instream ads
If you’ve ever seen a video ad while watching a video on Youtube or any other video content environment, then you’ve encountered an Instream ad. They can be pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll ads.
- Pre-rolls are the ads that you see before your original video starts to play.
- Mid-rolls will tell the viewer when the ad is coming.
Ex: The “Ad in 5” pop-up at the button right of your screen
- Post-roll ads appear after the video content of choice has finished playing.
Instream video ads can be non-skippable if they are less than 15 or 20 seconds (depending on the region) – the viewer will have to watch the ad till the end before watching their desired video.
There are also the compulsory 6 seconds Bumper ads that viewers must watch till the end before viewing a video of choice. These are turned on when skippable and non-skippable ad types are selected.
Instreams can also be skippable if they are longer than 20 seconds, with the option to skip after 5 seconds. An example is the “Create an Eye-catching professional Website” by Wix.
There are a few good things we can say about Instream videos.
For example, an Instream video ad comes with sound by default, unlike Outstreams. Viewers watching a non-skippable pre-roll or mid-roll would be motivated to see the ad till the end because they want to continue with their original video content.
Although some marketers find Instream ads to be effective for their branding campaigns, these types of video ads have some limiting challenges.
Instream ads continue to have decreasing availability of inventory. There’s only a certain number of sites that can take Instream ads – mostly YouTube, Facebook, and any website with video content. Also, the introduction of affordable premium accounts on YouTube makes it even more difficult.
Outstream Video/In-banner video
Judging from the name, you can quickly understand that they stream outside the original video content environment – usually on blog articles and news websites.
The following screen-recorded example shows what an Outstream video ad looks like:
With Outstreams, the video ad plays automatically as the user scrolls over it and stops playing when the user scrolls past it. There is also the option to unmute the video and listen to the audio.
Why Outstream/in-banner Videos? Why now?
In the past, running a video ad online would require you to make an ad placement before or during an actual video. As a result, publishers with no video content were unable to sell video ad space—limiting the running of campaigns by advertisers.
But now, with Outstreams, advertisers can publish video ads in varying content, like news sites, blogs, etc. According to Google’s Paul Muret, If ads do not integrate well, it can lead to ad blindness, or worse annoyance, and adblocking. As an industry, we need to come together and come up with a better experience.
How can Brands benefit from Outstream/In-banner Video Ads?
- Brands can expand their reach beyond video content environments to publishers of editorial content like CNN and Forbes.
- Outstreams/in-banner videos are less expensive than Instreams – Instream runs on Cost Per View, whereas Outstream uses Cost Per 1000 impressions. It means that advertisers will pay per view compared to paying per 1000 impressions in the case of an outstream/in-banner videos video ad.
- Less-intrusive form of video marketing. Outstreams/in-banner videos rarely interrupt the user’s experience. Publishers usually place them in locations reserved for banner ads.
- With video marketing, Brands can now target audiences in places that they previously couldn’t have been able to.
- They can connect with people who rarely visit video content platforms like YouTube and Facebook.
- Retarget people who might have engaged previously with the advertiser’s website
- Outstreams/in-banner videos could also have a combination with other components like a carousel, 50:50, and so on. Advertisers can have the opportunity to choose whatever combination they want.
With great benefits also come challenges. And in the case of Outstream video ads, there are just a few of them.
Brands have to ensure that ad placements are perfectly matching the editorial content. Videos are by default on mute. Most advertisers depend on it to catch the attention of viewers, but users can always unmute the video when the banner catches their attention.
With the advantages of outstream/in-banner videos, you can create quality formats on the Somplo platform that will work on almost any existing display DSP, like DV-360, Google Display Network (GDN), Adform, etc. In-banner video ads can also be combined with more creative elements such as quality images, gifs, and screenshots of the video, to enrich the video experience.
Important Key Notes
Ensure that you have rightly set up your campaign targeting and placements to generate maximum effect and connect better with the viewers.
Monitor these placements to understand what will work for your brand and what will not, to improve your outstream video marketing.
Final thoughts
Advertisers are claiming that they’re currently getting outstream/in-banner video units at a cost 10-25% cheaper than the instream units for pre-roll placements. And recent research shows that people consume outstream video ads for 25% longer than instream.
