In new video advertising landscape, impressions are finally taking a back seat to accountability
For a long time, brands engaging in video advertising were content knowing that their assets were placed on the right site and in front of the right audience. But now, impressions are becoming devalued as brands are increasingly able to hold publishers and video networks to higher standards.
Ooyala, a leading video publishing, analytics, and monetization company recently introduced a new feature within its Videoplaza product that enables customers to book and optimize campaigns based on video completions (in addition to traditional CPMs). Publishers are also able to use Ooyala’s completion metrics to sell ads based on views and engagement, which allow for greater revenue potential on better performing video assets.
With a shift underway in the video advertising industry toward more accountability and better results, we spoke with Sorosh Tavakoli, Ooyala’s SVP of Adtech.
Found Remote: Video advertising has been around for awhile. Why only now are companies starting to take the necessary actions to ensure viewability and prevent fraud?
Sorosh Tavakoli: There are two reasons why viewability is becoming such a key topic right now.
First of all there has been some serious quality issues in our industry accelerating in the last 12-18 months. Burnt buyers are pushing for these new metrics to ensure the incentives are aligned between them and their suppliers. Second, this is a sign of maturity for our industry. IP delivered TV advertising is now roughly a $10 billion market and this scale naturally increases the required
FR: How can Videoplaza customers plan campaigns based on ad completion?
Tavakoli: This is about empowering our clients with yet another way to price their inventory in addition to traditional CPMs. Publishers with highly engaged audiences can now leverage this further and ensure the value is even clearer to their advertisers. From a platform perspective the publisher can now book campaigns on a specific ad completion metric and the ad server will deliver the campaign until the metric is achieved. The required impressions to deliver on this metric are forecasted so the publisher can better understand the economics involved. Broadcasters and publishers can now base their metrics on how long a viewer watched a particular video advertisement. They can then tailor ad campaign goals based on certain completion events or set delivery goal benchmarks.
FR: Are traditional impression-based metrics going to become obsolete?
Tavakoli: We are still early in fully understanding the value (and cost) of viewable ads versus all delivered ads. Buyers and sellers have to agree on what the value increase is when you move towards such an environment. Publishers are faced with increased costs, operational inefficiencies and decreased certainty. The buyers get a much higher value product. Before such agreement is reached, the model won't have much traction. And in the world of video where there's a lack of supply, this discussion is much more balanced than in the display world.
Beyond this issue, the industry also suffers from huge discrepancies between various platforms, lack of standards and absence of tools on non desktop devices to name a few.
FR: How will ad completion metrics impact industry CPMs?
Tavakoli: The publishers should only use this business model where they believe they can increase yield. It's another tool in their box for packaging up their inventory in ways that help them maximize the value of their audience. The math is simple as you look at the CPM lift you get from selling completed ads vs all ads and compare that to the inventory you need to achieve that metric.
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