Is there one trick that is likely to boost your campaign’s performance? Yes there is—video! The recently published Analytics Bulletin by Eyeblaster Research clearly shows that video boosts the performance of ads, compared to creatives without video. Particularly, for In-Banner and Floating ads, video doubles Dwell Time and significantly increases Dwell Rate.

In the last four years, Eyeblaster has seen a tenfold growth in video impressions. In addition, at the same period, video impressions have climbed 60% faster than Rich Media Impressions. This growth is facilitated by the higher effectiveness of ads containing video. Campaigns based on video not only have higher Dwell Rate and Dwell Time at any level of exposure, but also require fewer exposures to reach the same Dwell Rate and Dwell Time as campaigns without video.

Online video is also a smart financial choice. Slightly higher cost and a dramatic increase in Dwell yields 200% incremental return on investment on video, as compared to non-video Rich Media.
This bulletin shows not only that video delivers higher value, but also measures the impact of creative choices on video performance and provides guidance on improving video campaigns’ performance. An analysis of billions of impressions served by Eyeblaster shows that:
• Video outperforms in email and editorial content environments such as news, sports, music and finance but lags in social networks and games environments.
• Rollover user-initiated video performs best, followed by auto-initiated video; click user-initiated performs worst.
• Weekdays from 9am to 5pm is users’ preferred time to watch In-Banner and Floating video ads.
• An increase in video length of five second reduces Video Fully Played rate by 2.8%, on average.
• Relatively few users un-mute video ads; auto-initiated video has the highest un-mute rate.

These insights and many others are outlined in this comprehensive analysis. In addition, Eyeblaster compiled a comprehensive list of best practices on how to boost campaign performance across ad formats.

To download the full 22 page report, click here.

Ariel Geifman | Research Analyst