In the current economic situation, where everybody is trying to cut costs, more and more questions are being raised in regards to the effectiveness of various media types and video specifically. Is video worth the effort? Will it provide the needed value added to my campaign?

US Online Advertising Revenue Growth, by Format, 2008 & 2009 (% change) – eMarketer

The usage of video has been increasing in virtually all markets and all verticals, and despite the economic situation this trend is expected to continue in the coming years.  In recent research published by eMarketer, video is expected to be the format with the strongest growth in 2009.

Eyeblaster’s Research Department has been examining, on a yearly basis, what percentage of worldwide impressions are video, and 2008 data shows a clear growth in most verticals, with the lead verticals, Entertainment and Tech/Internet, having video in more than 50% of their impressions.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, it is very clear that video is worth a thousand pictures. The movement of the video in a crowded web page clearly catches the eye, but is it worth the costs? In a recent study conducted by Eyeblaster’s Research Department – a clear positive correlation was found between the Dwell duration – the time the user was engaged with the ad – and the fact that the ad had a video in it. This can be clearly seen in 8 out of the top 10 verticals using video. In some verticals such as Gaming, adding video increased the Dwell Duration by more than 200%!!

So having video seems to be effective, however if the competition also uses video there needs to be a way to continue to stand out. This can of course be done thru great creatives, as well as by using new technology such as High Definition (HD). HD, due to its high quality, keeps the viewer more engaged and more likely to see a larger portion of the video. One can clearly see from the graph below that in the same vertical -entertainment- the usage of HD video has provided an impressive 34% lift in fully viewed video!!

Although there is clear evidence that video causes your users to interact with your brand, to be exposed and to engage with it, there is no wining potion which promises success. The only way to evaluate things is to Test, Test and Test some more! Put some video in your campaign, check how people engage with it.  Is there a specific media buy where people are more likely to engage? Take your learning into your next campaign.

Yael Tolub, Director, Product Planning & Analytics

So you have yet another campaign to analyze – and your ad server puts tons of metrics at your disposal.  So many – you can get a slight dizziness just considering them all.  But how can you capture the essence of consumer experience while still presenting a simple picture that corresponds with the brand’s business objectives?

CTR is the easy choice, it is so commonly used everybody gets it… or is it?  Chances are, you know CTR doesn’t reflect much of anything. Why spend money on advertising to keep the users engaged if at the end you decide you measure success in clicks which moves users away from the ad?

So which metric should you use? There are interaction rates, video metrics, expansion metrics, etc.   Should you choose rate metrics or duration success criteria? Which one will sum it all up the best while still providing an accurate measure of success?

Things get even more complicated if you are running a campaign with two very different creatives.  One may have tons of custom interactions, the other may have a cool video with only a few interactions. If you measure the interaction rate, the first creative will look more successful, however you know that the video was great and people played it and watched quite a long portion of it.  How do you compare duration with interaction rate – a seemingly apples to oranges comparison?
 

Now you might be thinking – “I wish my server tracked viewer brain activity or otherwise read people’s mind to tell which creative was more engaging, captured more attention for longer?”  Although at Eyeblaster we’re still working on getting inside people’s brain and examining it – for the time being, consider Dwell. Dwell Rate allows you to see which percentage of your impressions had some sort of engagement.  Couple that metric with the length of time people were engaged – Average Dwell Duration – and you get the closest reading into people’s thoughts.  At the most basic level, you want to answer the question – did they see it.  The answer is defined in terms of reach, frequency and dwell.

Dwell allows you to capture the depth of the engagement and the length of it all – allowing for comparison between very different creatives and even allowing you to compare your digital campaign to your TV campaign – giving you one success metric to be used across it all.

Yael Tolub, Director of Product Planning and Analytics