Tag: video ad

Instagram Tests Direct Response Ad In Stories

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Instagram has started testing direct response ad units in its Stories section, which hosts photos and videos that are available for 24 hours. Similar to the ones on Snapchat, this new ad format invites users to swipe up on a full-screen Story to drive sign-up or app installation. SumUp, a digital payment device company, is one of the first brands to use this ad format to encourage people to sign up for its service. In addition, Instagram also updated its direct messaging to add support URLs, allowing brands to utilize the messaging channel to drive web traffic.

What Brands Need To Do
Until now, Instagram Stories ads have only offered standard “reach” objectives based on impressions and not the direct-response formats that have been made available in Instagram’s main feed. Bringing those formats to Stories is a natural next step for Instagram to grow its ad product portfolio. Instagram only started selling sponsored videos in between Stories in March, which are played full-screen and therefore much more engaging, compared to the display ads in its main feed. As Instagram continues to make its platform more brand-friendly, marketers may consider trying out new ad formats available.

 

Source: AdAge & The Verge

Facebook Doubles Down On Video For More Ad Dollars

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
This week, Facebook launched several new features and initiatives aiming to build out the video offerings on its main site. On Tuesday, the social network rolled out a “watch and scroll” feature to all desktop users, allowing videos to keep playing in a pop-up window on the side of the News Feed even when users have scrolled past them. On Wednesday, the company also updated its Live video product to allow all users and Pages using its iOS app to invite a friend to make a guest appearance in their broadcast.

According to multiple sources, the company has inked deals with millennial-focused publishers including Vox Media, BuzzFeed, ATTN, and Group Nine Media to create original series for its upcoming video service, which reportedly will feature long and short-form content with ad breaks. In addition, Facebook has also started beta testing a new ad targeting tool called Audience Direct that gives streaming video publishers access to Facebook user data for more nuanced targeting on their own apps and websites.

What Brands Need To Do
Facebook’s recent moves to improve its video features, both live and regular, and acquire more original content are the latest in its push to attract more advertising dollars as it continues to challenge YouTube as a go-to destination site for digital video advertising, which is projected to hit $18 billion in ad spending by 2018. Facebook has significantly grown the video consumption on its site over the past few years, as the social network now claiming that users watch over 100 million hours of video on its site every day. As Facebook continues to double down on its video products, brands should reevaluate their media mix and consider leveraging Facebook’s massive global reach to reach consumers online with targeted video ads.

 

Sources: as linked in the post

Pinterest Rolls Out Promoted Video Ads In Feeds and Search Results

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Right on the heels of updating its Lens feature for visual search of recipes, Pinterest today started rolling out Promoted Video ads in users’ feeds, search results, and within Related Pins section. Similar to Facebook’s video ad units, Pinterest’s video ads are also autoplay and muted by default. As with when it first debuted Promoted Videos last August, Pinterest is sticking to its mobile-only approach and only surfacing the video ads in its mobile apps.

What Brands Need To Do
Pinterest announced last October that it has reached 150 million monthly active users, up 50% from last year thanks partly to a substantial increase in male signups. While its user base still lags behind its rival social platforms, its unique visual aesthetic has proven popular with certain consumer segments, such as home decor, food, and fashion. While Pinterest may be a latecomer to the auto-play video party, the way it incorporates video ads into the mobile user experience should provide some add-on value for brand marketers looking to catch the eyes of Pinterest users.

 

Source: Marketing Land

Facebook Agrees To Independent Audit, Grants Advertisers More Control Over Video Ad Buys

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Following a series of blunders in video ad measurement and performance reporting in the past few months, Facebook announced on Friday that it has Facebook has agreed to let Media Rating Council (MRC), the media industry’s independent measurement monitor, audit the measurements it provides advertisers. In addition to being open to the audit, Facebook will also appease advertisers by offering more granular measurements for display ads, along with new ad buying and payment options for their video ads on its Audience Network ad network, such as only paying for viewers that watched the video with the sound on.

What Brands Need To Do
Facebook has received considerable flak for misreporting its video content performances, and it remains to be seen whether these new initiatives can help repair some of the damage to Facebook’s credibility as a video ad platform. That being said, Facebook still makes a compelling case for itself as a digital video channel, especially as its Live Video start to take off, which Facebook users are spending three times more time watching than non-live videos. As Facebook continues to make amends and improve its accountability, it would be wise for brand marketers to take a cautious and diligent approach to video ads on Facebook.  

 

Source: AdExchanger

Facebook Plans An OTT Streaming App As It Aims For More Video Ads

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
According to The Wall Street Journal. Facebook is planning to launch an ad-supported streaming app for set-top devices, such as Roku and Apple TV, to showcase its growing video content. The social network giant is reportedly in talks with media companies to license long-form “premium” video content, but it is unclear whether user-generated video content will also be pulled in from News Feed.

What Brands Need To Do
This app follows Facebook’s relentless efforts over the past few years in cultivating video content as it makes a strong push for more video ads. Earlier this week, the social network announced an expansion of partnerships with third-party ad tech companies, promising to provide advertisers more data and a clear comparison between social ads and TV ads. Once launched, the app would offer brand advertisers a valuable new video channel to leverage Facebook’s audience data to reach targeted customers. As Facebook continues its push into the digital video space and challenges YouTube for a piece of the growing video ad budget, brands should carefully consider their video strategies and take into account Facebook’s growing video ad products.

 

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Snapchat Introduces Sequential Advertising Package

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Snapchat has reportedly started pitching brands on Sequential Messaging, its newest video ad product that allows brands to show a number of 10-second video ads in succession within a Discover channel. The company says that sequenced messaging is open to all advertisers, but it is only sold directly through Snapchat at premium prices and not available through its API. Sony Pictures and Universal Pictures have both bought sequenced messaging to promote their respective new releases.

What Brands Need To Do
Sequential messaging is nothing new to TV advertisers. With each new video ad product, Snapchat is looking more and more like a TV disrupter as it funnels the global user attention into a dozen or so publisher content channels and countless user-generated Stories. As Snapchat’s ad business start to catch up to its rapid growth, the company is getting ready to compete for more ad dollars with not just from leading sellers of digital ads like Facebook and Google, but from TV advertisers as well. Therefore, it is time for brands to reconsider their media mix and consider adjust the ad budget to include emerging global channels like Snapchat so as to reach customers at scale.

 

Source: AdWeek

Pinterest Debuts Autoplay Video Ads In Explore Tab

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Pinterest is ramping up video ads as it starts testing autoplay video in the Explore section on its website and mobile apps. When one autoplay video ad plays to completion, Pinterest’s video player will automatically loop into other videos from that brand. The addition comes just a few months after the social scrapbooking site introduced click-to-play video ads on mobile. Brands such as American Express, Home Depot, Macy’s, and Sony Pictures are among the first to try out Pinterest’s autoplay video ads.

What Brands Should Do
Last month, Pinterest announced that it has reached 150 million monthly active users, up 50% from last year thanks partly to a substantial increase in male signups. While its user base still lags behind its rival social platforms, its unique visual aesthetic has proven popular with certain consumer segments. While Pinterest may seem a bit late to the auto-play video party, the way it incorporates the continuous video playback into the mobile user experience should provide some add-on value for brand marketers looking to catch the eyes of Pinterest users.

 

Source: Marketing Land

Facebook Adds More Ad Options To Instant Articles

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Facebook has added some larger and more flexible ad units to Instant Articles as the company ramps up the monetization in the fast-loading, mobile-native format. Publishers can now bring more of their direct sold campaigns to Instant Articles, including custom, premium formats. And publishers using Facebook’s Audience Network can now engage their audience with video and carousel ads in Instant Articles. In addition, Facebook has also improved support for branded content in Instant Articles to allow publishers to plug in their native ad campaigns.

What Brands Need To Do
As Facebook continues to loosen its restrictions on ads in Instant Articles and offer publishers more options to monetize their content, brands gain more opportunities to reach mobile Facebook users by working with publishers to transplant their campaigns into Instant Articles. Brands looking to make their ads load faster and provide a mobile-optimized user experience can also look into Facebook’s Canvas ads, which are basically “Instant Articles for brands.”

 

Source: Facebook Media

Header image is a promotional image courtesy of Facebook Media

Facebook To Add Vertical Video Support To News Feed

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
It looks like Facebook is not done taking cues from Snapchat for new products just yet. The social network announced today that it will soon fully support vertical videos to users’ News Feed on mobile. The videos will appear in News Feed in a 2:3 aspect ratio so as not to take up the whole screen, the way they do on Snapchat or within Facebook’s Canvas ad format.

Facebook has technically allowed users to upload vertical videos for about a year, although the videos would appear as squares in feed until the user taps on the video. Brands that are involved in the early testing stage of this feature include Ruby Tuesday, Mountain Dew, GE, Axe, and Budweiser.

What Brands Need To Do
Spearheaded by apps like Snapchat and Periscope, vertical videos have proven a hit with mobile users and Facebook adding support for it signals that the previously hesitant brands and publishers have now embraced the format. If your brand is still serving mobile users horizontal video ads, it may be time to reconsider and join the trend that caters to consumer behavior on mobile.

 

Source: AdWeek

 

Facebook Posts Strong Q1 Results Thanks To Mobile Ad Boom

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
On Wednesday, Facebook posted its 2016 Q1 earnings report, showing strong growth in ad revenue with a 57% year-over-year increase to $5.2 billion, comfortably beating Wall Street estimates. The increase is mostly attributed to mobile ads, which accounted for about 82% of its overall quarterly ad revenue. The social network also announced that it added over 60 million new users in the past quarter, bringing its total monthly active users up to 1.65 billion.

Why Brands Should Care
As brands shift their ad spending from traditional media to digital and especially mobile platforms, Facebook is quickly solidifying its leading position in mobile advertising thanks to the continued popularity of its mobile apps. During the first quarter, the company made a strong push into live-streaming, further establishing itself as a mobile video destination ready for more video ads and branded video. For brands looking to connect with a mobile audience, Facebook, along with the several other mobile apps it owns, remains a great option given the vast amount of user data it owns and the variety of mobile ad products it offers.

 

Source: The Marketing Land