Tag: video ads

Snapchat Announces Self-Serve Ad Manager & Pushes For Original Video Content

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Snap Inc. announced on Thursday that it will be launching a new self-service platform called Snapchat Ad Manager, allowing brand advertisers to buy any of Snap’s ad formats, including videos, and target them to certain groups of users. Previously, brands can only buy ads on Snapchat through Snap’s sales team or third-party ad tools that often charge a fee. This platform, set to roll out in June, will be free for anyone interested to advertise on Snapchat.

In addition, Snap is also ramping up its original video content. The company has reportedly expanded its content deals with media partners including NBCUniversal, ESPN, ABC, Turner, and NFL to develop more original video content, typically 3-to-5-minute-long mini-episodes, for Snapchat Stories.

What Brands Need To Do
It is not hard to see that these two moves share the same goal – getting more ad dollars by making its platform more advertiser-friendly. The new self-serve platform makes Snap Ads much more accessible for smaller brands looking to experiment with Snapchat and reach mobile audiences. The play for more original video content can also cultivate a valuable channel for Snapchat to serve more video ads in. Although Snapchat is facing mounting pressure from Facebook’s relentlessly copying and stifling user growth, its loyal user base should keep it afloat for a while as the competition in the mobile messaging space continue to heat up. Brands looking to reach young-skewing mobile users on Snapchat should take advantage of the new platform and try out Snapchat’s unique ad formats.

 

Source: Wall Street Journal & The Next Web

 

Google AMP Adds Support For Native Video Ads

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Google is expanding Accelerated Mobile Pages, its open-source effort to speed up the mobile web, to support native video ads. This enables publishers to serve their premium video ads in a speedy manner on mobile through Google’s ad platform DoubleClick. Google recently reported quick growth of its video ads business, with monthly video ad impressions doubling across platforms since January.

Why Brands Should Care
This addition marks the latest development in Google’s continuous efforts to make nice with publishers by offering monetization options in AMP. By extending the AMP ads to include native video ads, Google is giving advertisers a valuable tool to deliver a faster, leaner mobile ad experience to consumers without losing an important part of their ad revenue. With more and more people consuming content on their smartphones, marketers need to be conscious of the choices they have when it comes to mobile ads.

 

Source: Digiday

Instagram Adds Curated Stories Feed To Explore Tab

Posted on by Richard Yao

What Happened
Instagram continues to push its Snapchat-inspired Stories feature as it adds a curated Stories feed to the Explore tab of its apps. Now users can flip through a stream of Stories suggested based on their interests. Previously, users would only see Stories from people they follow. Instagram says more than 100 million people visit Explore every day to discover photos and videos from people they don’t yet follow.

Why Brands Should Care
Since its launch in August, Instagram Stories has been a moderate success with users as the feature is viewed by one-third of Instagram’s 300 million daily users. While there’s no word on how Instagram plans to monetize the feature, it is only a matter of time before Instagram starts adding ads in between Stories like the way Snapchat inserts video ads in between snaps. Moreover, this introduction of a curated Stories feed opens up the opportunity for brands to surface their Stories to a wider audience.

 

Source: Instagram Blog

 

Spotify Debuts First Vertical Video Ad In Branded Moments

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Spotify unveiled its first vertical video ad unit for mobile listeners to appeal to mobile advertisers. Brands advertisers can purchase the mobile-optimized unit in Branded Moments, an ad product Spotify recently introduced that lets brands target users based on the context and mood they are in. The idea is to infer the context a user is in based on the type of playlist they are listening to. Playlists are divided into categories such as workout, party, dinner, and sleep. Users who watch the vertical video ads will receive 30-minutes of audio ad-free listening, but they may still see additional display ads. Brands such as Bacardi, Gatorade, and Bose are among the first to try out this new ad unit.

Why Brands Should Care
This is not the first time Spotify has come out with a product that aims to sell brands on playlist-based targeting. In May the music streaming service launched “Sponsored Playlists” which allow brands to sponsor popular playlists to reach a bigger audience on its platform. The welcome addition of vertical video ads offers Spotify advertisers a way to deliver a more eye-catching experience to mobile consumers.

Spotify is facing increased competition lately, as Pandora and Amazon both launched their own music streaming subscription services this week. Nevertheless, with 70 million global listeners on its ad-supported free tier and a growing portfolio of ad products, Spotify remains in a relatively advantageous market position and is a valuable emerging marketing channel for brands to reach their target audiences.

 

Source: AdAge

Snapchat Revamps Stories Layout And Adds More Mid-Roll And Post-Roll Ads

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Following its decision to open up its ad API for programmatic ads last week, Snapchat has rolled out some changes to its app. The layout of its Stories section has been revamped to put updates from friends first, followed by the Discover and subscription sections. This change prioritizes user-generated content over content from publishers and brands. Moreover, Snapchat is also ditching its Auto Advance feature in favor of a Playlist mode, which allows users to select the snaps they would like to see. The company also says it is adding more mid- and post-roll ads to its content. The ads will appear in between snaps in Playlist mode as they did with Auto Advance.

What Brands Need To Do
With over 150 million daily active users, surpassing Twitter’s 140 million, Snapchat is reportedly planning for an IPO. The updates could help users manage the content overload on the ever-growing platform and provide brands with more options in terms of where they would prefer to surface their video ads. As Snapchat continues to improve its ad products to match its rapid growth, brands need to consider getting on Snapchat to reach its young-skewing users.

 

Source: AdWeek

 

Twitter Extends Pre-Rolls And Creates Paid Stickers For “Fantastic Beasts”

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Twitter announced today it is extending its Amplify Publisher program to individual video creators in the U.S., aiming to drum up video content to sell more pre-roll ads. Twitter is offering individual content creators 70% of ad revenue, which is higher than the 45 percent YouTube gives its creators, and does not require content exclusivity. Only creators approved by Twitter will be able to monetize their content through the program, which first opened to publishers last fall.

In related news, Warner Bros.launched a set of Twitter stickers to promote its upcoming “Harry Potter” spinoff “Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them,” making it the first entertainment brand to use paid Twitter stickers for its campaign. Earlier this month, Pepsi released a set of custom Twitter stickers to engage with Twitter users.

What Brands Need To Do
In-feed video ads on Twitter benefits from its context and produces better recall compared to other pre-roll ads, as our recent media trial concluded. Twitter’s searchable stickers are an extension of the emoji marketing that many brands including Coca-Cola and Toyota have experimented with. As Twitter continues to improve its various ad products to appeal to brand marketers in the hope of boosting its ad revenues, it is up to brand marketers to figure out which ad unit fits best for your campaigns.

 

Sources :AdWeek & Variety

Why Snapchat Is Pushing For Shorter Ads

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Ads on Snapchat are already pretty short, typically ranging from 15 seconds to 30 seconds. But with users typically skipping an ad after two seconds, Snapchat is now reportedly recommending brands to cut their ads between Stories to seven seconds and those within Live Stories to five seconds. The fast-growing messaging app is expected to grow its user base by 27% this year, according to a new eMarketer report.

What Brands Need To Do
The short user attention and low tolerance towards ads are compelling Snapchat to suggest shorter ad length, which presents various creative challenges for brands to overcome. Therefore, it is important that brands take Snapchat’s recommendation into consideration and get to the point quicker. Besides, brands seeking mobile audiences should also consider creating engaging branded content or sponsoring popular influencers to reach Snapchat users.

 

Source: Marketing Land

Facebook Tests Autoplay Mobile Video With Sound

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Don’t be startled by the unexpected loud sound you may hear next time you scroll past a video in your Facebook feed. The social network is said to be testing its autoplay videos on mobile to play with the sound on, as it aims to make its video products more engaging. The test is reportedly active in Australia, where some videos in the News Feed is playing with the sound on.

Why Brands Should Care
There have been some debates over the role of sound in social video ads, and publishers and brands have more or less adapted to the silent autoplay video (unless clicked upon) standard that Facebook sets by including more captions to make their videos watchable even without audio. Should Facebook choose to move forward with this test, it certainly creates new opportunities for brands to grab Facebook users’ attention with audio cues. But brands also need to beware of the potential disruption that autoplay video with sound may bring to the user experience, and should deliberate with the creatives to decide on the best approach for your social video campaigns.

 

Source: Mashable

Pinterest Debuts Mobile-Only Promoted Video Ads

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Pinterest has joined the ongoing push for video ads among social media sites as it debuts its first video ad product, Promoted Video, on its mobile apps. Users will see the GIF-like Cinematic Pin ads as a teaser for the video ads, which users can tap on the Cinematic Pins to play in a new page that also displays a gallery of branded pins below the video. The Promoted Video ads run up to five minutes long and can be formatted horizontally or vertically. Pinterest says it has no plan to bring this video ad unit to desktop devices at the moment.

What Brands Need To Do
Leading social media companies have long been putting a lot of effort into building out their video products and vying for the ad dollars flowing into digital video. Facebook launched its auto-playing video ad in March 2014, and Twitter quickly followed suit with Promoted Video ads in August 2014. In this regard, Pinterest may seem a bit late to the party, but the way it incorporates the video ad into its existing mobile user experience should provide some add-on value for brand marketers looking to further engage Pinterest users and leave a lasting impression beyond Cinematic Pins.

 

Source: Marketing Land

Facebook Tests New Video-Centric Features On Android App As Mobile Ad Sales Soar

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Facebook is building out its video products on mobile as it chases more ad dollars. The social giant has started testing a slew of video-centric features on its Android apps, including a dedicated video tab and subscription-based video channels. Facebook first started testing similar features on its desktop sites in March.

The move is most likely motivated by Facebook’s desire for more mobile ads. Earlier this week, Facebook shared that its overall ad sales hit $6.2 billion during the second quarter, increasing its overall ad revenue by 59% compared to last year. The growth is largely attributed to the strong performance of its mobile ads as 84% of its ad sales came from mobile.  

What Brands Need To Do
As Facebook continues its quest to challenge YouTube’s position as the destination for online video, it presents video advertisers with more opportunities to engage with its over 1.7 billion monthly active users with video ads. As more and more people start consuming video content on mobile devices, it is imperative that brands follow the viewers and consider adopting a mobile-heavy media mix to reflect the shift in audience behavior.

 

Sources: MediaPost & AdWeek