Why your advertising should include in-app video, in-banner video, and in-page pre-roll video

More and more ad dollars are flowing into digital video, which means competition is increasing. So too is the cost of getting video messages in front of consumers. The good news is there are more avenues to deliver your ads today that are targeted, trackable, less intrusive, and more effective. In order to get your message out to your most valuable customers, your business should be using in-app video, in-banner video, and in-page pre-roll video ads.

In-App Video Ads

In-app video is inventory where a video ad plays within an app, for example between levels in games. These ads are very effective for a few key reasons. Firstly, they typically have the user’s attention since they are highly engaged in what is happening within the app. This is especially true since most apps are very interactive, particularly when compared to passive video inventory like traditional television. Secondly, in-app video ads are most often placed programmatically, opening up a whole new world of targeting options beyond simple demographics.

Types of mobile in-app video ads

1. Mobile Interstitial Video Ads – covering the entire screen; typically, a click removes the ad from the screen.
2. Native Video Ads – Ads presented after an action takes place, between levels or during natural breaks in content.
3. Reward Video Ads – A user receives a reward after completing a video
4. In-stream Video Ads – Ads are shown within the video before, during, or after a video plays.

In-Banner Video Ads

In-banner video ads are videos (or GIF creatives) embedded in the display banner ad space on a webpage, typically playing without sound. There are many different sizes available, but most inventory sticks to those banner sizes that are closest to native video formats for ease of conversion and optimal user experience. Because in-banner video is inventory where a video can play where you might usually see a display banner ad, you are able to take advantage of the contextual, behavioral, demographic, and psychographic targeting capabilities of normal banner display, while dramatically increasing the engagement of the user through more dynamic content.

Types of In-banner Video Ads

1. Click to Play – A static image appears, and when the user clicks on the creative, the video ad starts playing.
2. Autoplay with No Sound – When a user clicks on the video, the video ad starts playing without sound.
3. Hover to Play – A video only starts playing when a user hovers over an ad.

In-Page Pre-Roll Ads

In-page pre-roll is a short video ad played before a piece of video content on a web page, most commonly news articles and blogs. More and more news and information websites are incorporating video into their offerings, from traditional news outlets like CNN to smaller sites like how-to and cooking blogs. When a user is actively consuming video on these sites, there are opportunities to insert ads that are quick, unobtrusive and often the only ad content played in-stream – all of which makes for a much better user experience when compared to linear television where users deliberately take a break to avoid an entire block of commercials that all run together.

Types of In-Banner Video Ads

1. Skippable Ads – Users can skip the advert after five seconds.
2. Non-Skippable Ads – These ads are 15 to 20 seconds long.
3. Bumper Ads – Six seconds in length and non-skippable.

Advantages of In-App Video, In-Banner Video, and In-Page Pre-Roll Video ads

1. Like Over-the-Top (OTT)/Connected (CTV), this inventory is purchased programmatically. This automated technology for media buying utilizes data insights and algorithms to serve ads to the right user at the right time and the right price.
2. Inventory is plentiful because many consumers spend time in apps and reading articles online.
3. Inventory often sees less competition as advertisers are leaning too heavily towards big-name publishers like Hulu, Netflix, or Apple TV and focus on OTT/CTV as a replacement for traditional TV.
4. Some of this inventory is clickable, making click-through conversions trackable to supplement the usual view-through conversion tracking
5. (Most) inventory happens on the same smartphones where customers make purchases, making view-through conversions much easier to track, especially compared to cross-device view-through on most OTT/CTV inventory.
6. Inventory can achieve greater efficiency with cost per thousand impressions (CPMs).