CatapultX recently sent out a survey to leading advertisers, brands, and agencies in the video advertising space. As CatapultX is preparing to flip the video advertising world upside down, we wanted to get a feel for the current practices, perceptions and ideas for the future.

If you’re interested in learning more about our research, you can download the Survey Results Summary for free.

Advertisers Know They’re Not Pleasing Everyone

It’s no surprise that 80% of advertisers/brands surveyed stated that conversion is the most important KPI when video advertising — but what else comes into play when building an advertising strategy? With exciting, new ad formats coming into play, we wanted to take stock of industry norms in video advertising today.

You see, advertisers think that pre-roll ads are the most successful.

Mid-roll results are relatively low when it comes to success rates from advertisers (10%). This begs the question of why advertisers are still interrupting our videos with mid-roll.

However, when asked what they think their customers would prefer — 60% chose other ad formats than pre-roll. When asked what their brand managers would prefer, only 30% chose pre-roll — none chose mid-roll.

This shows that advertisers are aware that pre-roll is not king when it comes to video advertising, both in terms of keeping their clients/brands happy as well as the end-user.

What ad-types did they choose?

Well, 35% of advertisers said that overlay would please brand managers and the video-viewers/customers. What’s so great about overlay ads? They’re clear, present a call-to-action, allow for visualization of your offer, don’t require video production, and best of all, they don’t interrupt the viewer’s video.

With that, 57% stated that they would be looking to gain contextuality in the coming years within their advertising as cookies are sunset and data-privacy becomes more of a focus. Contextual ads are those served relating to the content, rather than what the user has done previously.

What To Do Now That You Know Advertisers are Aware

Advertisers know that pre-roll isn’t serving anyone. It’s antiquated. It’s time to jump into a user-first strategy. The first thing you should do is talk to your advertiser or agency — find out if they have tested into other strategies or formats. What is the click-through rate on overlay or squeeze back ads in comparison to pre-roll? Run a test! Get familiar with different video advertising formats that could serve you, your audience, and your brand better.

Need a little help?

The innovative CatapultX formula will allow advertisers to place ads contextually, within a video, where it won’t interrupt. Download the rest of our advertiser results and keep abreast about and other research we’re conducting.

If you want a few targeted tips on how to breach the subject with your advertiser or agency, we’ve got you covered. Throw 15 minutes on our calendar today.

Who is CatapultX?

Founded in 2019, CatapultX is an AI-based platform at the forefront of innovative video marketing. Serving contextually relevant video ads that don’t interfere with consumer experience, CatapultX brings a profitable, engaging and enjoyable experience to publishers, advertisers and audiences. If you are interested in expanding the profitability of your content or building a more robust advertising portfolio, reach out to us at info@catapultx.com or set up a meeting with someone from our sales team.

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