A year ago, online publishers could still achieve good yields from traditional banner-style inventory for their core clients, to access a targeted and responsive audience: £15-20 CPM was not unknown. However, the ad market is now flooded with inventory and the growth of behavioural targeting means that the lifestyle sites can offer tighter targeting, but at far lower CPMs. So how can the niche online publisher achive higher yields? With the growth in editorial video and audio, there are now opportunities to create more interactive, engaging ad formats. I recently met with one company, Adswizz, who offer a range of video and audio adserving technology that can integrate directly into publishers’ existing video serving and ad serving systems, so you don’t need to change your supplier. Here are some examples of the formats they have developed for other online publishers:
1. Pre-roll videos
We used these extensively at www.carmagazine.co.uk and they provided great targeting and tracking – and great yields. You will need to watch out for the length on shorter videos – even 30sec seems too much on a typical 3-5 min editorial video. There are some live versions on the freecaster site.
2. Overlay banners during video play
These can be made semi-transparent so they don’t obscure the playback. They can also be set so as to trigger only when the user goes to full-screen mode.
3. Ads during playback
These can be triggered at specified points in the video playback, maybe featuring products from the video. See the adswizz showcase.
4. Branded players
The video player itself can be sponsored and branded.
5. Ads during audio streaming
This was originally developed for RTL (Radio Luxembourg) and allows either broadcast ads to be streamed online, or for online ads to be sold separately. Alternatively, you can sell video ads for streamed radio services.
If you are already using video and audio ads, then I’d be interested to hear about your experiences. If this has sparked some ideas for you and you want to discuss further how to extend your ad offering, please contact me.
Carolyn Morgan’s consultancy business, Penmaen Media, creates practical digital media and marketing strategies for online media businesses. Find out more about our services on our main website.