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About the Series

Welcome to the Ad Tech Build vs. Buy Series. In this series, we’ve tapped the expertise of our team, each of which has years of industry working with the pieces of the ad tech stack you’re considering implementing or purchasing.

In today’s entry in the series, we rely on the expertise of Andrew Petroka, our Sr. Director of Product. He has over 10 years of experience in ad tech, specifically in helping to build and manage video players. If anyone can tell you what you’ll need to know to decide on the right strategy for your video player, it’s him!

Check out all the blogs in this series.

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Raider.IO increased its revenue by 50% by switching to Playwire

Is it Time for a Video Player?

If you want video ads — and the huge amount of revenue that can come with them — you’re going to have to have a video player on your website or app. Whether you’re running video ads with no content or monetizing high-quality video content you’ve made yourself, the video player is an essential piece of the revenue puzzle.

But how, exactly, should you go about getting a video player? There are a few ways to do it, but they each come with their own sets of pros and cons. In this post, we discuss your video player options and how to make your decision. Read on to learn everything you need to know.

Playwire’s video player is just one part of what publishers get when they work with us. We also create studio-quality video content, source broad demand and add direct sales to push your revenue through the roof. Want in? Reach out.

Three Options: Open-Source, Enterprise and Outsource

As you set out to find a video player that will set you up to bring in video ad revenue, you will find that you have three basic options:

  1. An open-source player
  2. An enterprise player
  3. A video advertising partner

Each of these options will have different effects on your own experience, your users’ experience and your revenue. Let’s look at each choice in more detail.

1. Building an Open-Source Video Player

The internet is vast. It contains just about anything you could want to find, and that includes a ton of open-source video players. These are video players that you can use on your site or app for free. 

The catch? You have to do it all yourself. The basic code for the player is there, but you have to put it on your site, connect it to an ad server and source demand for your video ad inventory. To make it all work, you’re going to have to find a bunch of plugins that make the video player run ads and work correctly on your site. If you want to do programmatic advertising and header bidding, you’ll face an entirely new set of tech hurdles. In the end, you will likely end up working in three to four open-source libraries at the least.

In other words, unless you have deep coding and technical knowledge, you're going to need to hire a developer, or a few, to set it all up. And that gets expensive quickly. Then, you have the problem of scale — the more content and ads you play, the more chances you have for your player to break, meaning your tech team will need to grow as your audience grows. That’s not an effective way to scale your revenue.

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Read the ABCya case study.

2. Licensing an Enterprise Video Player

Fortunately, the open-source option is the only one that requires deep technical knowledge or a development team. There’s plenty of middle ground to be found in the world of enterprise video players.

Enterprise video players like BridTV and JW Player are strong on video player tech. That’s the high point. You get a highly functional video player that works like a charm. Where these enterprise players fall short, however, is on the monetization side.

Historically, enterprise platforms have focused more on tech and less on monetization. They have moved toward monetization in recent years, with some adding header bidding auctions and similar ad tech. But they still have gaps. For example, you’re not going to find an enterprise player that comes with a direct sales team that can funnel high-value direct demand into your video ad strategy. That leaves money on the table.

Speaking of money, you had better have a lot of it if you want to go this route. Enterprise video players are expensive. And because they’re often short on monetization, they don’t always pay for themselves.

3. Working with an End-to-End Video Ads Partner

The third option is our favorite. That’s partly because Playwire fits squarely into it, but the benefits are crystal-clear with or without our bias. A comprehensive video advertising partner like Playwire will give you the following:

  • A sleek, fast and functional video player
  • Industry specific, studio-quality content to run alongside your video ads
  • Access to broad demand for your inventory
  • Support and service teams to make sure everything is working perfectly
  • A global direct sales team that works to bring you high-value direct-sold video ads

That means you don’t have to code. You don’t have to figure out how to find demand for your inventory. You don’t have to worry that your revenue is not reaching its full potential. With Playwire on your side, all of your video advertising needs are covered in full.

Playwire Video Ads: Saving Time, Filling Gaps, Growing Revenue

Looking for a video player? You have a choice to make. Of your three main options, we firmly believe that working with a trusted video ad partner is the way to go. And the Playwire team firmly believes we’re that partner.

Why? Because we solve the problems that the other options create for your team. You won’t waste time and money trying to build your own video player. You won’t miss out on revenue because of your incomplete enterprise player. With Playwire, you’ll get everything necessary to push your revenue to new heights. And that’s what this is really about, right?

If you would like to learn more about what Playwire can do for you, we would love to hear from you. All you have to do is contact us online.

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