There’s no other way to say this, so we’ll just say it: publishers need to do video advertising. It’s 2021. The future is now, and the future is video. As video content has taken over a larger share of the internet, video advertising revenue has become an increasingly important pillar of publishers’ revenue. Who can afford to leave all that revenue on the table?

With years of advertising experience and countless successful revenue optimization campaigns for major brands under our belts, we know this: video advertising works. But learning exactly why video advertising works is how skeptical publishers become enthusiastic cheerleaders. In this post, we walk you through why video ads are so effective and how publishers can take advantage of them to bring in more revenue. 

The team at Playwire knows video advertising works for publishers because we’ve made it work hundreds of times. If you want to work with the team that knows how to drive your video ad revenue higher, contact us.

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Growing Potential in Video Advertising Revenue

Although the common wisdom in digital advertising is that video advertising revenue is higher than other ad types like display, it’s difficult to get an accurate picture of the average video advertising cost per mille (CPM). CPMs change across verticals, and various factors can affect CPMs. However, it’s not difficult to understand that the potential for higher revenue is huge in video.

US video ad spend on mobile and desktop is expected to exceed $55 billion in 2021, and experts think it will keep on growing to hit $78.5 billion by 2023. Everybody does display ads, and that’s a big part of why display ad spend is still higher than video — projected at more than $92 billion in the US this year. But video is growing fast, and publishers who get in on it now will have a golden opportunity to capitalize on the growth.

High-Quality Video Ads Grab Viewers’ Attention

When a video starts playing, it’s hard to look away. There’s color, sound, movement and the temptation to find out what’s going to happen next. This is true of all kinds of video — ads included. And it’s part of the reason why video advertising works. 

The internet is absolutely bursting at the seams with content. As all publishers know, competing for people’s attention is beyond difficult. But video has a distinct advantage over other formats, such as text: it doesn’t ask anything of the viewer. Unlike a text-based ad or article, a video plays before the user’s eyes. They just have to sit back and watch — they don’t have to read or think too hard.

A picture really is worth a thousand words, and if you’re running 10-second video ads on your site at 24 frames per second, that’s 240 pictures and 24,000 words. Try cramming that into a banner ad.

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Videos Tell a Story, and Stories Are Shareable

Between YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat, the average consumer has a lot of places to share and like video ads. And they do. In 2020, video ads on YouTube racked up more than 1.3 million likes and 470 million views.

The long-form sales letters of old told stories that people liked to read, but that’s not what advertising looks like anymore. Now, people watch videos. And when they come across a video ad that tells a pleasing, funny or satisfying story, they share it. Advertisers understand how powerful this effect can be, and they’re willing to pay higher CPMs to achieve it. That’s great news for publishers who want more revenue.

Better Brands Buy Video Ads

Because video ads generally have a higher price point than display ads, they instantly weed out spammy advertisers. You know the ones — you’d be embarrassed to have their ads on your site or app. But there are so many of them, and it can be a full-time job to block them all out. Video solves that problem organically.

Of course, there are still some video ads that appear spammy, but most low-quality advertisers can’t afford the premium price of video. That means you have higher-quality ads on your site to align with your high-quality content.

Letterboxd | Ad Monetization Case Study

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Videos Can Be Great for SEO

We’re talking about video advertising revenue, so how does SEO come into play? Because better SEO means more visitors to your site. And that means you have more impressions to sell. Video is rich media, and when search engines detect rich media on a site, they see that as evidence that the site’s content is likely high-quality.

In this way, video advertising can become a self-propelled machine. You create videos to run video ads, Google and other search engines see that as a positive signal and improve your rankings, more people find your site through search and you get more impressions to sell. The result is higher revenue.

Video Advertising Really Works with Playwire

Here’s the truth: understanding why video advertising works doesn’t mean it will work for you. If you’re working with the wrong video advertising platform, you’re not going to get good results. To bring in the video advertising revenue your site or app needs to survive and thrive, you need to choose your platform carefully.

The Playwire team has worked for years to build the best video ad platform on the market. Well before video ads were all the rage, we were pouring our hearts and souls into this thing. Now, we have a lightweight and beautiful video player, studio-quality video content and relationships with all of the biggest and best demand partners. We’re proud of that, and we’re ready to share it with you.

To work with Playwire and grow your revenue, all you have to do is get in touch with us. Reach out online today.

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An in-depth look at video ads for web and app publishers