Online Video Ads Were Up 205% in 2013

According to comScore, the audience for online video has grown 4 percent over the past year. The number of video ads? Up 205 percent.

People are watching a lot of online video. But the ad-serving firm Vindico sees something more nefarious in those numbers. Vindico, which tracks 40 percent of all video ads served on the Web, found that 57 percent of 2.7 billion ads it tracked over a recent two-month period were not viewable.

Perhaps even more eye-popping was the list of sites delivering the most video ads over that time. No YouTube, Hulu or Yahoo here. Instead, No. 1 is Blinkx.com. Vindico recorded 217 million views on Blinkx, about 23 percent of which were viewable.

CBS came in second with 195 million views and an 88 percent viewability rate. MSN was third, with just a 57 percent viewability rate. Several other top brands produced surprisingly low rates, including AOL and HuffPost, each at 60 percent.

Sites to appear in Vindico’s top 20 video site ranking:
• Wikia.com: 66 million impressions, 18 percent viewable
• Reellibrary.com: 28 million impressions, 18 percent viewability
• Uvidi.com, which syndicates content from the likes of Glamour, Vogue and Parents, 33 million impressions, 25 percent viewability

Surprisingly, there seems to be a huge spike in autoplay video running below the fold where people can’t see it. This is a huge priority, and nobody knows what to do about it. Also noted: the number of video ad networks has jumped from 50 in 2010 to 150 today, further muddling the supply chain.

Vindico has developed its own video viewability grading system. Most major media brands have avoided getting Ds and Fs, but more than half of the ad networks and exchanges the company monitors have.

Overall the industry is mistakenly using a volume-driven, display advertising mentality when serving video ads.

The real questions are:
What is the definition of viewability, and is it really applicable to digital video?

Technology that can catch bogus ads before they are delivered is key. But brands and their agencies are at fault for creating unrealistic expectations. Media buyers, trying to justify share shifts, are saying, ‘We’re getting incredible rates and scale’ [with Web video]. Such CPM goals drive bad behavior.

Take your video marketing to the next level.
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