Achievement Unlocked: monetizing online games with TrueView and AdX
With every new plot planted and zombie zapped to bits, the online games industry is changing the way we interact with entertainment. Online games publishers work with us to grow their gaming empires across all screens, from distribution and downloads through to in-game advertising. We’ve also recognized a growing advertiser demand to reach highly engaged games audiences. So we were especially excited to announce two launches at Europe’s Game Developer Conference: we’re launching the TrueView video ad format across our games monetization platforms, and opening up the DoubleClick Ad Exchange to monetize desktop games.
TrueView creates a better ad experience for gamers, and higher monetization for publishers
We all know how important it is to create a gamer-friendly ad experience, which is why we’re bringing one of our most successful ad formats to games: the skippable video ad. TrueView Instream skippable video ads drive a lot of advertiser demand on YouTube, the Ad Exchange, and AdSense for video. Following on Susan Wojcicki’s beta announcement earlier this year, we’re now making TrueView video ads available to all games publishers on AdX, AdSense for games, and select mobile publishers on AdMob. During the beta, we found that TrueView video ads contributed to lower abandonment rates and greater monetization compared to normal instream video ads.
The Ad Exchange posts a new high score with desktop in-game ads
Programmatic channels have revolutionized the way we buy and sell online advertising – and now the launch of in-game ads on the Ad Exchange gives developers the same sophisticated platform to accelerate their monetization efforts. Publishers who have desktop Flash and HTML5 games can now access the global advertiser demand, top-performing ad formats, and finely-tuned controls offered by the Ad Exchange. Advertisers can now specifically target online games’ highly engaged audiences with wide range of gamer-friendly ad formats. These include image and text overlays and interstitials, right through to standard video ads and the skippable TrueView video ad format.
We think that opening the programmatic channel and the rise of gamer-friendly ad formats like TrueView will drive even better monetization for games – which is great news for game publishers, but perhaps not for the zombies.
Posted by
Rebecca Illowsky and Allen Huang
Product Managers, Games Monetization
When people are given a choice in the ads they see, it provides incentives to advertisers and publishers to create a better user experience. The rising popularity of skippable video ads is one example of how choice is propelling video advertising to a whole new level. As more brands and publishers grow their video advertising investments and increase programmatic video budgets, we’re seeing first-hand how giving viewers choice drives better results for everyone.
To bring together how choice benefits publishers, advertisers and viewers, we analyzed skippable video ads on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange and revisited some previous studies on the skippable video ad format TrueView in-stream in our research “Video Advertising Momentum”.
- Publishers get a more attentive audience: Skippable ads reduce audience abandonment rates by 50% compared to standard in-stream ads. That means more people are continuing to watch video, swelling your audience numbers and deepening their engagement with your content. Selling skippable ads through DoubleClick for Publishers or through AdX increases monetization without sacrificing viewer experience.
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Advertisers get a more engaged audience: Viewers are 75% more engaged when watching a skippable ad compared to a standard pre-roll, and this engagement has positive knock-on effects on brand favorability and purchase intent. And once you’ve identified viewers who choose to watch your ad, you can extend your campaign through remarketing or storyboarding a continued message.
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Viewers get a better experience: 4 out of 5 viewers prefer skippable ads to non-skippable ads. Cultivating a viewer-friendly advertising experience is proving more effective for advertisers and enables publishers to earn revenue without impacting viewers.
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Digital video opens up new ways to engage viewers, and skippable ads are just one way of doing this. But if these findings are anything to go by, there are strong reasons for advertisers and publishers to incorporate skippable video ads in their advertising strategy.
Posted by Mel Ann Chan, Product Marketing
Video is the rising star of digital advertising. As we discussed in last week’s post, our new research “Video Advertising Momentum” found that brand advertisers are upping their video campaigns to reach their audiences across the web. In this installment, we uncover another rising trend: advertisers are increasing their video budgets in programmatic channels.
We’ve seen quite an uptick in video ads across the DoubleClick Ad Exchange, with volume tripling in the first quarter 2012 – 2013. The stars of programmatic video are Automotive and Retail advertisers. They were the top two video advertiser categories overall, and both of them quadrupled programmatic video spend in Jan – March compared to last year. But growth seems across the board – nearly every advertiser category posted double-digit growth in spend and impressions. Take a look at the full research New ways of buying and selling video ads: the programmatic channel in “Video Advertising Momentum”.
Why would an advertiser or publisher consider video advertising on the Ad Exchange? The reasons are numerous, but we’ve distilled it down to four:
- Efficiencies: The Ad Exchange streamlines workflow between advertisers and publishers, with campaigns running across multiple sites and viewing devices.
- Emerging technology: Advertisers can now optimize their buys across destinations using advanced bid controls and analytics. The Ad Exchange brings new formats such as skippable video ads and comprehensive methods of measuring campaign performance to more advertisers and publishers.
- Expanding audiences and revenue: Programmatic video buying through AdX helps advertisers extend their reach and gain frequency to new audiences. Publishers can expand their demand sources and gain increased revenue for their video inventory.
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Evolving video advertising: As digital video gains even more momentum, publishers and advertisers are forging new ways to create shared value, including private exchanges and preferred deals.
For a discussion about programmatic video in from both advertiser and publisher perspectives, check out the Q&A between TubeMogul and Silver Chalice “What’s the value in programmatic video?”. Next week, we’ll take a look at how choice is changing the way we think about video advertising.
Posted by Mel Ann Chan, Product Marketing
[Cross-posted on the DoubleClick Advertisers blog]
When we think about the multi-billion dollar future of digital advertising, we believe that much of that growth will be driven by video. Video advertising is a very compelling way to connect and grow an audience, especially when we layer on technology’s creative possibilities. What’s driving its astronomic growth?
We took a look at video ads across DoubleClick’s advertising platforms to identify areas of opportunity for advertisers and publishers, and shared these areas of growth in a three-part research collection: “Video Advertising Momentum”. We exclusively analyzed in-stream video ads that played against video content, and focused on ads served on sites globally, excluding Google owned and operated sites like YouTube. We’re going to unpack the findings over the next two weeks, kicking it off with this infographic.
Digital video advertising is essential for brand campaigns.
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Advertisers are getting into digital video in a big way: two out of five video ads on the DoubleClick advertising platforms came from advertisers new to digital video in 2013 – and many of them were large brand advertisers.
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68% of video ads in the last 12 months came from four advertiser categories dominated by large brand advertisers. The top video advertiser categories were Automotive and Retail, with Consumer Packaged Goods and Technology advertisers rounding out the top four.
Publishers are growing audiences and revenue with more video.
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News publishers are redefining the way they deliver the news. As they increase their focus on video news content, they’re running 3 times more video ads this year than last.
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Video content is coming from all across the web – not just from TV or entertainment publishers. Sites that have benefit from increased video spending include Automotive & Vehicle, Sports, Computers & Electronics, and Shopping sites.
For video, the opportunity is clear: brand advertisers are using video to reach their audiences across the web, and publishers are powering their content strategy with more video. We can’t wait to see how video rockets digital advertising to new heights.
Stay tuned for next week’s post as we dive into how programmatic video has hit its prime-time. And if you can’t wait that long, check out the full Video Advertising Momentum collection to explore them on your own.
Posted by Mel Ann Chan, Product Marketing
Publishers everywhere are discovering the revenue and audience growth potential of video content. As a publisher grows a video viewership on their site, selling their own ads becomes an increasingly important revenue stream. Over the past year we’ve added mobile capabilities and tested out video ad serving features to better help publishers sell advertising across all screens and formats. So today we’re excited to announce the availability of video ad serving features plus an unlimited video ad serving trial offer to all DFP Small Business publishers.
So what’s new?
Comprehensive video ad creative management
- Show pre-roll, post-roll, and mid-roll in-stream ads, as well as overlays and companion creative sets
- Upload and transcode video ad assets to a variety of formats
Simple workflow with trusted partners
- To use the video ad management features, publishers need to integrate with video technology platforms to ensure optimal video ad playback and easy implementation
- Manage your video ads alongside your desktop and mobile display ads in DFP Small Business
Make the most from every stream
- Video backfill options with Google AdSense and the DoubleClick Ad Exchange to help maximize your video ad revenue with a high fill rate
- To apply for the AdSense for video program, send us your details
Video ad serving is free up to 400K ad impressions a month. Until April 30th, we’re offering a free unlimited trial, so you can serve as many video ads as you want. After this trial offer has ended, impressions over 400K a month will be charged a nominal ad serving fee on a CPM basis.
If you’d like to start with DFP Small Business, sign up here. The new video functionality is automatically turned on for all current DFP Small Business publishers, so if you’re ready to start selling video ads, log in now!
Posted by Andrew Kuo, DFP Small Business video product specialist
Bring your A-game to video
On Monday, we unveiled news on how mobile is evolving in DFP, enabling publishers to execute upon their multi-device strategy. Today we’re focusing on another high-growth area – video advertising – and sharing what’s possible with DFP Video advanced features. Stay tuned for more DFP and DFP Small Business announcements later this week.
Publishers everywhere are thriving upon the incredible momentum in video advertising. They’re tackling the operational challenges of delivering video campaigns to smart phones, tablets, and connected TVs, as well as pushing the creative envelope with eye-catching interactive ads. A little over a year ago we launched DFP Video, and since then we have seen month-on-month impression growth climb to 65% from non-Google publishers on the platform.
At the recent IAB Ad Operations Summit, we highlighted a few examples of how advertisers and publishers are bringing their A-Game to video. We wanted to share some news about DFP Video that will help publishers bring amazing ads to audiences anywhere.
Amazing ads unlock the value of the engaged viewer
We all know that viewers love to have a choice in what video ads they watch. We just launched a beta for publishers to traffic any video ad as a skippable ad. Why would a publisher want to make advertising skippable? We found that skippable ads on YouTube lower content abandonment rates by 40% as well as deliver more engaged viewers to advertisers.
Audiences want a better ad experience
Advanced Ad Rules and Podding Choices help publishers create a relevant ad experience for various viewer and content scenarios. For example, publishers can lower the number of ads shown to subscribers versus non-subscribers, or choose to show a bumper to promote a new miniseries to audiences watching episodes categorized as “drama”. Publishers have also used Ad Rules to match the commercial break pattern for a new online episode with the ad experience on TV for a set period of time.
Any(where) you want it, that’s the way you need it
We’re indulging in a bit of a Journey moment to share that video ads served to mobile devices in DFP Video have grown 59% month over month from September to November. In a big step towards a more seamless ad experience across all screens, we’re bringing increased sophistication to our HTML5, iOS, and Android Interactive Media Ads (IMA) SDKs that show video ads in mobile web and in-app environments. These SDKs will be as comprehensive as our newest version for Flash. For publishers requiring a more plug-and-play approach, many video technology companies have partnered with us to implement these SDKs, so that publishers can work with the provider that best suits their needs.
We’re pumped to roll out our video A-game for DFP. More and more publishers are telling us what they’ve gained from managing their video, mobile, and desktop ads from DFP’s unified platform – so if there’s anything that catches your eye, contact your account representative to find out more.
Posted by
Rany Ng, Group Product Manager, Video Monetization
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