In display advertising it’s common knowledge that larger ad units tend to out-perform their smaller sidekicks, but in video the size of the screen the ad is shown on tends to get more attention than the size of the player itself. However, Tremor Video have found a direct relationship between video player size and ad performance in terms of engagement and completion rates.
The video ad network says their analytics data showed that when viewers watched a video within a larger sized online player, they were far more likely to interact with the ad. Engagement rates nearly doubled when ads were served within a 400-pixel player, and they continued to climb for video ads served in even larger players.
Tremor say that viewer habits also began to resemble traditional TV watching behavior as player size expanded. Viewers were more inclined to sit through pre-roll ads shown on larger video players — approximately 62 percent of all viewers watched an ad through to completion when it appeared in a 400 to 500-pixel environment, while completion rate jumped up to nearly 75 percent when the ad appeared in a player between 500 and 700 pixels.
In a statement released by Tremor Video, Ron Amram, Senior Media Director at Heineken USA, said, “Online video is an excellent way to support a traditional TV buy, especially when viewers are treating online video the same way they do TV programming. They are turning to online video during primetime, and they’re doing so on devices with high-definition screens that offer TV-like viewing experiences. We want to be on those screens in larger video environments.”
While most in-stream ads are shown in players 400px and above in any case, Tremor are taking aim at the ads that are often shown in the 300×250 (MPU) ad units that were originally intended for display ads. Tremor say 98.3% of their ads run in players 400 pixels or larger they are now advising their publisher partners to consider increasing their player sizes to drive greater ad performance.
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