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Facebook published research showing how consumers react to different ad formats, and what brands can do to most effectively get their messages across on various campaigns.
The study includes five video ad formats: in-feed, nonskippable pre-roll and mid-roll, skippable pre-roll and mid-roll, Stories, and live TV.
The research from Facebook can help advertisers reach an increasingly mobile-oriented audience. US consumers spent about five hours per day on their mobile devices in Q4 2016, up 20% year-over-year (YoY). Moreover, 94% of people said they use their phone while watching TV and often during commercial breaks, according to Facebook. There’s no singular video ad experience on digital, unlike TV, where the 30-second nonskippable ad spot is the main format, meaning mobile advertisers need to have an arsenal of unique ad strategies to be successful.
Below are the top three takeaways from Facebook’s video ad study:
- Nonskippable mid-roll and pre-roll ads are most similar to the TV ad experience,because nonskippable digital ads are often inserted into videos users actively choose to watch. As users are in a watching mindset, nonskippable mid-roll and pre-roll ads are often watched to completion with the sound on. In particular, Facebook Ad Breaks have over a 70% completion rate, according to the study. High completion rates bode well for Facebook, as it more heavily prioritizes longer videos in News Feed, which will host mid-roll and pre-roll ads.
- Only half of TV viewers watch TV ads for more than two continuous seconds. This means that roughly half of TV ads would be deemed viewable if evaluated against the Media Ratings Council’s (MRC) standard for mobile video viewability — 50% in view for two continuous seconds. This doesn’t mean TV ads are ineffective, but implies that TV marketers need to be able to quickly communicate their messages. TV networks are reacting accordingly — Fox and AMC have started airing 6-second ads, for example.
- “Stories” ads are the fastest-growing type of video ad format. Snapchat and Instagram Stories have 178 million and 300 million daily users, respectively, and are the main drivers behind the growing popularity of the Stories format. Stories are often shot by users on their mobile devices, and this means Stories ads don’t have to be elaborately produced to be successful, according to Facebook. Rather, brands should focus on quickly getting their messages across as users can quickly skip Snapchat and Instagram Stories ads. Snapchat users often skip its ads in less than one second, according to Ad Age.
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