True engagement needs to be looked at in terms of conscious active attention but how do you measure active attention and brand impact?
How significant is engagement? One of the most commonly used buzzwords in the industry, it’s still one of the most shrouded in confusion and misunderstanding.
Unfortunately, in a lot of cases this leads to misaligned incentives, dissatisfying results and wasted dollars. In order to avoid this happening, we really need to understand what engagement really means and share this across the industry.
With the cost of attention having increased by more than 700 per cent in the last two decades, competition in the industry has never been higher, and when you consider that only 0.06 per cent of banner ads result in measurable consumer action and that campaigns optimised to engagement increase their interaction rates to 10 per cent, you really begin to understand the importance of this engagement.
True engagement needs to be looked at in terms of conscious active attention whether cognitive, emotional or physical. But how do you measure active attention and brand impact? Big data is insufficient on its own, therefore measurement should include larger, brand awareness metrics such as purchase intent, sentiment and intent to seek information as well we more physical metrics including conversion rate, dwell time and interaction rate.
As we know, online video is now the fastest-growing ad category, thanks to the increasing size of screens on smartphones, the growth of net-connected devices and ever-faster connections. According to ZO, the sector grew 34 per cent last year to nearly $11 bn, with predictions of an average 29 per cent annual growth rate through 2017, when it could top $23 bn.
Engaging content goes far beyond a good video however; as the attention spans of customers get shorter, people are looking for more visual and memorable experiences, and one good video on its own is not enough. An effective campaign understands, defines and measures engagement in ways that positively impacts brand equity and sales.
Effective online video advertising is about context as much as content – in terms of the environment and the user. Contextual advertising is very targeted, placing the content of the ad in direct correlation with the content of the web page. But you also have to think about the viewer’s interests, behaviour and intentions.
It’s obvious that targeting ads will increase their performance dramatically, whether this is based on demographic information like age or gender, geographic locations or contextual data such as the subject matter of the websites. Not only will this make ads more relevant and impactful but it also reduces the cost by not advertising to people who would not be interested. This is why page-level contextualisation is so important – it scans not just the webpage but any user comments and conversations on the page to ensure a clear picture of the content.
Clearly, the ad needs to be in the right place at the right time. But we don’t just get one bite at the cherry. Retargeting generates greater online interaction by keeping a brand front and centre, and bringing ‘window shoppers’ back when they’re ready to buy. This process of keeping track of the people who visit your site, and displaying retargeted ads to them as they visit other sites online, is incredibly effective in increasing recognition and traction for a brand – and requires high quality inventory to succeed with video.
It’s important to bear in mind that a couple of visits to your website does not necessarily mean people want to see ads everywhere, however. In fact, overexposure would quickly have a negative effect. For that reason a frequency cap is recommended, which limits the number of times a user sees the ad. In addition, once customers are converted and have taken action online, they should be retargeted but with a new ad rather than something which asks them to carry out the same action again.
To maintain momentum and traction, fresh ads are required on a regular basis, even with a frequency cap and burn pixel that removes customers who have been converted. Click through rates decrease dramatically after four or five months of running the same set of ads, even if these have incredibly strong creative. The ads blend into the background as viewers become less and less interested.
Video ads therefore need to be short emotive experiences, which seamlessly combine sight, sound and motion – and which use the strongest asset at the start in order to engage with the viewer, and are updated regularly. Results of video campaigns need to be analysed to determine success, whether in terms of views, engagement or time spent and this analysis should be used to continually revise the digital video marketing strategy.
As we race towards the start of 2016, video content and advertising will become ever more prevalent, particularly as Google gets on board with in- SERP video advertising. This basically means that any searches will also receive advertisement videos streaming in the search engine results pages. This is a clear indication that customers want more visual media, and as a result, we can certainly expect to see more types of video ads appearing in less expected places. Video should, therefore, be a key component of all digital strategy and be continually tracked, and revised, to reflect a potentially fickle audience’s changing needs and desires as well as the brands own results and objectives.
Amer M. Attyeh is regional business head MENA at Exponential
