We all know by now that online video advertising has a lot of potential, but how do you go about tapping that potential. Some recent numbers showing that less than 20% of SMB’s are using video online got me thinking about the options for online video advertising and what works best.
Pre-roll — This has become the standard and do a search on LostRemote and you’ll find all sorts of studies. The problem for most local media outlets is that the CPM doesn’t cover the costs of creating content.
In-display ad video — A growing trend that uses video as a display ad. Some outlets are doing this on their own with their existing staff and technology, while others are turning to vendors. This seems to be pretty successful because the investment is made after a sales rep sells (not to mention the CTRs are pretty impressive).
One-off advertorial videos — This is the area that is most interesting to me. It’s easy to make a video about a business, and it’s easy to host that video, but how do you get traffic to it? A lot of media outlets, including the one I work for, seem to create one-offs that never get traffic (and each one means new development). A good example is an Attorney Guide with video about the ten different attorneys in the area. Who goes to a news website to learn about attorneys? I think the answer to this problem is local search. With a local search site you have people looking for businesses and if you want to expand into a new vertical, you’ve already got the infrastructure. Companies like TurnHere, Mixpo, Jivox and PixelFish specialize in creating videos for businesses wanting to advertise on local search sites.
So, while we all are spinning our wheels trying to figure out what works, what’s your online video advertising solution? Does it work?