Executive Summary | Next Gen Video Ad Monetization Webinar

Next Gen Video Ad Monetization: Webinar Recap

Earlier this month, Zype hosted a webinar on Next Gen Video Ad Monetization. We discussed the latest CTV advertising trends, the future of ad-supported content, and several other insights.

We understand that monetizing video content in today’s competitive landscape can be challenging. So, we wanted to help broadcasters and publishers gain a deeper understanding of the evolving CTV advertising ecosystem.

The webinar was moderated by Zype’s SVP of Product, Matt Moore. We were lucky to have been joined by other industry experts: Shout! Factory EVP (Strategy and Digital), Gene Pao, IRIS.TV CEO and Co-founder, Field Garthwaite, and TripleLift GM (Advanced Advertising), Michael Shields.

Click here to check out the webinar. Prefer reading instead? Check out our comprehensive guide to video monetization for a complete look into the nuances of video monetization.

Overview

Zype, IRIS.TV, and TripleLift help advertisers and publishers handle common challenges associated with video monetization. On the other hand, Shout! Factory has been a long-standing Zype customer and gave us a glimpse of a distributor’s perspective of video ad monetization.

Zype is an end-to-end video infrastructure platform that helps content owners distribute and monetize their content through various channels.

Shout! Factory is a content distribution company that helps video creators and publishers take their content to established digital platforms. They distribute a plethora of iconic films and TV shows, including Godzilla, Piranha, Jerry Lewis Telethon, and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Additionally, they have various FAST channel offerings.

IRIS.TV is a video connectivity platform that helps broadcasters and publishers connect their video assets to leading brand safety and contextual advertising platforms. They convert video content into easily understandable data and contextual signals, helping advertisers implement more relevant and engaging ad campaigns.

TripleLift is a programmatic advertising platform that offers a wide array of integrated ad formats. These include split screens, dynamic overlays, product placements, and more. They use machine learning algorithms to analyze video content and insert relevant ads using one of their integrated formats. The idea is to help publishers lower the overall commercial ad load while enhancing the viewing experience.

Current Trends in Video Ad Monetization

Ad-supported content is one of the many ways publishers use to monetize their content. But how do advertisers and consumers perceive ad-based monetization in 2022? 

To begin with, advertisers are open to increasing their CTV ad spending. In the US, it’s projected to reach nearly $30 billion by 2024. Additionally, a majority of them believe that CTV advertising is as effective (if not more) than traditional ads in terms of driving return on ad spend (ROAS) and reach.

The metrics that advertisers care about the most include conversions/revenue and reach. They also focus on brand awareness to assess the impact of their ads and understand whether their campaigns resonate with their target demographic.

It’s interesting to note that viewers don’t shun ad-supported content (contrary to what most content owners and advertisers believe). There’s a growing demand for ad-supported content among audiences. They’re willing to watch content with ads as long as it’s available for free. Case in point — even Netflix is going to use ads. 

However, the ad experience delivered by content owners matters. A majority of consumers don’t want too many ads to disrupt the viewing experience.

Consumers don’t want to watch the same ad multiple times on different platforms. They even want more control and flexibility in terms of when and how ads are presented. More than half of them reckon that they’d pay more attention to ads if they could decide at what point during a film or show they aired.

I*Image via eMarketer

Using Technology to Improve the Consumer Experience

While the demand for ad-supported content is growing among advertisers and audiences, it’s crucial to deliver the best viewing experience. Judicious use of platforms like TripleLift and IRIS.TV helps marketers and content owners insert contextually relevant ads with minimal disruption to the content, improving the viewing experience.

For instance, TripleLift helps publishers lower their ad load without taking a toll on their revenue. Instead of interrupting the content with explicit ads, the platform helps them organically integrate brand or product placements within a video. Additionally, it uses machine learning to identify the right time for inserting a relevant overlay or product placement in post-production. 

“The reason why we've created a solution that does all of it in post-production is to try to capture that market and bring automation and scalable technology to the marketplace, so it solves industry consumer pain points that were enumerated in the last slide there, and allows us to, you know, find more opportunities for marketers to still get in front of audiences and drive yield from publishers,” says Michael Shields.

Similarly, IRIS.TV turns video frames into concrete data and contextual signals. It helps advertisers ensure that their ads are placed in relevant and brand-safe environments. That translates into a better viewing experience and improved ad performance. It even benefits publishers by helping them engage and retain viewers.

Enhancing the User Experience: A Distributor’s Take

On the creator/publisher side, Gene Pao relies on individual VOD platforms to optimize the consumer experience. Distributors like Shout! Factory set ad breaks for VOD platforms and let them decide which ads to show at what point in a video.

Typically, VOD platforms have a firm understanding of user behavior, which they use to deliver engaging and relevant ads. For instance, if a user is new to the platform, they’ll see fewer ads because the goal is to retain them and get them hooked to the content.

When they become regular users, the ad load is gradually increased because there’s no longer the risk of churn. The idea is to tailor the ad experience based on where a viewer is on the customer journey.

When it comes to FAST channels, distributors allocate specific time slots. If there aren’t enough ads to fill those slots, they display their own promos or pull ads from other networks. In either case, enhancing the user experience with ad-supported content requires content owners to trust their technology partners.

Balancing Ad Effectiveness and Consumer Privacy

Accurate, reliable, and robust user behavior data is crucial for helping an advertiser deploy their video ad strategy. However, in recent years, there have been growing concerns about how the dependence on identity data will affect consumer privacy.

Several countries have passed laws and regulations to prevent the misuse of consumer data. Then there’s the rising adoption of cookieless marketing. 

In such a scenario, how do advertisers improve campaign performance without violating user privacy?

The good news is that CTV advertising isn’t dependent on cookies to begin with. Additionally, there’s a growing emphasis on collecting first-party data that combines different data sources and contextual analyses. Access to such first-party data will provide marketers with better targeting opportunities.

Watch Now On Demand

The Next Gen Video Ad Monetization webinar was a resounding success, where attendees got a closer glimpse of the current CTV advertising landscape. If you want to make the most of ad-based video monetization, you can watch the full webinar here.