Video â What Are the Programmatic Options?

Here at Periscopix we are always keen to learn about new features that might fit well with our existing campaigns. Over the past few months we have launched some programmatic video activity and have been really impressed with the results we have been seeing so far, I'll go into this in more detail later.

There are of course lots of reservation options available for video. At the moment it seems that publishers are at the same place that they were with PMP deals a year ago (see Grace's excellent blog for more detail), but they are catching on to why programmatic is the way forward. We love programmatic because we can pick and choose the sites we want, how long we run the campaign for and can optimise based on performance. So we want that for video campaigns too.

What is Available?

Open Video Auction

We can run 30 second pre-roll videos on the open auction. We have the opportunity to overlay any audience or content targeting to coincide with our existing programmatic campaigns to make it more targeted. At the moment the site list isn't that extensive but we are sure that this will grow in the upcoming months.

Teads

This is a video option that has become integrated with DBM (DoubleClick Bid Manager) in the last quarter. It offers a different type of video format called in-read. The video will be embedded within an article on premium sites and will only play when at least 50% is in view, and once the viewer has finished watching the video disappears. The user also has the option to dismiss the video.

You can either target all the sites that Teads has to offer or pick and choose sites that are specific to your campaign so it is a really flexible option. Sites include The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Independent just to name a few. We also have the flexibility of pausing the campaign when we want as there is no minimum spend. We can add/take out sites based on performance and overlay any 1st or 3rd party audience targeting that we are running.

From the activity that we have run so far we have been really pleased with the results. The average completion rate (number of impressions/number of full views) we are seeing is similar to YouTube cost per view targeting at 23%. The format on YouTube is different as it's pre-roll so the user is intending to watch a video. For Teads the user is reading an article and then the video will appear within it. Although CPMs are £7-£30, if we look at the cost per completed view we are looking at an average of £0.06, which is again comparable to YouTube. We have also seen a really strong CTR of 0.15% (display average is 0.08%) and have seen both post click and post view conversions so it really is an avenue worth exploring.

The picture below shows how the video would appear in an article. As I mentioned earlier the video is contained within the article and will disappear when a user has finished watching or chooses not to see it.

Image source: Teads.tv

PMP pre-roll deals

This is again a developing segment of programmatic video, and as I mentioned earlier publishers are starting to make this more readily available. These are usually 30 second pre-rolls so appear before a video on the website that the user has chosen to watch. The CPM price is dependent on the publisher but you are normally looking at usual PMP rates of £7-£30 as it is premium inventory. Again, with more development in this area we will see more options available such as a publishers' 1st party data. This is the area that I predict will really grow in the next year.

Set-up

There are different specifications for Teads and Pre-Roll but these are usually quick and easy changes that can be made from your existing YouTube campaign videos. There is an additional cost of £0.50 per thousand impressions to run video activity which is something to consider. The set-up process is no more complex than setting up standard banners so allow the usual 2-3 weeks for the creative trafficking process.

Performance

What we can report on:

- Video Starts

- First-Quartile, Midpoint, Third Quartile and Completed Views – These are great metrics to see where users are perhaps losing interest in the video

- Completion Rate – See how many users are choosing to watch the whole video

- Audio Mutes (If Applicable) – The next four are all good indicators of how users are responding to your video and how you could perhaps improve the content

- Pauses (If Applicable)

- Full screen Views (If Applicable)

- Skips (If Applicable)

- Video Cost (CPCV) – Cost per completed view - this is great when comparing different video mediums

Coming Soon

Programmatic VOD – This is something Channel 4 announced in November last year and we are still waiting to hear more detail on what will be available (see here for more info).

If you are keen to learn more about this expanding space give us a call to discuss the programmatic video opportunities for your business.

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