As publishers see rising returns on video, Facebook is getting more of their ad campaigns

As video is expected to bring in over $10 billion in digital ad revenue this year, according to eMarketer, publishers see video as the number one trend affecting their businesses.

A new survey from video ad tech firm Mixpo of 263 US sales and marketing professionals at local and national media outlets looks at the opportunity and challenges publishers face in taking full advantage of the digital video surge. Across the board, video formats topped the list of ad units seen as most likely to drive the highest ROI or ad revenue, with pre-roll video by far the preferred ad format. The use of video in banner units has also been growing as a way to expand inventory as premium video supply remains tight.

“The biggest trend in digital advertising is video. As a TV company we produce a ton of premium video and the industry just doesn’t have enough of it, which positions us well as we look to new product offerings.” Lindsey Lawson, Digital Sales Manager, WESH Television said in the report.

Facebook has become a dominant place where publishers extend their video ad campaigns as video has become more prevalent on the social network (Facebook executives envision a video-only news feed), and it has become a primary news and entertainment destination for users,

Half of publishers in a new survey said they have run video ad campaigns on Facebook, compared to just 31 percent on YouTube and fewer than a quarter (17 percent) on Twitter.

However, while publishers are able to extend their video assets across and beyond their own properties — a full 61 percent of publishers said they have sold video ads as a part of their audience extension packages on other networks — they face a challenge in realizing adequate return and engagement from these other networks and balancing scale with control. As one example, just 13.6 percent of the publishers surveyed said they use or plan to use Facebook Instant Articles, in large part because the program gives Facebook significant control over ad monetization. Publishers also say Facebook users click through on an article on mobile, where ad inventory is more limited, and they don’t stick around to read more.

Part of Facebook’s rise over YouTube is due to the attribution capabilities that come from reaching addressable, signed-in audiences rather than having to rely on cookies. With publishers saying that over half of their digital traffic comes from mobile, cookies largely become moot. Adequate attribution and measurement capabilities also remain elusive, publishers say. Attribution and measurement, along with ad viewability, tied at 69 percent as the top concerns among publishers. Just over half (51 percent) said ad fraud and bots were a significant concern, closely followed by the increase in mobile consumption (49 percent).

The full report is available for download (with registration).

About The Author

Ginny Marvin

As Third Door Media's paid media reporter, Ginny Marvin writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She provides search marketing and demand generation advice for ecommerce companies and can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.