Measures of Success: Video

Video ads have often been considered a top-of-funnel ad channel. They’re the videos we have to watch before our YouTube series begins, the ads we see during the breaks in our Hulu binge, and autoplay videos we scroll past on social media platforms. These ads seem to exist to ensure we’re aware of these brands, but we aren’t actually clicking on them, right? 

Marketers have been steering the wrong direction when it comes to their video ad strategies. They’re certainly great at driving top of funnel awareness, but these metrics shouldn’t limit your video ad strategy. Video ads can be utilized at every stage of the funnel, driving consumers entirely through from discovery to conversion.

Classic Metrics Are Still Valuable

This is not a blog about why we need to completely shift how we look at success metrics for our video ads. The metrics marketers have traditionally utilized for video ads are still valuable. For example, impressions are still important to track as they will help measure the amount of awareness to your brand that the video ads are driving. 

Another popular strategy in video ads is partnering with creators on video channels such as YouTube and video sharing social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. Again, impressions on those videos are important to track as well, and they can lead to conversions if you trust the right influencers. 

Consideration metrics are important to measure as well. These can be in the form of view-through rate and watch time. If everyone is skipping your ad, it may be time to pivot to a new direction for your video ads. 

However, these KPIs often toe the line between being valuable and vanity metrics. Measuring them can be important, but the emphasis you place on them shouldn’t trump actual success metrics. 

Moving into More Conversion-Based Metrics

It’s not common for video ads to convert directly from the ad. Very few people are actually clicking on ads unless there’s an offer or promotion included in the ad itself. For the most part, these ads are driving awareness so that viewers will go to the website later. But in current systems, this isn’t trackable — at least not yet. 

For now, teams must track both direct and indirect conversions from their video ads. Direct conversions would be clicks that lead to purchase, while indirect conversions can be a mix of increased traffic and increased conversions as a percentage increase relative to your average traffic and sales prior to ad launch and are more likely than direct conversions. This metric can be especially useful for video ads that can’t be clicked, such as video ads streaming through CTV.

Once cookies die out in 2022, the unique identifier that will replace it will be imperative to track your conversions. Many of your users are signing in to CTV, YouTube, and social channels through their email addresses. Often, they’ll be inputting the same email into their conversions. Tracking users who saw your ad, even if they didn’t click on it, and later on bought from your website will be the gold standard for tracking video ad conversions. 

How Video + Other Ad Channels = a Winning Strategy

The key to any winning ad strategy is blanketing your ad to as much of the relevant market as possible. Video ads are no different and using these ads in tandem with your other ad channels can make a winning strategy.

Programmatic and video go hand-in-hand together because you can distribute video through programmatic ad tech. Leveraging the power of programmatic channels’ data and efficiencies with the attention-grabbing power of video can be a winning strategy. Combining your audience data with the relevant videos will get your video ads in front of the right audience instead of taking a shot in the dark hoping to find the right audience. 

Social ads and video ads also complement each other well. Many social platforms host videos already, like Instagram and Snapchat. This can lead to a higher viewer rating given that these don’t immediately appear as ads, especially when made well. 

And to really drive conversions with your video ads, promote them within retargeting campaigns. Retargeting drives more conversions than new customer ads, so knowing that video ads don’t need to just be top-of-funnel, consider utilizing video as a part of your retargeting efforts. 

It’s about time that marketers understand the power of video ads at every point in the funnel. Effective ToFu drivers, as well as BoFu converters, video ads have a place at every stage of the customer journey. 

Get in touch with Adtaxi today to see how video ads could work for you.