Social and Live Video Are Increasingly on the Radars of Marketers, Agencies

As video advertising continues to grow across the board, marketers and agencies are increasingly focusing on social venues such as Facebook, Snapchat and Periscope—the last of which launched a video ad platform in Q2 2016, as explored in a new eMarketer report, “Q3 2016 Digital Video Trends: Monetization, Audience, Platforms and Content” (eMarketer PRO customers only).

A June 2016 study by Trusted Media Brands (TMB) and Advertiser Perceptions showed large percentages of US agencies and marketers increasing their budgetary commitments to digital video advertising overall, and to programmatic video advertising specifically. A majority of agency respondents said their video and programmatic video ad budgets would increase in the 12 months following the survey, while nearly all other agency respondents said budgets would stay the same. The numbers were more modest among marketers, with larger percentages keeping budgets at current levels than increasing them.

A Q2 2016 study by Videology showed that viewability was the most prevalent campaign objective for US digital video advertisers, with 43% of respondents choosing that parameter. Clickthrough and viewthrough rates ranked second and third, respectively.

Those results aren’t surprising, but it’s noteworthy that in the previous quarter VTR registered higher than CTR in Videology’s study. This could be an indication that video advertisers are starting to prioritize direct-response objectives—typically not a forte of video advertising, but increasingly under consideration as advertising shifts to in-feed social environments such as Facebook, Twitter and, most recently, Pinterest.

The Videology study showed a large and growing amount of digital video advertising campaigns running across all screens: desktop, laptop, mobile and connected TV.

Along with their focus on extending ad buys across screens, marketers are also increasingly interested in social video advertising. A May 2016 study by Animoto found that over 70% of US marketers it polled planned to use social video ads in the coming 12 months, with Facebook leading the way among specific platforms, followed by Google’s YouTube and Facebook-owned Instagram.

While that portion of Animoto’s study was forward-looking, the company also tracked current usage of paid social video ad platforms by US marketers and found, again, that Facebook led by two-thirds representation, followed by YouTube at 39%, Instagram at 21.7% and the others at less than 20% each. While it’s arguable whether or not YouTube is a social ad platform, it’s clear that advertisers see Facebook as the pillar of their social video ad efforts, with YouTube not far behind.

Another area in which Facebook is disrupting the landscape is live video. The TMB/Advertiser Perceptions study cited earlier showed that majorities of US agency and marketing executives were considering investing in live streaming ads. Relatively few were ruling out this platform, so it’s reasonable to expect this to be a hotbed of interest in the coming months. The study didn’t specifically cite Facebook, but the social giant has already emerged as a key player in the live video area, having launched its Facebook Live platform in early 2016.

In a move seen as a precursor to a full-fledged ad platform for Facebook Live, in August 2016 the company began testing 15-second mid-roll ads on live streams from a select group of publishers.

Courtesy of eMarketer