What are the best Video Ad Networks? What should you look for?
When we think of using online video to promote business, social networks like YouTube and Vimeo come to mind. But how often do startups and established companies think of video advertising networks? Here’s a list of some of the best video ad networks and a quick breakdown of what video ad networks are, why you should use them and what they offer.
What are the best video advertising networks?
Video ad networks are an alternative to purchasing advertising space on individual publishers one by one. When an online publisher wants to monetize their website, they often open the site up to advertising. The advertising spots on the site can be sold through an ad network. The ad network aggregates ad inventory from across the web, packages it and sells it to advertisers. In a nutshell, ad networks connect advertisers with publishers who have ad inventory available for purchase. And video advertising networks in particular sell display and in-stream advertising inventory.What are the advantages of the best video ad networks?
More than anything, using a video ad network can make advertising on contextually relevant websites very convenient. Besides offering relevant ad inventory, ad networks also allow behavioral and geographic targeting. Plus, ad networks are constantly growing their lists of publishers. Some ad networks even offer “mini networks” within their network, which provide deeper targeting capabilities by aggregating subgroups of websites such as bloggers or news sites.What are the different types of video advertising?
When you think of video ads, you might assume that all inventory is pre-roll. Not so. Here are some of your options:- Pre-roll – usually 10-15 seconds long, these appear prior to online video play
- Expanding video banners – these rich media placements expand when a user clicks or rolls over the ad
- Video overlay – an interactive ad unit that integrates a graphics overlay trigger on top of an advertiser’s video spot
- vChoice – this is essentially a video trailer with interactivity either during or after the brand’s pre-roll plays
- Video widgets – these allow advertisers to publish videos on publishers’ websites
- In-game video ads – these play while a game loads, watch for rewards, or between game levels
What kind of targeting is available for video advertising?
Video ad networks are becoming increasingly useful, expanding the different ways you can target your video advertising. Here are a few ways you can use targeting to make sure your ads are only shown to people in your demographic and target audience.- Contextual targeting – video ads appear on websites based on the content that is being displayed to the user
- Geo-targeting – video ads display based on users’ geographic area of location or geographic search preferences
- Behavioral – video ads display based on user behavior prior to visiting the website where the video ad lives
- Re-targeting – the network keeps track of people you have visited your website and then serves ads for your website to them more frequently as they surf the web
- De-targeting – video ads will not display to people who have already made a purchase from your website
- Frequency capping – this controls the number of times a user will view your ad within a certain period of time
- Day-parting – allows advertisers to divide the day into several parts where their ads will or will not show
- Channel – segments available website inventory by industry
- Psychographic – segments available website inventory by interest as opposed to geography, age or gender
- Technographic – segments users by their computer operating system, browser type, Internet connection speed, etc.
- Look-a-like modeling – segments users into groups who exhibit similar characteristics as your target audience
What other extras take a video ad network from good to great?
When shopping for a video ad network, don’t forget to weigh the extras that are available to you against what your company needs. Here is a list of a few extras that might benefit your brand.- Multi-screen – this assures ads can display across a range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets
- Real-time optimization
- DoubleClick integration
- Free creative services
- Near-instant campaign completion
- Analytics reporting and measurement tools
What are the top video advertising networks?
Here are just a few of the top video ad networks to choose from.- YuMe
- LiveRail.com
- Hulu
- Specific Media
- YouTube/Google
- NDN
- Live Rail
- Adap.tv
- Specific Media
- Tube Mogul
- Brightroll
- Tremor Video
- AOL
- Auditude
- UnderTone
- Advertising.com
- SpotXChange
- Ikoo
- Vdopia
- Value Click Media
- Say Media
- Collective
- Break Media
- Microsoft Advertising
- AdoTube
- Adconion
