Pre-Roll Ads

A staggering 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and an average user spends more than 16 minutes watching ads each month. Content creators can increase conversation rates by 80% by including a video on their landing pages (web pages for marketing campaigns and advertisements).

These numbers look impressive, right? A couple of statistics and facts were enough for us to grab your attention. This is how pre-roll ads work. These video advertisements are developed in a unique way that convinces viewers to keep watching them and find out more about a certain product or service.

In this article, we will explore the concept, types, and advantages of pre-roll ads, and how they are created using Clickadu.

What Are Pre-Roll Ads?

A pre-roll ad is a short promotional clip that plays before the content you want to see. It is a popular marketing strategy used on social media applications and video-streaming platforms, especially YouTube.

Pre-roll ads are like modern-day television advertisements. Terrestrial TV or OTA led to the emergence of mainstream media. Companies and marketing agencies were in a race to secure coveted advertising spots before, during, and after hit TV shows or major sporting events.

Everything changed when the Internet and social media exploded onto the scene. More and more people started watching and streaming content online. Many people argue that pre-roll ads replaced their television counterparts. A study shows that people view an average of 17 hours of online video content weekly. So, how does it explain the sheer efficacy of pre-roll ads?

A pre-roll ad enhances brand engagement via creative storytelling. A real-life example would be that of a compelling Masterclass promotion that plays right before a typical YouTube video. This ad would feature a celebrity, use innovative and heart-warming narratives to connect with the target audience and make every second of its runtime count. It is assumed to be an interruption, but from a business perspective, it makes people curious about the brand behind it.

Pre-roll ads usually contain a link to a landing page or come with a call to action (CTA). This makes viewers want to get in touch with the brand, buy a product or simply inquire about their services. This link may appear at the beginning of a video or in the middle of the watchable content.

Types of Pre-Roll Video Ads

There are two main kinds of pre-roll video ads: skippable and non-skippable. Like TV ads, a pre-roll ad has a time limit. A marketing agency studies the advantages and pairs them with the business goal to determine the best approach for the brand.

Skippable Pre-Roll Ad

Skippable ads are pre-roll ads that viewers can skip immediately or after a certain duration. In most cases, it runs for five seconds. These ads are common on video streaming platforms such as YouTube.

Non-Skippable Pre-Roll Ad

A non-skippable pre-roll ad makes sure the viewer cannot skip an ad before starting the video.

Then there is a “bumper pre-roll ad” that lasts six seconds or less. This one offers a quick, non-interruptive opportunity for brand engagement. Users cannot skip these short-form clips.

Benefits of Pre-Roll Advertisement

A pre-roll video ad is conversational, concise, and captivating. It bolsters engagement and sparks curiosity among viewers through visually appealing artistic elements. 

This marketing strategy, which has a profound impact on the business world, helps a brand convey its message to the right audience at the right time. Your business can reach the target audience successfully by making pre-roll video ads part of its marketing strategy.

This section will cover how pre-roll video ads are beneficial for advertisers as well as publishers.

For Advertisers

Unlike mid-roll and post-roll ads, pre-roll video ads are helpful for advertisers as they help them connect with large audiences. This is because this ad plays right before the selected content, and it gets the product noticed, as viewers have no choice but to watch the advertisement first before playing the video.

A pre-roll video guarantees a rapid increase in viewership since it is more likely to be viewed than mid or post-roll ads. Viewers seldom have the option to skip the ad. The advertisers must note, however, that the chances of watching it from start to finish are slim to none, as most people would play the video the moment the “skip button” appears on their screens.

These commercials are pretty interactive because users visit the advertised link, share it on social media, or click it for relevant content. Pre-roll ads help advertisers target and tailor their messages to specific audiences. Several platforms allow marketing agencies to craft visually pleasing surveys for this purpose.

Pre-roll video ads influence the viewer’s buying decision as well. This is because pre-roll ads increase the chances of people noticing the product and searching for it online if not buying it.

People tend to remember the brand and recommend it to their loved ones since they might have seen pre-roll ads on the internet. These ads are developed by keeping the interests of potential buyers in mind. So, an advertiser can change a previous piece of content with a high engagement rate and use it for future projects as well.

For Publishers

A pre-roll video ad can increase impression rates and revenue by making the autoplay feature available for a viewer on their mobile phone screen. This will make the viewer more likely to watch it whether they are interested in purchasing the product or not. 

The publishing website should remember that many browsers allow autoplay if the video is muted. There is a high chance that viewers could miss out on ads that rely on audio to gain impressions and have a high Cost Per Mille (the average cost a company pays for 1,000 advertisement impressions on a webpage).

The playlist also comes in handy as a compilation, which allows the publisher to show more ads. This technique opens additional pre-roll inventory slots, which means every visitor will stick around to play at least two ads from the collection. This will lead to an impressive increase in ad impressions.

An HTML5 video player can be used to increase your ad revenue. This feature follows a viewer who leaves the webpage halfway through the clip and appears as a floating video player at the corner of their screen. It will stay there even when the web user is busy scrolling through the webpage. It will keep the viewer engaged while your ad plays in the background, leading to higher ad impressions.

The dynamics of digital advertising changed after third-party cookies got outdated and behavioral targeting ceased to exist. These developments will make the publisher use contextual targeting as soon as possible. Contextual video advertising technique will make those ads appear on a website relevant to the content the user is watching.

Create Pre-Roll Videos with Clickadu

The e-commerce industry is thriving in this digital age. Many companies are investing in digital marketing. Clickadu has emerged as a popular platform that helps publishers monetize their content through high-paying ads while offering profitable returns to advertisers.

Clickadu brings advertisers and small businesses together by offering services that benefit both parties. It assists clients with their investment plans and helps them find the best approach to enjoy advertising benefits. 

Content creators benefit from using Clickadu as it offers innovative features that cater to their needs and make their businesses thrive.

This platform is suitable for small publishers looking to monetize their traffic. These salient features pave the way for high CPM rates that help them earn even more even when web traffic is at its lowest.

Clickadu allows publishers and advertisement agencies to create content in different formats, such as banner ads, popunder ads, push notifications, inpage push, instant text messages, SKIM, and Video ads (Pre-roll). They are potent tools to create the perfect marketing campaign.

It has a user-friendly interface, which offers an excellent navigation experience. The robust nature of this platform makes content creation a smooth ride. Users can track their performance and the budget spent on these projects in real time.

Clickadu has a zero-tolerance policy against fraudulent activities. It has an advanced threat detection system that tracks nefarious activities on the system very quickly.

Clickadu reiterates its commitment to quality customer care service by offering dedicated support managers around the clock. We are available to answer queries and address or resolve concerns via live chat, email, Skype, and phone calls. Additionally, a user-friendly ticket system allows you to submit detailed information about your concerns for efficient resolution.

Clickadu offers and supports almost all popular web-video formats: MP4, WMV, AVI, MOV & FLV.

Conclusion

Pre-roll ads play an important role in the digital media landscape today. They help a brand strategically connect to the target audience. We are living in an age where the Internet and social media play an important role in business success and failure. This marketing technique creates buzz by advertising a product on different video-streaming platforms and interactive applications right before the content your target audiences like to watch.

Clickadu has taken the digital marketing world by storm by offering innovative features that will make its users stand out from its competitors.

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