Short Attention Spans, Video Ads, and Increased Demand in 2021

Short Attention Spans, Video Ads, and Increased Demand in 2021

By Snack Media

Shortening Attention Spans

Neuroscientific studies showed that between 2000 and 2015 the average human attention span shrunk by 35% to a grand total of just 8 seconds (Microsoft, 2015). Worryingly for us humans, emerging data suggests a continued downwards trend as the years go on. Just for reference, goldfish are said to have an average attention span of 9 seconds!

For some, this information might just seem like some fun trivia to whip out in conversation with your boring uncle at the next family gathering. However, for both advertisers and marketers, insight into the deteriorating human attention span is regularly analysed and the results then used to develop the most effective solutions. One of which comes in the form of the increasingly popular video ad.

The Power of Video

Back in 2018, Insivia stated that 51% of marketing professionals felt that video ads saw the best ROI and just two short years later, almost 90% of marketeers agreed (Smart Insights, 2020). The reason for this seems to link directly back to our declining attention spans. In contrast to standard textual or image-based ads, the video ad can incorporate both audio and moving visual elements making them twice as likely to capture a user’s attention (Instapage Blog, 2020).

Video ads are really ahead of the rest of the pack here as they can also incorporate text, imagery, sound and moving visuals which no other ad format can do.

According to Psychology Today (2020), the brain processes moving visual information 60,000x faster than text-only content. Studies have shown that the average user retains 95% of a message when they watch it and only 10% when reading it (Insivia, 2013).

Furthermore, according to Forbes (2017), 64% of consumers confirmed that they would be more likely to purchase a product or service after watching a video as opposed to reading about it. So, most marketers these days will vouch for the fact that if a picture is worth a thousand words, by contrast a video is priceless!

Rising Video Dominance and Demand

These statistics are backed by thousands of reports which have all contributed to the rising dominance of the video ad amongst its fellow advertising solutions and as such, there is a rapid increase in video demand.

According to PubMatic’s Global Digital Ad Trend Report, almost 75% of advertisers planned to increase their digital video ad budget between 2019 and 2020 and only 1% planned to decrease spending.

Another reason for the dominance of the video ad is the ever-increasing number of smartphone users. In 2020 over 3.5 billion of the world’s population had access to smartphones (Statista, 2020) and in the last 7 years online traffic from mobile devices has increased by a huge 222% (Broadband Search, 2020).

As a direct result of this, online advertising strategies have had to become increasingly mobile-driven. Enter video ad units! According to studies, consumers are 3 times more likely to watch a video on a mobile device (Sheffield AV Study, 2020).

Thankfully for both advertisers and marketers, video ads easily map onto smartphones and tablets which have helped to save time and money in the production process (Oracle, 2019). Furthermore, a video ad’s mobile and desktop functionality results in both increased ad impressions and ad revenue when publishers choose to run them on their site. This means that the video ad continues to check more and more boxes from a marketer’s point of view (Oracle, 2019).

Right, let’s talk about money then. If advertisers, marketeers, brands, and businesses can all vouch for video from an ROI perspective then it is no mystery as to why the advertising industry pumped over $36 billion into video advertising in the US alone in 2019 – which was 20% more than the year before (Outbrain, 2020).

On top of that, in 2019 and 2020 almost half of all programmatic ad spend was projected to be spent solely on video advertisements (eMarketer, 2020). That there is a pretty sizable percentage of advertising budgets being handed straight to video which consequently is one of the biggest driving factors when it comes to online publishers opting to run video ads on their website.

Still Not for Everyone?

Unfortunately, video ads are not without fault and many publishersare often concerned with the effect a large video ad unit will have onuser experience (Nielson Norman Group, 2018).

Also, whilst thedemand for video content has increased exponentially and in-linewith the shortening attention span of the modern-day human(Medium, 2017), it can still be very costly to produce. However, thefact remains that the majority of internet users these days arelooking for quick and engaging content that is easier to absorb thanstandard textual content (The Drum, 2021).

Video is also great for reducing a website’s bounce rate as users willspend up to 88% more time on a website that has video (SheffieldAV Study, 2020). As such, publishers that produce their owncontent are really reaping the rewards and attracting many moreusers than other websites without their own video content.

So,surely the video ad can’t be too damaging to user experience ifusers are there to watch specifically related videos? Search Enginecompanies are also now putting a priority on video-producingonline publishers and reports suggest that published articles are 53 times more likely to reach the front page of Google if they areaccompanied by video (Insivia, 2018).

So, if online publishers canfind a way of displaying affordable, engaging, and relevant videocontent for their users alongside a high-quality video ad then it is awin-win situation for both parties. Enter Snack Media…

Snack Media and Video Advertising

At Snack Media we understand the struggles that publishers face as we own and produce content on over 100 websitesourselves. Over the last decade we have been enhancing our own websites in a way that has meant we could build apartnership service based on our understanding of the online publishing and advertising landscape.

Therefore, ourpartnerships are bespoke and designed to help all website owners to realise the value of their inventory whilst providingsolutions to the every-day struggles online publishers are facing.

Since video has emerged as the frontrunner within the advertising space, we have adapted our offering in line with this.

Alongside our standard display and bespoke ad units, we also offer an array of video advertising solutions that helppublishers in our network drive up their ad revenues whilst also serving engaging video content.

The impact has beentransformative for our network partners with some publishers seeing over 50% of their ad revenue now made up from videoalone. Realise the value of your inventory with our video solutions.