Video advertising platform Videology has released its Canadian Video Market At-A-Glance report for Q4 2016. The study, which is based on Videology’s own campaign data, found that concern over ad visibility is now in the forefront of more advertisers’ minds, geo-targeting is on the rise and automotive companies are buying the most space on the platform.
But one of Videology’s results went against much of the industry chatter. Despite the repeated theme that desktop is dying, Videology’s report showed that desktop-only campaigns are on the rise, not deteriorating.
For the most recent data set, the rate of PC-only campaigns was at 67% — a significant increase from Q4 in 2015, when it was reported at a total of 46%.
Mobile-only campaigns stayed relatively flat at 6% (down from 7%), while cross-platform campaigns (more than one platform) sat at 31%, down from 44%.
Another big change was in the most popular verticals for programmatic buys. For Q4 2016, the automotive sector dominated video ad buys, coming in at 29% of all buys (up from 26% in the same period of 2015, when it was second to consumer goods). Consumer goods, meanwhile, fell to 15% from 28%, retail rose to 21% from 11% and finance remained steady (5% down from 7%). The pharma category, which came in at 11% in Q4 2015, was done away with as the result of a re-structuring of Videology’s categories, while the health and fitness category was added, coming in at 22%.
The ongoing industry conversations around viewability are reflected in the study, with Videology clients nearly tripling the rate at which they consider the metric as an objective (17% in Q4 2016 up from 6% in 2015).
Longer video ads are also more in-demand — 30-second advertisements represented 50% of ad buys in Q4 2016, up from 37% the previous year (and 31% in Q4 2014). By contrast, the rate of 15-second ads purchased decreased to 47% from 57%.
Targeting tactics became more specific at the end of 2016, with Videology adding categories such as demographic and skippability status to its options for clients. The biggest rise was in geo-targeting, which rose to 51% from 26%.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
