Connected TV poised to transform digital advertising

Wednesday, October 31st, 2018
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With Highest Performance and Growing Popularity, Connected TV Poised to Transform Digital Advertising, Reveals Extreme Reach Q3 Video Ad Benchmarks

  • Quarterly analysis of performance metrics showcases evolving trends as consumers continue cord-cutting and brands demand transparency

NEEDHAM, MA — Extreme Reach, the complete creative asset management platform for the ad industry, today released its Q3 2018 Video Advertising Benchmarks based on metrics from its third-party video ad server. The report offers brands and agencies up-to-date insights based on key performance metrics.

This most recent analysis of data on click-through, completion and viewability rates forvideo ads served on desktop, mobile, tablet and connected television [CTV] shows that ads on CTV continue to outperform those on other platforms.

Completion Rates by Platform

Completion rates for ads on CTV continue to exceed those of all other platforms. At 95 percent in Q3, a slight increase over the previous year, CTV completion is 27 percent higher than desktop and 32 percent higher than mobile. Completion rates for desktop, mobile and tablet have held steady following a significant increase in Q1 2018.

Completion by Vendor Type

Premium inventory continued to yield high performance, with completion rates exceeding those of media aggregators by 32 percent. Premium rates increased nearly 29 percent year over year to reach 90 percent, while aggregators saw an 8 percent completion rate increase, reaching 68 percent.

Ad Length

With the rise of CTV, the 30-second ad is coming back into vogue, with impressions increasing 102 percent year over year. This increasing share is at the expense of 15-second spots, which saw a decline of 38 percent for the same time period.

Impressions by Device

After first overtaking mobile in Q2, CTV impressions continue to rise while all other platforms see declines. With a 170 percent year over year increase, CTV is now the source of 38 percent of all impressions, compared to 31 percent for mobile and 21 percent for desktop. At just 9 percent of all impressions, the once-popular tablet continues its march into near-obsolescence.

Based on these findings, Extreme Reach projects:

  • CTV will take an increasingly large share of advertising budgets as adoption increases and targeting capabilities improve.
  • Brands will continue to opt to pay higher rates for the viewability and brand safety assurances that come with premium inventory.
  • The number of 30-second ads will increase at a pace similar to the increase in CTV impressions.
  • The availability of more large-screen mobile devices will render tablets insignificant to advertisers in the near future.

“The CTV opportunity is one that advertisers are increasingly leveraging, and the impact that’s having on ad length, while unexpected, makes complete sense,” stated Mary Vestewig, Senior Director, Video Account Management at Extreme Reach. “I expect we’ll see even more exciting changes driven by CTV as consumer adoption grows and technology for targeting and measurement evolve.”

For the next quarterly benchmark report, Extreme Reach will continue to monitor trends and insights in order to provide agencies and brands with the video advertising metrics that matter.