In Stream Video ads are some of the most popular type of ads for advertisers, agencies and publishers. They are played before, during or after video content on a site and can run with a wide range of content, from USG (user generated content/video), publishers’ clips and syndicated media to sponsored programs. They are a great way for publishers to generate revenue for their video content and for advertisers associate brand with popular content, but can be tricky to get right.
Creating and running these ads mean you need to find the right balance between being effective without being to intrusive while at the same time working well across a variety of sites and video players. In addition, it’s important to ensure the ads work well with various ad servers, so the all-important impressions get counted.
IAB (The Interactive Advertising Bureau) has a number of guidelines they produced through a lot of conversations and committee work with various publishers, producers, agencies and advertisers. Two I’ve found particularly useful guidelines are Digital Video Ad Formats Guidelines and Best Practices and Digital Video Ad Measurement Guidelines. I turn to IAB because I like the fact they spend so much time and energy on getting industry feedback and building consensus. Getting the basics done first, i.e. creating ads that can play almost anywhere and still get measured, helps me find that right balance between impact and efficiency.
Do you have other suggestions and/or sources for Best Practices & Guidelines?
