Online Video Producers, Advertisers at Odds

While there is no doubt that online video is a booming industry, just how that video is used as a marketing tool is much less clear -- particularly between video producers and advertisers.

Research from DIGIDAY and YuMe (a video ad network) show that advertisers view brand lift and percent of the video completed as the two most important ROI metrics for online video. Producers see it quite differently. Nearly half of the producers surveyed said clickthrough rate was the most important metric. Advertisers ranked clickthrough rate as the least important metric when measuring online ad effectiveness.

This disconnect could have serious implications for the growth of online video advertising. Mostly, because when asked what would get them to spend more on video advertising, advertisers said better reach and better measurement were the top two factors, at 75.4% and 72.5%, respectively. It's going to be tough to gauge reach and measurement if there is confusion on exactly what's being measured and what's considered an ROI success.

Furthermore, differing goals of online video will result in different videos. One focused on getting a click is going to focus less on the narrative than one aimed at getting users to watch for more than a minute, for example. As online video advertising matures, it will be very important that advertisers and those they charge with producing the video are on the same page. There is a lot at stake. In February, eMarketer predicted that the online video ad market would reach $5 billion in 2014, while Forrester predicts about $3 billion.