By Liam Dowd - December 10th, 2014
Which video ad tops the charts this year? Social advertising growth and the power of video ads now autoplaying on Facebook
Autoplay mobile video from Facebook
Video has become a major component of all corporate ads across social media, none more so than on Facebook. Video has of course been available for some time, but the company has made a subtle change in that video can now be posted to autoplay. This could offer marketers many more opportunities for their video ad messages to be seen by their target audiences.
Facebook explained: “As more and more people upload, share and discover video on Facebook, marketers are realizing the value of video at every stage of the buying cycle, from awareness to conversion. This holiday season and moving forward, when eligible, video mobile app ads will play automatically in News Feed. Additionally, advertisers are now able to purchase mobile app ads with video creative through Power Editor.”
“Facebook has become a serious platform for brand-building, and video is leading the way. When it comes to video ads for our clients, based on engagement rate, cost per view, view-to-completion and reach, right now Facebook is winning by a landslide.” — Jason Stein, CEO of ad agency Laundry Service, whose clients include Nike, Amazon and Michael Kors.
Mobile advertising, social media and programmatic buying to drive 17% growth in digital in 2015
According to ZenithOptimedia’s new Advertising Expenditure Forecasts, global ad spend will grow 4.9% to reach US$545 billion in 2015. The global economy is expected to improve (the IMF predicts 3.8% global GDP growth in 2015, up from 3.3% in 2014), but advertising faces a tough year-on-year comparison after the Winter Olympics, World Cup and US mid-term elections in 2014. Adspend growth will therefore be slightly below 2014’s 5.1%.
Mobile will account for 6.2% of all adspend in the US this year, while eMarketer estimates it will occupy 23.3% of media consumption time. This is partly because a lot of conventional display advertising does not work well on mobile.
Facebook and Twitter have rapidly restructured their operations for mobile consumption and advertising, and between them are on track to capture 33% of all mobile adspend in 2014. This is well above their 10% share of all digital adspend.
Their ads are designed to blend seamlessly into the content feed – they look native rather than intrusive. They can track all their users’ media consumption within their apps, and can tie that into their desktop activity through their login details. Social media provides a great example of how to adapt to mobile.
Facebook ads continue to perform
The latest figures from Kenshoo reveal that there was an aggregate 700% increase in CPM in Facebook ads from November 2013 compared to 2014.
Not only has the Facebook ecosystem shifted but so have marketers’ approaches and programs to reflect the changing environment.
By driving efficiencies and optimizations in their paid social programs, marketers have become more sophisticated and their strategies more vigorous, thus increasing overall competition within Facebook advertising and, in turn, upping the worth of Facebook users.
Laura Ruszkowski, marketing research analyst at Kenshoo, said: “As Facebook advertising has evolved, it has given marketers the opportunity to identify and target their highest valued audiences to drive engagement and conversions. Not only has the Facebook ecosystem shifted but so have marketers’ approaches and programmes to reflect the changing environment. By driving efficiencies and optimisations in their paid social programmes, marketers have become more sophisticated and their strategies more vigorous, thus increasing overall competition within Facebook advertising and, in turn, upping the worth of Facebook users.”
Facebook continues to be the crown jewels of many corporations that have seen their use of the platforms ad service expand. Increased costs are inevitable, but corporations that are savvy enough to understand how consumption of their ads has moved to mobile and increasingly to video content will still see good returns on their ad investments.
The top most shared video ads of 2014
A fifth of this year’s Top 20 Global Social Video Ads Chart were either World Cup-themed or created by sponsors of the famous soccer spectacle, with Activia’s collaboration with Colombian pop princess Shakira for the video “La La La” claiming the number one spot.
The ad has attracted 5,819,822 shares across Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere since its launch in May, making it not only 2014’s landslide winner ahead of 20th Century Fox’s “Devil Baby Attack” (2,153,236 shares), but also the most shared ad of all time. VW’s 2011 Super Bowl ad, “The Force” (5,278,399 shares) had previously held the record for more than three years.
Corporate brands have continued to leverage video content across their marketing activities. Consumers also continue to feel a strong propensity to share video content above all others. Going into 2015, video will continue its dominance even more so as mobile becomes even stronger as a deliver and consumption platform.
Until next time….
The Useful Social Media team.