Dive Brief:
- RhythmOne’s 2015 Mobile Benchmarks Report found that mobile rich media ads topped both completion (93.7%) and engagement (10.5%) rates. Interactive in-stream ads were next in completion rate (87.4%), and mobile full page achieved the second-best engagement rate (8%).
- Breaking engagement down to device type, mobile full page led on tablets (14.2%), but mobile rich media led on smartphones (10.7%).
- Not surprisingly, increasing video ad length from 15 to 30 seconds negatively impacted video completion rates across a variety of sectors including entertainment, restaurants, tech, telecom and travel.
Dive Insight:
"An interesting note behind the full-year data is the shift in spend toward longer form video content,” Chuck Moran, vp of marketing at RhythmOne, told Marketing Dive. “For the first half of the year 15 second video comprised 61% of the total number of video campaigns we ran, and 30 second video accounted for 39%. In the second half of the year, 15 second video declined as a percentage of total campaigns to 54% and 30 second video increased to 46%."
He added, "We think this shift is worth watching. This longer-form content (even beyond 30 seconds) presents an opportunity to create more engaging, entertaining and shareable video moments. It highlights the draw of compelling content, and a broader shift toward influencer marketing and social distribution."
The report covered 20 advertiser categories and five ad formats: interactive in-stream video, in-stream video, interstitial video, mobile full page, and mobile rich media; and covered the mobile advertising programs RhythmOne ran over the entirety of 2015.
