Dive Brief:

• The latest Ooyala Video Index, “The rise of the mid-roll,” found that mid-roll ads had a 90% average completion rate, compared to 78% for pre-roll and 65% for post-roll, and mid-roll impression growth year-over-year was 110% with pre-roll at 14% and post-roll at 74%.
• Pre-roll video ads remain the most popular format accounting for 60% of all ads currently delivered.
• The findings suggest marketers are still trying to figure how best to leverage digital video ads as online consumption of video content grows. 

Dive Insight:

The Ooyala report points out a case study involving a broadcast company in the Nordic marketplace that had a heavy pre-roll video ad strategy that was underperforming with high drop-off rates. Changing things up, the company went with a mid-roll only strategy and found higher ad load and higher engagement, even after increasing the length of the mid-roll ads for certain pieces of content and categories.

Ooyala speculated that mid-roll success can be attributed, at least in part, to two factors. The first is because the viewer is invested in the video content they are watching, they are more willing to watch the entire ad. And the second is mid-roll ads look and feel like watching TV where people are already accustomed to breaks in the video content they are watching.

The report pointed out one strategy for long-form video is letting the viewer get into the content before serving ads because pre-roll ads might cause them to avoid the video content altogether. “There’s an upside to letting viewers engage with the video, investing their time and interest before serving ads," the report explained. 

In addition to considering pre-, mid- and post-roll videos, marketers are also investigating the need for shorter video ads and vertical video as mobile use grows.