Native Video Advertising: What Brands Need to Know

The majority of internet users can easily remember those days of annoying pop-ups appearing on almost every website known to them. Albeit these irritating pop-ups haven’t exactly disappeared, there is another more sublime and unobtrusive form of advertising dominating the marketing world today. We’re talking about native advertising.

Native ads have become a popular and influential trend among marketers. In fact, eMarketer predicted that advertisers would spend 38.7% of their total video advertising budgets on native ads in 2020. Therefore, we can safely say that this advertising type is one of the fastest growing in the industry. And this doesn’t come as a surprise.

In other words, many people have become blind to display ads. Indeed, banner blindness, a term denoting the tendency of internet users to ignore banner ads, has been causing headaches to marketers. With 86% of consumers suffering from banner blindness, it’s no wonder that there was a need for native advertising. After all, digital video is popular among customers, with 78% of them watching it every week.

So, if you haven’t already added native video ads to your video marketing mix, we suggest that you do! The article explains more about this advertising type and why you should use it in 2021.

What Is Native Advertising?

Native advertising enables brands to plug their products or services without being too pushy or in-your-face. Namely, the beauty of native ads is that they match the overall look and visual context of the website or social network they are appearing on.

In that sense, they can combat banner blindness because consumers don’t really perceive them as ads. That’s why they produce a 8.8 times higher click-through rate than display ads. Not only that, but they can also bypass certain ad blocking software, allowing you to reach your target audience.

We can even liken this advertising type to a chameleon as they also have the ability to blend in with their environment and become a basic part of it. Because of this, these ads are pleasing to the eye and popular among consumers. Trust us, your brand will go far if you integrate branded messages into existing content.

Native Video Advertising

Native video ads, also referred to as branded ads, resemble the unique look of websites. Marketers rely on them because they increase brand awareness and engagement. In fact, two out of three Generation X consumers state they are more open to branded content than traditional advertising. In general, this video format includes a headline and a caption, and it isn’t disturbing the content display.

Furthermore, one of the features of these ads is that they auto-play, meaning that the video starts as soon as it comes into view. For instance, you probably come across a branded video on Facebook that begins playing while you are scrolling down the feed. As you might know, the video starts with no sound, however you can activate sound by clicking on the selected ad.

On social media platforms, native ads allow you to share information with users without interrupting their time online. In fact, they attract people to click through and find out more about what you’re promoting. 

You might be wondering how the addition of video to native ads has taken this form of advertising to the next level. Well, because video content is more engrossing than text ads.

Here’s some data that proves this:

• 80% of consumers recall a video they’ve watched in the last 30 days.
• 65% of business decision-makers go to a company’s site after seeing a branded video.
• 90% of customers say that product videos assist them in reaching purchasing decisions.

It’s not difficult to see that native video advertising is both informative and entertaining. And nothing appeals to online users more than these two features.

Native Video Ads Vs. Pre-Roll Video Ads

To the inexperienced eye, it may be tough to tell the difference between native and pre-roll video ads. However, the two actually have one distinct difference that will help you differentiate between them.

Disruption

The main feature that sets them apart is the ability for people to choose whether or not they want these video ads to play. In other words, internet users can’t avoid pre-roll ads (except when the skippable feature is added). Instead, pre-roll video ads appear before the selected content and viewers have to watch them in order to proceed.

In contrast, native ads are played in-feed and they aren’t disruptive to the viewer’s experience, i.e. people can just scroll past them. Because of this control, consumers are more likely to decide to stop and see what the ad is promoting.

Why Use Native Videos Ads?

There’s no denying that videos are an integral part of the internet today. Because they lead to more engagement, most social networks tend to prioritize them over any other content. So, if you’re looking for new ways to promote your products or services, we suggest using this medium, and especially native video ads. And why is that?

Well, because in today’s online advertising landscape, it’s crucial that you build trust with your consumers. This means that you need to give them value so as to attract them to your business. And nothing says trust more than native ads. This is because they aren’t intrusive, allowing people to have some say in what advertisement they will watch online.

But if you’re still on the fence, let’s see why this video ad format is important.

They Get Better Reach

When you upload your video ad rather than share a link to it, this will prompt social networks to promote it more than they would a link to YouTube. Namely, these platforms have set up their news feed algorithm in such a way that they give precedence to native videos.

Indeed, it’s proven that Facebook native videos have better reach than those hosted on other platforms. One study determined that native video ads led to a 135% increase in organic reach. Also, AdParlor even found that this ad format performed better on a range of metrics, including:

• 2.5 times higher click-through rate.
• 30% more video play clicks.

Thus, we can conclude that native video ads get better reach on social media networks compared to other content types.

They Engage More

A 2017 Quintly study revealed that links were declining on major social media platforms. Why? Well, because users need to leave these platforms to see what the link is about. With these networks now offering the autoplay function, content has become easily accessible to people.

And bearing in mind that you can play native videos without leaving the website, you can engage consumers more. Indeed, Quintly discovered that native videos generate up to 530% more comments than other posts on Facebook.

They Grab Attention

Social media users are becoming more tech-savvy and, in turn, they are starting to value more unobtrusive forms of advertising. This is why more brands are starting to replace their display ads with native video ads. You’ll probably be persuaded as well once you find out that native ads attract a whopping 308 times more attention than banner ads. It’s clear that native videos are the future!

Now, let’s focus on native video ads and social media.

Native Video on Social Media

Nowadays, social media networks boast more than 3.8 billion users worldwide. It’s not surprising that they’re so popular among different generations. After all, they help us connect with loved ones and offer a much needed distraction, especially during the global pandemic.

Not only that, but social networks also encourage engagement. And remember, video is the most engaging content type out there. So, it’s no wonder that Facebook attracts more than 8 billion video views every day. This figure was enough to prompt publishers and advertisers to connect the dots and say “Wait, what if we add native video ads to social networks?”

And they did. Today, if you scroll down any major platform, you’ll inevitably come across native video ads. Therefore, social media networks are your go-to place if you want to post this ad format. The top platforms for this in-feed advertising type are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. All of them allow you to run either desktop or mobile native advertising.

Here’s the form they take on these sites which lets you differentiate them from regular posts:

• Promoted Pins on Pinterest
• Promoted Videos on Twitter
• Sponsored Posts on Facebook
• Sponsored Posts on Instagram

With their popularity among consumers and on social media, native video ads show no sign of disappearing. We at Brid.TV acknowledge this and that’s why we have something special up our sleeve for all you publishers and content creators out there looking to monetize. We’re talking about our Native Outstream unit.

The Brid.TV Native Outstream Unit

At Brid.TV, you can create everything we’ve mentioned with our Native Outstream unit. This is the perfect solution for publishers who want to deliver less in-your-face video ads. We research the market to know what kind of ads consumers want to see. And, with the development in technology, consumers tend to favor ads that aren’t aggressively promoting products or services. And that’s where the Native Outstream unit comes into play, helping you circumvent different problems that publishers are faced with today.

Specifically, ads are user-friendly. This means that videos start when they come into view. Not only that, but they also don’t have sound unless the user clicks on them. You can easily track the performance of our Native Oustream unit and have more control over your ad campaigns.

But we didn’t stop there with our Native Oustream unit! Namely, you don’t have to worry about ad blocking software because there are no VAST or VPAID ad tags they might block. And with no VAST/VPAID ad tags, your performance won’t be slowed down. Everything goes off without a hitch and runs smoothly with the Brid.TV Native Outstream unit, meaning that your videos will show up pretty fast.

So, start giving your audience what they want — more unobtrusive ads that match the look of your website, thus not disrupting their time online. To see it in action and understand why consumers favor these ads, go here.

Got any questions for us about our Native Outstream unit? Then please contact us; we’d love to hear from you!

Conclusion

Native videos are quite simply designed to deliver a better performance, which makes utilizing them a no-brainer. Your main goal as a brand is to keep consumers invested in you, meaning that you don’t want them to be tempted to check out what your competitor is offering. So, make sure that you are promoting your business in a way that isn’t disruptive to their time online. In that way, you can foster trust and increase brand awareness.

Social media platforms are at the forefront of native video advertising, heavily encouraging this ad format. Of course, all the statistics we’ve mentioned speak for themselves and confirm how well native video ads perform on the internet. So, if you’re planning your marketing strategy, you’ll definitely see results if you add videos to it.

Once the ads you deliver to consumers are unobtrusive and well thought out, you’ll find yourself on the path to success. After all, native video ads will take your content to the next level and drive more engagement than other traditional forms of advertising would.