How Can An Advertiser Calculate The View Rate Of A Video Campaign?

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Video campaigns can be incredibly successful ways for advertisers to publicize a product, brand, or service. However, with this comes certain difficulties, namely in the case of calculating the number of viewers a campaign has amassed. 

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How Can An Advertiser Calculate The View Rate Of A Video Campaign?

There are any number of reasons for why this is difficult, one of which is the amount of different formats and platforms in modern advertising where the campaign might be viewed. 

So, this begs the question: how exactly can advertisers calculate the view rate of their video campaigns? 

The Benefits Of Video Campaigns

When it comes to video campaigns, there are several benefits that make them more effective than standard online ads. 

Engaging

Depending on the video and its style, video campaigns tend to be a lot more engaging than traditional forms of advertising. 

This is mainly due to the fact that they tend to have a story or a message that can suck an audience in, and make them care about the product, service, or brand in question. 

While this might not be genuine ‘care’ in the true sense of the word, a good video ad can foster a sense of attachment born from enjoyment or amusement, which is a useful tool when it comes to creating new customers. 

Memorable

Another benefit of video campaigns is that they are generally more memorable than standard advertisements. 

As with the engagement, this is generally based on the fact that they are story based, often with amusing situations or eye-catching colors – both of which are good for sticking in the long term memory of the viewers. 

This means that with a video campaign, new customers are more likely to think of the product in question when their need arises. 

Brand Awareness

It is also good for developing brand awareness – that is, the association people have with the brand, due to the fact that it is shown on television or on streaming services before video clips. 

This integrates it into the collective popular culture that customers are exposed to, and a particularly good video campaign can create a lasting impression on viewers who might otherwise have scrolled past a static ad. 

Are There Any Downsides? 

Of course, there are certain downsides associated with video campaigns. 

Cost

Firstly, they are expensive to make, and generally require a payment of some kind to be shown on television or as a paid ad on sites like Youtube. 

This means that, despite the higher success rate of video ads, there is still an element of risk involved – a risk that, if the video doesn’t prove popular, could cause financial problems for the company in question. 

Time Frame

Whereas a static ad can convey the basic information and display it all the time, video ads are generally time sensitive, and require a lot of clever planning to convey the information through the narrative of the ad, within the allotted time of no more than a couple of minutes. 

Gauging Success

It can also be difficult for companies to gauge the success of video campaigns, at least without proper analytics of views etc. 

This can mean that, due to the number of platforms where the video ads might be shown, the true viewing figures might not be as clear as with other forms of advertising. 

How Can An Advertiser Calculate The View Rate Of A Video Campaign?

How Advertisers Calculate View Rate

However, there are certain methods that advertisers can use to calculate the view rate of their video campaigns. 

The view rate is the ratio derived from the number of paid views an ad receives, against the number of impressions (public engagement) the video receives.

For example, if your video had 5 views, but 1000 impressions, then the view rate would be 0.5%. 

This can be represented in the formula below: 

5/1000 = 0.5/100 = 0.5%

View Rate Vs Click-Through Rate

In a sense, view rate is similar to click-through rate, but as opposed to measuring the number of clicks an ad receives, it measures how many people viewed your video after encountering it on Youtube or other platforms. 

On Youtube and the Display Network, you can use view rate to calculate and track the number of views your content is actually getting, thus allowing you to gauge the overall success that a particular campaign has. 

View Rate Vs View-Through Rate

While view rate refers specifically to video ads, view-through rate (or VTR) refers to normal videos online, taking into account those viewers who literally watched the ‘video through’ to the end. 

This system is seldom used for ads, and is largely not recommended for this medium, purely because the purpose of the video ad is not for it to be watched to the end, rather for further customer engagement to be achieved upon watching. 

The Problems Of View Rate

Despite the benefits that calculating the view rate holds for advertisers, there are certain problems and downsides too. 

Data Manipulation

With view rate, there is room for manipulation of the data, albeit not consciously on the part of the customer. 

Many unscrupulous advertising agencies will use a system known as ‘cookie bombing’ to drop as many cookies as possible across as many viewers as possible, thus creating more forced engagement instead or organic or targeted engagement. 

This takes away the personalization of targeted ads, and only seeks to bombard as many people as possible in the hopes that, with a wider net, they can catch more new and unsuspecting customers. 

Final Thoughts

And there we have it, everything you need to know about view rate, and how advertisers can use it to calculate the effectiveness of their video marketing campaigns. 

In the modern industry, this is a widely used and important tool for gauging success, and adds a whole new dimension of observation and market research onto the existing workload of the modern advertising agency. 

https://youtu.be/OEH35nZ5hYY
Jackoneil
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