This December, Facebook launched the newest way for brands to engage their users: autoplay video ad units. According to
Facebook,
Mobile App Ads with Video are designed for advertisers who want to reach a large audience with high-quality sight, sound and motion. Each 15-second video ad will start playing without sound as it appears on screen and stop if people scroll past. If people tap the video, it will expand into a full-screen view and sound will start.
As leaders in the digital advertising space, we began testing mobile Mobile App Ads with Video for our clients as soon as they were launched. At Unique Influence, our process involves constant testing against previous best practices. In this case, we wanted to examine what exactly Mobile App Ads with Video deliver for our clients. And here's what we found-
Compared with standard newsfeed image ads:
- Cost per action (here, game install) was 16% higher for video ads
- Click through rate was 28% lower for video ads
However:
- Revenue per purchasing user was 52% higher for video ads
- Day 3 yield was 50% higher for video ads
Why do Mobile App Ads with Video deliver higher revenue than standard newsfeed image ads?
The first reason is that users can take more actions with a Premium Video Ad than they can with a standard image ad. Clicking on an image ad brings the user directly to the App Store. However, video ads allow for a different user experience -
- The user may pause the video at any point and continue down his own path - to the App Store? To the brand website? To a review page to learn more?
- Should the video play through completion, the user is brought to the App Store
The second reason is more straightforward: Mobile App Ads with Video engage better-qualified users. Users who expand the video ad to watch part or all of the content likely have previous brand awareness and more knowledge about the product. This increases the chance that they will follow-up with in-app purchases after install (as evidenced by Premium Video Ad day 3 yield). If a user does not have previous brand awareness, he will learn more-or at least learn differently-with a video ad than he will with a static image. Therefore, making him better-qualified to generate revenue.
It's worth noting that we observed the correlation between relative cost per install and return on ad spend for Mobile App Ads with Video with multiple clients, across a range of audiences.
So, as Facebook continues to develop new methods to engage and convert more qualified users, don't be afraid to tell new kinds of stories about your brand - especially ones with picture, sound, and movement.