When running an online video ad campaign, we are often asked, “What is the ideal video duration for my ad?”

There is no one-size-fits-all video length, but here are some key guidelines to keep in mind when using video in your advertising:

What is the video being used for?

It is important to connect video length to goals.

For companies with a focus on branding, a short-format video can raise awareness, keep a brand top of mind, and create signals that drive important behaviors such as search. Short ads allow increased frequency within your budget. However, long-format video allows you to tell your brand’s story, helping you connect with potential consumers, which is also very important for branding.

If direct response is your goal, you’ll want to make sure that the duration of the video is long enough to drive an action.

Video can be highly effective for education, as well. Just make sure that the brand makes it into the front half of the video, or you may risk paying for that impression without having a view. Ad recall drops when individuals are unable to make the connection between the ad and your brand.

Where are you running the video?

Tailoring the video length to the platform is incredibly important because users have different expectations depending on the platform. Individuals are likely more willing to watch a longer video on YouTube than, say, Twitter. A few platform examples are:

YouTube–If you are using skippable ads, you can run video from 12 seconds to 3 minutes. You pay when a viewer watches 30 seconds of the video ad (or the ad’s duration if it’s less than 30 seconds) or engages with your video, whichever comes first. Google partnered with Honey Maid and found that the longer a person watches, the better it is for the brand. Brand favorability increases as the length of the video increases, however, ad recall is lower. In this specific example, 15% of viewers (2x the average benchmark) watched the entire 2-minute ad, but the brand wasn’t mentioned until more than a minute into the ad. This lowered the ability for viewers to recall the ad.

Ad Recall and Brand Favorability

Now there are even 6-second bumper ads.

Pre-roll–You are pretty limited with pre-roll video to :15 or :30 spots. The user must watch these in order to get to his or her intended video. According to a recent study by IPG Media Lab and YuMe, pre-roll has better ad recall than out-stream or mid-roll video placements. 

Out-stream–This platform allows you to use video durations up to 2 minutes. According to the same study, out-stream is rated much more positively among viewers who complete a video. Those who completed a video were 3x more likely to remember the ad than those who started the video, but did not complete it.

Facebook–This type of ad can be used to generate awareness or drive traffic to a site if the call to action is designed properly. Video durations can vary; Facebook recommends short videos, stating that “mobile video works best when it’s 15 seconds or less.” Facebook also offers several additional video tips in the help section of its site.

There are best practices for video duration based on goals and platforms, but there is limited industry-specific data on ideal video duration. It is important to understand best practices, but also test, test, and test again. Try all different durations and see what works best for your goals and objectives.

To learn more about video creation and advertising, contact us at 585.421.0100.

When starting a marketing campaign, we tend to look to the end goal or objectives as a way to measure success. However, if you only examine the ultimate objective–or macro conversion–you may miss important micro conversion moments that occur throughout the process. To achieve success, it’s not micro vs. macro conversion. Both are important, and play important roles in moving customers through a marketing or sales funnel.

What’s the difference between micro and macro conversions?

When we look at an integrated marketing funnel, macro conversions are larger-scale moments that reflect the primary goal of the marketing campaign, such as a product sale or a lead inquiry. Micro conversions are smaller engagements that happen throughout the marketing process, and these engagements generally precede a macro conversion. Micro conversions can happen early in the funnel, such as visiting a specific website page, or further down the funnel, with conversion points such as watching a product video.

Why are micro and macro conversions important?

With all of the data available to today’s marketers, separating micro and macro conversions can help cut through the data clutter. Micro conversions are generally early indicators of success, and can help you understand how a user moves through your sales funnel, and focusing on micro conversions can help nudge consumers through the funnel. Macro conversions are those actions that truly impact your goals and bottom line. By tying macro conversions back to their micro conversion predecessor, you’ll be able to develop a more informed retargeting and remarketing strategy, which, in turn, can increase your return on investment.

How do you determine micro and macro conversion points?

If you have an established sales process, you may already be familiar with your micro and macro conversion points. If not, Martino Flynn recommends examining a recent campaign to identify key conversion points.

For example, we recently executed a digital and Direct Response TV (DRTV) campaign for an insurance client. In this situation, the macro conversion point was requesting a quote. When we looked at initial metrics for the campaign, the digital cost per lead/quote was substantially lower than the DRTV cost per lead–which made our client consider pulling their TV spend. However, when we did an overlay of the DRTV air times against the digital lead activity, we were able to identify that viewing the DRTV spot was a key micro conversion in the digital campaign funnel. If we hadn’t worked to identify this micro conversion point, and only focused on macro conversions, we might have eliminated a tactic that was crucial to the overall campaign’s success.

Event marketing and sponsorships can impact brands significantly, but marketers are often challenged with how to measure event sponsorship Return On Investment (ROI). Based on your overall marketing goals, there are a number of different ways to evaluate the impact of event sponsorships. Here are three different ways to measure event sponsorship ROI.

Brand Impressions

If you are looking to drive broad-based awareness for your brand, tracking overall impressions can be used to measure event sponsorship ROI. Impression-based sponsorships generally encompass items such as corporate logo placement on event materials such as programs or signage, or verbal mentions of a company name during the event. In addition to generating brand impressions, these types of sponsorships can also have a halo effect for brands, who can generate brand clout by being associated with a particular event or garner additional goodwill with consumers by supporting a particular organization. However, impression-based sponsorships often lack the opportunity for brands to directly engage with potential customers.

Customer Engagement

Brands that want more in-depth interaction with consumers can measure the value of event sponsorship by looking at customer engagement that resulted from said sponsorship. Customer engagement can take many forms, from website visits and social media interactions to direct one-to-one interaction with customers. Sponsorships that generate one-to-one interaction with consumers often include items such as booth exhibits, or the opportunity to directly communicate with consumers via email or direct mail. While direct customer engagement opportunities may be more limited in terms of “numbers” when compared to impression-based activities, they can generate high ROI as consumers often develop brand affinity as a result of the direct interaction.

Customer Feedback

Garnering customer feedback is one of the most valuable, yet often overlooked, ways to measure event sponsorship ROI. As a result of event sponsorships, brands often have an opportunity to engage with customers and get real-time feedback on their product or service offering. Hearing directly from the “voice of the consumer” can provide invaluable feedback—including both areas of strength and those that need improvement—for brands. This feedback may come in person with one-to-one interactions, or may be shared online via social media and other web properties. While measuring ROI in terms of customer feedback may seem intangible, brands can generate tangible benefits from listening and responding to current and potential customers.

Rose Cooper serves as the Lead Planner on Martino Flynn’s Integrated Marketing Strategy Team. To learn more about Martino Flynn’s consumer research and media planning capabilities, contact us at 585.421.0100.