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BrightRoll

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The programmatic video advertising industry, and the technology behind it, is a complex and evolving space. Thankfully, Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) can give advertisers valuable insights on campaign optimization and performance. This helps to minimize the complexity of video advertising and inform video best practices that yield results. An online auto retailer and their ad agency leveraged the BrightRoll DSP and programmatic advertising to test and optimize their video campaigns. The agile environment and data-focused nature of the BrightRoll DSP proved to be an ideal method for gathering real-time insights and informing a strategy. The information derived from the test campaign gave the agency the data needed to understand the benefits of programmatic video advertising and how to best implement more effective targeting and creative strategies moving forward.

Finding the Right Approach: Which programmatic strategies work for your goals?

Understanding Your OptionsMost brands execute video campaigns with one or two overarching goals in mind: to drive awareness, or to drive engagement. Awareness campaigns aim to grow consideration among upper-funnel audiences, while engagement efforts focus on increasing conversions from site visits and online or offline purchases. The lists below outline common metrics associated with each goal.

The following case study examines how a popular online auto retailer, in partnership with BrightRoll, used programmatic video advertising to test creative and targeting strategies for deeper insights into campaign effectiveness.

Click -through RateThe percentage of impressions in which a viewer clicks on the video ad, resulting in the loading of a designated website.

Conversion RateFor the purposes of this campaign, the online auto retailer and their agency defined conversion rate as the percentage of impressions served that resulted in the viewer spending qualified time on the brand’s website. Conversion types vary among advertisers.

Awareness• Completed view rate (CVR)• Viewability rate• Brand lift• Message recall• Purchase intent

Engagement• Click-through rate (CTR)• Conversion rate• Offline sales impact

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TacticsOnce advertisers develop an overarching goal, they need to choose the campaign parameters that will help them achieve those objectives. Advanced programmatic platforms provide a wide range of features to target specific devices and audiences, filter and select thousands of inventory sources, and manage creative exposures.

Sample parameters:

Audience Targeting• Demographic Age, gender, household income• Behavioral Interest, purchases, in-market• Re-targeting site visitors or previous ad viewers• Competitive product affinity• TV viewing habits

Inventory Targeting• Length of ad• Length of content• Historical performance CTR, CVR, viewability• Content category• Player size• Player placement on site• Device

Frequency Management & Creative• Per-user frequency capping• Interactive ad units• Creative rotation• Click-through and conversion tracking pixels

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Creative rotation: four different adsIn order to gauge how the creative of the video asset influenced engagement, the campaign tested four unique video ads. All of the creatives had a comical theme, but each of the four ads focused on different comedic elements and featured different customer personas. This allowed the auto retailer to understand which creative and content themes were most compelling to the two viewing audiences. Ad unit: standard vs. interactiveThe creative casing and interactive functionality of the ad was also tested. All creative ads were shown as both standard pre-roll with no interactivity and with an interactive ad bar layover. The bar prompted viewers with an additional call to action and a quick link to shop vehicles on the website. Content length: long form vs. short formThe final parameter tested was the length of the content associated with the ad. Content length was broken out into two categories: long form (full-episode players and extended content longer than 10 minutes), and short form (content under 10 minutes).

Campaign ExecutionBrightRoll’s media strategist executed the campaign to optimize all line items toward the auto retailer’s CTR and conversion goals. The advanced technology and real-time reporting of the BrightRoll DSP allowed the media strategist to analyze performance of all line items throughout the campaign and ensure optimal performance. BrightRoll’s programmatic optimization feature automatically optimized each line item to CTR by ingesting millions of data points per day and adjusting campaigns to yield stronger results. The optimization feature was supplemented with daily monitoring and manual de-targeting of selected sites.

Testing variables Audience: known vs. potential customersTo evaluate how audience impacts performance, the auto retailer chose to divide the campaign targeting strategy into two categories: potential customers and known customers. Potential customers were individuals that have no known interest in the brand and have no prior exposure to the brand’s video ads. Known customers have made a past purchase, have a proven interest, or had previous exposure to the brand's video ads.

GoalsDrive engagement by evaluating the following metrics:

Click-through rates

Conversion rates

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MethodologyThe online auto retailer’s agency worked with the BrightRoll DSP team to test four main parameters that aligned with the campaign strategy: audience targeting, creative, ad unit, and inventory length. The campaign was set up with multiple line items to test how each of the variables would impact the auto retailer’s goals of driving click-through and conversion rates.

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ResultsThe agency and the BrightRoll DSP team analyzed the campaign performance in order to identify key tactics to maximize the auto retailer’s goals. When looking at the data, the agency unearthed important findings on how specific campaign parameters improved performance.

Five key findings

Targeting potential customers drives CTRThe data showed that the potential customer targeting strategy was over 10x more effective at driving CTR than the known customer targeting strategy. Regardless of the creative or ad unit, all line items targeted to potential customers drove higher CTRs than all line items targeted toward known audiences.

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CTR and conversions are maximized by different audiences When examining which audiences drive conversions, the results point to the known customers as more effective. In contrast, potential customers drove CTR. Line items targeted to potential customers were 12x more effective at driving CTR. Known customers were 4x more effective at driving conversions.

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Creative ad content mattersAdditionally, the campaign’s CTR and conversion rates were influenced by creative content. The top-performing creative drove higher rates across both metrics. For example, creative A was 127% more effective in driving CTR and 94% more effective in generating conversions than creative D.

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Creative A Creative B Creative C Creative DCreative A Creative B Creative C Creative D

94% Conversion IncreaseFrom creative D to A

Known Customers

4x more effective at driving conversions

Potential Customers

12x more effective at driving CTR

127%CTR Increase From creative D to A

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• Creative A Lighthearted humor with female customers• IPR ad bar unit• Short-form content

Highest performing variable combination

Short-form content improves engagement ratesWhen examining performance metrics for content length, short-form emerged as the clear winner driving a 900% higher CTR and a 400% higher conversion rate compared to long-form content.

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2.34%CTR RatePotential Customers

15.95% Conversion RateKnown Customers

Interactive ad units deliver a greater impact for CTR than conversion rateUsing an interactive ad unit impacted CTR four times more than it impacted conversion rate. IPR CTR performance was 180% better than the standard pre-roll performance. The conversion rate performance only improved 41%.

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CTR Conversion

Interactive ad units

4x more effective at driving CTR than conversions

Long Form Short Form Long Form Short Form

400%CTR Increase with short-form content

900% Conversion Increasewith short-form content

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Use programmatic as a toolProgrammatic technology has the ability to drive meaningful insights for brands. By looking closer at campaign reporting and testing different tactics, brands can learn how to make better decisions that will drive ROI. One size does not fit allVideo strategy and performance are unique to each campaign and audience. The online auto retailer was able to find useful results that helped their brand, but each advertiser needs to test and develop their own strategy that considers additional variables such as vertical, content type, and audience. Focus strategies around one KPIThe study found that the tactics that drive performance for one KPI might impact another. By focusing measurements for success around a single metric, campaigns can be built to yield the strongest results. Practice makes perfectProgrammatic video advertising is a dynamic tool for advertisers to use in reaching audiences. As the market evolves, targeting, measurement, and optimization opportunities improve, giving advertisers more options to test strategies and deliver results.

About BrightRollBrightRoll builds software that automates and improves digital video advertising globally. The company offers the industry’s leading programmatic video solutions, including a demand side platform and marketplace. These solutions help advertisers, publishers and partners grow their business and connect with consumers on web, mobile and TV. A division of Yahoo, BrightRoll powers digital video advertising for 87 of the top 100 Ad Age advertisers, 41 of the top 50 publishers, and more than 100 technology partners. For more on BrightRoll, visit brightroll.com.

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How to Use Programmatic to Meet Your Goals

Moving ForwardUpon completion of the study, the online auto retailer and the agency used the insights to increase their understanding of how different features can influence performance. Those learnings allowed the agency and auto retailer to develop more sophisticated programmatic video advertising strategies that will position their future campaigns for success.

Programmatic video advertising is built to be agile and yield insights, providing the ideal platform for understanding and optimizing campaigns. By testing creatives, targeting, and other variables, advertisers are able to better plan campaigns to yield results.

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