With video content gaining unprecedented popularity in the last decade, digital video advertising has become one of the most lucrative advertising branches. But not all video ads are the same. Post-roll ads are generally considered the outcast of the instream advertising landscape. They simply don’t bring in the results that their pre- and mid-roll counterparts do. But are they still worth the effort?
What Are Post-Roll Ads?
Post-roll ads are a subcategory of instream ads (advertisements that show up within a video stream). As the name suggests, post-roll ads play after the video ends, as opposed to pre-roll ads, which play before a video, and mid-roll ads, which show up during the stream.
Where Can You Find Post-Roll Ads?
Post-roll ads are not exactly the most common video ad format. Still, you can usually see them anywhere on the internet where there are videos:
- Streaming services — If an OTT streaming service uses AVOD as one of its video monetization models, it will likely implement instream ads, including post-rolls, both on its website and OTT apps.
- Websites — Any website with video content, be it a video-sharing website like YouTube or a site that just contains videos, can serve post-roll ads.
- Live streams — Although mid-roll ads are the most common type of ad in live streams, post-roll ads can be found there occasionally as well.
How Long Can Post-Roll Ads Be?
Much like with other types of instream ads, the maximum duration of a post-roll ad mainly depends on the platform. For instance, YouTube allows post-rolls that are up to 3 minutes long, although most don’t exceed the 15-second mark.
How Many Post-Roll Ads Can You Queue Consecutively?
Just like with the duration of the ad, the number of post-rolls you can queue depends on the platform you’re using and your own preferences. However, keep in mind that post-rolls are generally the least effective format of the three, so overdoing it might be an unnecessary expense. In general, pre- and mid-roll ads are much better candidates for ad podding.
How Post-Roll Ads Compare to Other Instream Ad Formats
When compared to pre-roll and mid-roll ads, post-rolls don’t exactly shine through. According to research, they are the least effective of the three, with 58% fewer impressions than mid-rolls, and almost 200% fewer than pre-rolls. One of the very few advantages of post-roll ads is that they are completely unintrusive to the viewer experience.
The Flaws of Post-Roll Ads
According to statistics, the average person watches almost 7 hours of videos a week. However, the video completion rate for business videos of up to 10 minutes was slightly over 50% in 2020. And that number gets lower the longer the video is. In other words, almost half of the audience never even reached the post-roll ad slot, let alone viewed the ad.
Although they offer the best user experience, that is generally not a worthy trade-off for publishers who want to maximize video ad revenue. One of the few contexts in which post-rolls might bring in more impressions is playlists, although pre-rolls would do the job there, too.
In general, post-roll ads as a standalone video ad format are not worth the money and effort. They are a better option for supplemental ad yield, although you wouldn’t lose much if you skipped them altogether.
Post-Roll Ads Best Practices for Advertisers
Do you want to make a video ad that will be served as a post-roll? Here are a few tips on how to make it as effective as possible and generate more leads.
Keep Them Short
Once the video is over, viewers have no incentive to stay and watch the post-roll. However, if the ad is short and snappy, they will be more likely to stick around until the end. On the other hand, if the post-roll is three minutes long, the ad will almost certainly fail to bring any meaningful results.
Ensure They Adhere to Better Ads Standards
Adhering to Better Ads Standards is a must if you want to ensure a smooth viewer experience and an effective campaign. While these standards are not mandatory industry-wide, most video ad networks demand them.
Make Them Relevant
People are more likely to be interested in your ad if they find it relevant. The best way to ensure this is good ad targeting. For now, you can still use behavioral targeting to ensure the ad is relevant to the viewer’s interests, search history, and online behavior. However, the upcoming phaseout of third-party cookies will soon render this targeting method useless.
Luckily, contextual video advertising makes for a great alternative. Contextual targeting matches the content of ads to the content of the video or page where they are served. For instance, ads for video games or gaming equipment are likely to pop up on gaming live streams.
How to Get Post-Roll Ads on Your Website
Do you want to put video ads on your website? In order to place a post-roll ad on your video content, you will first need to join a good ad network that fits your needs. Ideally, your network of choice should support real-time bidding, require adherence to Better Ads Standards, offer detailed ad analytics, and have any other features you need.
You should also find a good HTML5 video player with adaptive bitrate streaming and extensive video ad support. The player should be optimized for VAST and VPAID ad tags and video header bidding. Lastly, it should offer sufficient customization options, so you can match it to your brand.
Once you have sold your ad inventory, all you have to do is configure the player using ad tags, embed the video on your website, and enjoy the revenue. You can also track the performance of your ads and adjust parameters to maximize ad yield.
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