Video Ad Tech You Can’t Ignore

While many analysts are primarily evaluating the creative side of digital video ads and analyzing the impact of advertising campaigns — especially those run during the holiday seasons — the truth is, the technology aspect is just as vital.

And no, I’m not speaking about a variety of martech solutions, often utilized for the deeper analysis and more efficient decision-making when it comes to campaign configuration, setup and adjustment. Like it or not, despite the fact that about 70% of CMOs are planning to increase their investment in marketing tech in the near future, much of this software is hardly indispensable — if not useless in some cases. The trick is, although the intelligent tech might be helping marketers to hoard data, tracking ROI for each ad investment remains tricky for over two thirds of them.

So, what does the video ad technology of the so-to-speak primary significance imply then? Here’s some tidbits that can’t be ignored.

Video ad verification and anti-fraud protection

Ever since the “good old days” when the problem of IVT seemed easier to overcome, the importance of ad verification and anti-fraud protection software has only been accelerating in the online video ad ecosystem. Following the immense spikes of video ad fraud in the in-app and CTV niches, the sophistication of fraud techniques is still growing.

A vivid example is the recent case of ViperBot, a complex fraud code which has been allegedly spoofing over 85 million ad requests daily since 2021, leading to the theft of almost $8 million a month spent on CTV and mobile video ads.

The good news is, the major ad verification companies on the current market are upgrading their video ad solutions at a considerable pace, aiming to eliminate or at least minimize the fraud risks and the financial losses, accordingly. And as the publicly available data demonstrates, they’re gradually winning.

Related: The Growing Risks of Digital Advertising and How Brands are Fighting Back

Video ad measurement software

Third-party video ad measurement software has always been somewhat of a go-to solution for brands and agencies, wishing to minimize discrepancies in video ad performance reports between their in-house data and the numbers on the supply side. What has been changing over the past few years is the scope of metrics being measured, which has both broadened and evolved in order to fit the changing marketers’ demands.

In this respect, while some of the specific video ad niche requests may include attention metrics (specifically on CTV) or the newly-emerging KPIs, like data source quality and target information quality, media exposure (e.g. viewable video ad impressions) and outcome (e.g. ROI/ROAS) will remain in the limelight across most market verticals.

And this is where the video ad measurement tech providers need to step up in order to ensure their partners’ best results.

Related: How to Build Brand Loyalty Through Augmented Reality

Video ad player tech

If quality anti-fraud protection and verifiable video ad measurement play a vital role during and upon video ad delivery, there is the video advertising player technology, which actually makes the other software viable.

And while the importance of utilizing a top-notch video player for ad delivery hasn’t reduced a bit over the past years, its key functional capabilities have somewhat changed. In particular, working with an HTML5 player has become a must — so are its cross-platform capabilities, as well as VAST/VPAID, Google IMA, and outstream/instream format support.

In addition, the sharp growth of programmatic video advertising has swelled the importance of video player’s support of Prebid.js and its integration flexibility (e.g. compatibility with third-party video ad server solutions). And as for the light weight and simplicity of implementation, these still remain somewhat an extra benefit.