These days there is no shortage of solutions for publishers looking to build their video marketing technology stack, leaving them swimming in a pool of options from which to pick and choose. It’s up to the publishers to select and build the stack that will benefit them the most but, unfortunately, a stack set up inefficiently will slow down progress and time-to-market as result in overspending. Let’s explore some of the heavier consequences of building your video tech stack the wrong way and how to avoid these pitfalls.
Video differs from Display in many ways. For one, Video creative files are significantly larger than Display files – as much as 300 times larger: 3-15MB vs. 50KB. And while Display ads can be placed and shown on any browser, Video ads require a player in order to be viewed. Other compatibility prerequisites for video include device and operating system, bandwidth, screen/player resolution, and much more.
But most importantly, the way video ads are transacted is very different from Display. The VAST/VPAID protocols require that advertisers (or, demand sources) commit to an impression only after the video ad starts playing. This means that if an ad failed to load, for any reason, even if the demand source won the bid, but could not send over an ad, the publisher will not get paid.
This makes video very sensitive to technical glitches and to arbitrage plays, since at the end of the day, the publisher ends up losing potential revenue from such lost impressions.
That is why standard wrappers perform poorly with video. In a standard header bidding scenario, as is the case with prebid.js, all associated demand sources are called to make a bid. Then, the decisioning engine chooses the highest bidder as the winner. All of this usually happens on the server side. After the winning source is chosen, its VAST/VPAID tag is transferred to the player to run the ad. However, in many cases, 30% on average, the ad will not play back successfully, and the impression will be lost.
Our seamlessly integrated video stack helps to deliver a great viewing experience in a complex cross-platform and cross-device environment all through one tag.
The built-in optimization solution together with the integrated marketplace overcome complex VPAID errors as well as streaming and scalability challenges. Our hybrid video header bidding technology removes server side and client side barriers that compromise ad loading speed, CPMs and fill rates.
Built for mobile, desktop and Connected TV, the HTML5 Player performs at lightning-speed across all screens and devices. It simply loads and smoothly delivers a consistent experience even in complex mobile autoplay and click-to-play formats.
