The Online Video Market is Changing – What to Expect in 2014
The world of online video is always changing, and more change is yet to come for the online consumer in 2014. Marketers will be creating videos that are more interactive, more relevant to common trends and interests, and versatile in nature, so they may be placed all across the web for many different uses. New technology and growth in ad spend are driving these big changes in web video advertising. The online ad market is expected to exceed $9 billion by next year, and online video was found by Cisco to be the fastest growing consumer service offering.
Another billion users are expected to be utilizing web videos within the next 3 years, surpassing the popularity of social networks like Twitter and Facebook. This is why brands and corporations are seeking ways to connect more directly with their target markets. The goal for all online marketers is to make sure video ads are placed within high-quality, relevant content that reaches the right people.
Online consumers want relevant advertising – they want to connect to products and services that are useful in their daily lives. Facebook’s ad platform has responded beautifully to this demand with a strict creative review process and highly targeted functionality. Ad networks like Google AdWords use predictive search to align online advertising with user interests. Advertisers are seeking more accurate customer personas by analyzing search history, social networking, and sales and marketing data.
You will likely see big changes happen in web videos throughout the year as marketers implement new techniques to help satisfy changing customer expectations. Social interaction and semantic search are becoming more important than ever. Semantic search enables ad platforms to understand the context of online content, and helps to reveal new advertising possibilities that bring more value to users and marketers alike. People want answers to their questions, not a list of random results that have little to do with what they want. Videos provide a way to convey those answers quickly and more effectively than text or images.
While YouTube is still the most popular video hosting platform and the second largest search engine in the world, brands may be looking to move away from distributing their video content on YouTube alone. More professional or showcase-style platforms like Vimeo or Wistia add a sense of sophistication and higher quality, appealing to a specific kind of audience. By distributing video content through these platforms as well as YouTube, brands have a greater chance of reaching more people through different networks, powered by semantic technology. Consumers want to view ads on the player of their choice, and online marketers will have to embrace this fact and begin to utilize more sophisticated distribution models.
You can expect online video advertising to come out in full force in 2014. Advertisers are finally starting to realize the power of web videos and how they improve the online user experience as well as engagement and conversion rates. For more information on how online videos can work for you, contact the experts at In Focus Studios for a free consultation.
