Ask Me Anything Optimize revenues by optimizing user engagement

A massive amount of content is readily available for Internet users, for all verticals, in all formats, so creativity matters more than ever.

Add in the mounting frustration that audiences have with online ads, and it becomes clear why the ad-funded business model needs a fresh perspective. By solely focusing on ad revenue to fund quality content, you risk alienating your audience.

The need for revenue is no excuse for cramming a website with ads, and disregarding their type, size, relevance or quantity.

User experience is directly tied to your revenue. The more visitors you have and the longer their sessions, the more revenue opportunities are created.

You might feel tempted to jam many ads on a page in an effort to maximize revenue, but more often than not, people will bounce from a page that is crowded with advertising.



In this second scenario, in which you place fewer ads, and focus more on keeping the user engaged, they’re likely to surf your site, and become a repeat visitor.



If you put earnings into balance, the second strategy is likely to pay off better on the long-term.

Finding the right balance between user experience and ad revenue might be difficult to achieve, but thankfully contextual video could be the solution.

Why use video?
Throughout 2018, consumer appetite for video has continued to grow. A 2018 report reveals that globally, an overwhelming 85% of consumers are eager to see more video content from brands.

Video as a format appears to be already more distributed than text and is expected to account for 82% of all traffic by 2021.

The modern day consumer suffers from a severe attention deficit, and is much more prone to interact with visual information than text. Video has become a prerequisite for any publisher’s success, by capturing eyeballs, framing stories, adding context, and making a more compelling reasons for visitors to stick around.

For more video trends, grab a copy of our “Putting video in context” quarterly report.

Why use contextual video?
One important thing to bear in mind is that we are wired to dedicate attention only to what is relevant and worthwhile.

“[The brain] can choose what it pays attention to – and you’re constantly scanning your environment for things that are important to you, and if something like that comes up, you will pay attention to it.” - Ali Jennings, PHD in neuroscience

With this in mind, the conclusion for publishers is to show videos that are connected and relevant to the article on page. This will boost your website in terms of visitor experience, as well as earnings, since you create additional ad placement possibilities.

Our latest research proved the following benefits of including contextual video on one’s site:

1. It improves visitor perception of the website
2. It engages your audience more
3. It increases publisher recall

What does this mean for you? It means that your visitors are likely to stay longer on page, to check out other pages, and to come back for more. If you’re thinking revenue, it means more ads shown, and higher earnings.

If you’re interested in learning more about why context is so important, check out our “Context is everything” film series.

Turning contextual video into opportunities for monetization
It’s simple to identify the interests of visitors to pages about topics like football, movies or diets. Present them with similar videos to complement that topic, and you can use pre-roll advertising in a way that is less disruptive and irritating. If you disregard context, you risk losing them.

There are still plenty of publishers that haven’t started with video monetization, either because they don’t have the resources to produce videos, or because they don’t believe in the potential of in-stream video advertising. If you’re in the first category, you’ll be happy to learn you can source relevant videos from a variety of content providers.

If you’re a skeptic, bear in mind that video advertising is still on the rise, expected to reach 25% of global digital ad spend this year. All this, whilst the year-on-year growth for banner ads is a mere 2%.