Need help with online video ads? Here are six tips.
US consumers spend an average of 14 hours per week watching digital video.1 Also, 68% of digital viewers indicated that they prefer to learn about new products or services by watching a video.2 That’s where we come in.
Want to learn how your brand can benefit from creative strategy?
Opportunities abound for a variety of streaming TV ads (OTT ads), and online video (OLV) ads via Amazon DSP appear on owned-and-operated homepages and detail pages, as well as out-stream or native video offsite. OLV ads can drive both brand awareness and lower-funnel sales, and if you want to run video marketing campaigns, you should also be paying attention to engagement metrics. While crafting OLV ads, considering variables such as video length and speech duration can make a difference in your key performance indicators (KPIs). Based on average results from thousands of creatives running in the US, we’ve compiled six insights to help ensure your ads are optimized for your audience.
1. Improve consideration metrics
If your primary goal is to raise brand consideration, focusing on the detail page view rate (DPVR) of your OLV ads could be a big help. A click isn’t necessary for a detail page view – it’s visits to the detail page within 14 days of seeing the creative. That means detail page views could be a more thought-out process, compared to instantaneous clicks. Increasing the number of customers viewing and responding to your ads is a way to grow your audience, and we have three recommendations based on our creative insights. When crafting ads for your brand, it’s also a good idea to run A/B tests to confirm improvements with your unique audience.
Timing is everything
When it comes to DPVR, the ideal video length is between 24 and 29 seconds long.3 Videos of that length had the highest average DPVR – 181% higher than videos running for six seconds or less.4 This is the perfect time to highlight your newest or featured products, for example.
Videos between 24 and 29 seconds long had a 181% increase in average DPVR
Videos with speech had a 37% increase in average DPVR
Don’t be afraid to speak
Adding speech to OLV ads had an increase in average DPVR by 37%.5 Voices should start at the beginning of the video, and we do mean the very beginning: delaying the start of speech by even one second led to a decrease in average DPVR by 22%.6 Continue the speech for 30% to 50% of the overall video duration, since that improved average DPVR by 40%, compared to videos with merely 10% or less of overall time spent on speech.7
Two speakers are better than one
If you’re wondering who should do all that speaking, we have the answer. Including two speakers in ads led to an increase in average DPVR by 10%, compared to one speaker.8 This includes voiceover speech, narration or dialogue. However, having more than two speakers decreased average DPVR by up to 45%, so limit the voices in your ad to the two.9
Videos with two speakers led to a 10% increase in average DPVR
2. Help boost sales
If the KPIs you’re primarily focused on relate to sales, such as purchase rate (PR) or return on ad spend (ROAS), there are a few different recommendations you should know. These tips for video and speech length for OLV ads showed improvements in those metrics, but again, running A/B tests can help find the ideal parameters for your unique brand.
Consider the video length
If PR is the main metric you’re considering, the ideal video length is 10 seconds long.10 Videos with a duration of 10 seconds had an average PR that was 51% higher than those with a duration of six seconds or less.11
Videos with a duration of 10 seconds had a 51% increase in average PR
Videos with 80% to 90% speech duration had a 24% increase in average PR
If you use speech, use a lot
First of all, when considering PR, we found there was not a significant difference between videos with speech or without speech. That said, if you do decide to use speech in your OLV ads, speech for the majority of the video (60% to 90% of the overall length) showed the highest performance in PR.12 Speech that lasts for 80% to 90% of the video had the best average PR, 24% higher than videos with speech for 10% or less of the ad length.13
The more speakers, the merrier
Having multiple speakers mention your products or brand within the ads could help improve your sales. The ideal number of voices is two or three, which showed an increase of 26% in average PR, compared to a solo speaker.14
Videos with two or three voices had a 26% increase in average PR
Learn more
Want to find out more about optimizing your advertising creative? Explore other ways to improve campaigns for a variety of other types of ads, including Streaming TV ads and ads for specific industries such as grocery products and household items.
1–2 Wyzowl: The State of Video Marketing, Jan 2020.
3–14 Amazon internal, March 2021, US.