We’ve probably all cursed banner ads or pop-up messages. So I have good news and bad news for you. Good news is that those two ad delivery methods are falling out of favour with users, and will likely be used less online. Bad news: pre-roll adverts – those things that delay your online video viewing – are the new kings of online ad clicks, and will probably get implemented more often due to their effectiveness.
Chinese research firm DCCI has found, in its Social Network Marketing Report for the first half of 2011, that pre-roll ads on video content got the most clicks out of ten kinds of online advertising in China. They garnered 40.1 percent of the delicious revenue-generating clickability pie (see graph below); banners ads got pushed down to second place, with a hit ratio of 36.4 percent.
But, whereas a good ad-block extension in your browser can eradicate four of those ten types of online ads, pre-roll ads – whether static or video – cannot be blocked by users. The ads, which can last from five to 30 seconds, are now commonplace on video-sharing sites such as Youku or YouTube, and even feature on news sites such as the BBC or CNN.
It seems that, in China, they’re working. Some sites, such as Tudou.com, have already implemented a wider viewing area so that its videos can be flanked by Flash ads that pertain to its pre-roll advertising.
Interestingly, in-game ads aren’t working too well right now, showing up on this survey as the least-clicked kinds of ads. That might be more down to their poor implementation in China, or other factors such as a relative lack of widespread 3G and smartphone usage. It has been estimated that mobile ad expenditure in the industry in China will hit US$1.4 billion by 2015 – but that might be stymied unless ads get more stylish, and more people get online on their phones.
Moving icons might be new to overseas readers, but they’re a well-known and little-loved fixture of lots of Chinese websites, where one or two of them dart across the screen like in the classic arcade game Pong. I’m astonished that they got 28.4 percent of all kinds of ad clicks in this survey, because when I encounter one I tend to curse humanity. But that’s just me.
We’ve taken the liberty of inputting DCCI’s data into a larger, shinier graph. Enjoy your pre-roll ads, kids.
[Source: DCCI/Resonance China]
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