• by Salim Tarazi , Op-Ed Contributor, August 16, 2016

With platforms such as Netflix and Snapchat, consumers are spending more time watching videos than ever before. Per an Interactive Advertising Bureau video ad study, 72% of marketing and media buying professionals said they will be moving funds from TV to digital video.

However, simply producing engaging, targeted video content is no longer enough. Road blocks like ad blockers, mobile apps and skip buttons are forcing brands to be more creative than ever before.

Here are the top three mobile video advertising mistakes brands are still making today:

1. Treating ads as one size fits all. Too many brands are still trying to repurpose their creative across campaigns and channels. Just because a video ad was created for a TV segment, doesn’t mean you should post it on YouTube and Instagram, too. Consumers interact with each channel differently.

Consider Geico’s series of “Unskippable advertisements,” which were designed around the Skip Ad button, daring viewers to stick around to see what happens. It’s important to consider the ultimate objective of your campaign when developing the creative. You wouldn’t customize the interior of a car and then expect to be able to reuse the same custom pieces in every car you buy moving forward.

A new trend on mobile is the use of vertical video ads. These convert well because the consumer isn’t forced out of their current view requiring extra clicks to get back. However, vertical videos wouldn’t make sense for TV. Your advertising partner can help you design the best ad for each platform, which will drive more views, traffic and conversions.

2. Settling on viewability. We’re still seeing brands accept viewability rates that aren’t up to par. The Media Ratings Council recently issued its first draft of mobile viewability guidelines, recommending the same standard as desktop. However, a video experience is much different on mobile than it is on desktop.

In measuring video viewability, one of the biggest challenges advertisers face involves differentiating between viewability rates and completion rates, and measuring your campaign results accordingly.

A campaign may deliver high viewability rates, but low completion rates. That means your video was considered “seen” by a lot of people, but it could have been just for a second before it was skipped or closed out of.

Conversely, a video ad could deliver high completion rates with low viewability rates due to the video auto-playing below the fold, or where it can’t be seen by the viewer.

Auto-play is the largest form of fraud in video advertising, and the advertiser pays for each of these instances without getting the value they expect from their campaign. Work with a trusted partner to give you recommendations on which platforms and locations will produce the best experience to deliver the highest viewability rates.

3. Missing the audience mark. The best ads deliver the right content to the right person at the right time. However, it’s common for advertisers to be so focused on context that they forget about their audience. Advertising partners have different audiences to offer, so it’s crucial to do your research.  

Then, work with a partner that can tell you where that audience shops, what devices they like to use, what sites and apps they visit, and which social channels they prefer. It’s imperative to understand your target audience’s shopping journey, rather than just targeting them with one video on one site they visit.

Advertisers should know with certainty that their ad is running in the right environment.

When executed correctly, video ads can enrich a mobile experience. It’s imperative that advertisers and brands do their research before partnering with an advertising partner on mobile video.