Interactive Advertising Bureau Reports Soaring Video Ad Spend In 2019

Interactive Advertising Bureau, eMarketer

Advertisers are favoring original video content; programmatic buys will dedicate more budgets to original videos, say reports from IAB and eMarketer.

According to a new report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), U.S., investment in video ads expected to reach $18 million in 2019, and digital video ad spend continues to rise this year as well. In 2018, the budgets stood at $14.2 million in 2018, and researches now indicate that more than half of digital video ad spend will be on original content. The eMarketer also pins the programmatic video ad spend at $29.24 billion for this year. This will be almost half- at 49.2% of US programmatic digital display ad spending.

The report says that annual spend on original video ads is expected to grow 31% over 2018, which is a faster rate than last year. This will ensure it gains a higher share over other types of video spend. In responses from the research, one factor that stood out was that most respondents considered content quality the dominant factor to be considered for video ad budgets allocation.

The intention of encouraging original video content, the report said, is to ensure it is customized for high-impact branding and placements. The increased spend would mean increased targeting options, custom product integrations, and a “less cluttered” ad environment. Speaking of ways of serving video ads, programmatic placements saw the fastest growth path in 2019.  It was closely followed by Digital display ads, that are expected to make up 49.2 percent of total programmatic buys in the U.S., the eMarketer indicated.

Read More Digital vs. Traditional Media – Startups Focus on Realigning their Digital Ad Spend

Within the programmatic video, ad spends, that directed at mobile displays is predicted to grow faster than the spend on desktop and connected TV, though only marginally, in 2019. However, the share of the mobile display ad spend is projected to grow to 53.9 percent in 2020.

Clearly, in the journey from mobile video to over-the-top (OTT) displays, digital content is the gainer as far as consumption is concerned. That is what is increasingly pushing the marketers’ focus on developing engaging video content and more efficient buying mechanisms. Clearly, original video content is the color of the season, and marketers have discovered newer ways to connect with audiences, engaging with them more gainfully – with an eye on increasing RoI.