Can Less Than 3 Seconds Of A Video Ad Have An Impact?

Nielsen recently tackled a question that many advertisers have regarding video advertising.  How much does the ad benefit me (if at all) if the person skips it after a few seconds?  The answer, their research shows, is…a lot!

The study found significant lift in ad recall, brand awareness and purchase consideration even for people who saw the video before it started playing but didn’t watch any of it.  Here’s what the authors said, “Results show that from the moment a video ad was viewed (even before one second), lift happened across ad recall, brand awareness, and purchase consideration. That means even people who never watched the video, but did see the impression, were still impacted by the ad.   And, as expected, lift increased the longer people watch the ad.”

As the graphic below shows, Nielsen found that after just 3 seconds ad recall for the advertiser increased 47%, brand awareness increased 32%, and purchase intent increased 44%.  Keep in mind that an advertiser only pays for a video impression if at least 25% of the ad was watched.  So, if you are running a :15 ad that means if the viewer clicks out before 3.75 seconds you don’t pay – but according to this research, your ad is still having an impact!

The effectiveness of video ads continues to grow as this study and others show. An eMarketer study found that the average time US adults spend with online video has grown 38% since 2011. We now spend an average of an hour and 16 minutes a day with online video, much of that growth coming from viewing videos on tablets and smartphones.