Publishers! How does Outstream compare to Banner eCPMs & CTRs?

The Outstream video ad format should be considered as a display ad and using the Outstream video ad format can not only bring you extra revenues, but is great for user experience. In this blog post we bring you our network’s Business Intelligence data as well as some tips for using both Outstream and Banner ad zones on your desktop and mobile sites.

Outstream versus Banners

Our Business Intelligence department looked at global eCPMs for Outstream versus Banners as well as the average CTRs for each format. Publishers using Outstream get a much higher eCPM and CTR compared to Banners, here are our findings:

This shows to advertisers that Oustream has a higher value compared to Banners and over time your higher performing Outstream ad zone will grow in value because the higher CTR will bring advertiser demand, pushing up the eCPM value further.

Outstream creates a great user experience

Seamless integration with your content: The Outstream Video ad is shown to an end user during their user journey and is fully responsive, playing on desktop, tablet and mobile. The publisher can set the positioning on their website for when the video ad will trigger. As the user scrolls down the page the ad zone pushes your website’s content down and the Outstream ad starts being visible to the user. As the user continues to scroll down the page, the ad zone vanishes and is replaced with the original content on your page. 

Non-obtrusive to their user journey: Once 50% of the Outstream ad zone is viewable, the video ad automatically plays on mute, the end user can unmute the video ad. As the end user scrolls further down the page the video will pause, waiting to resume playing when the end user comes back to the content where the Outstream ad is located. Clicking or tapping the video ad opens the advertiser’s landing page in a new tab.

100% Google compliant: The Outstream ad zone features a close button on the top right hand side of the ad zone.

No need for a video player: Insert Outstream ads with one piece of code and you can start monetising video ads without the need of a video player.

Additional bidding model: The Outstream ad format is available on CPM, CPC and CPV (Cost per View) giving you an extra metric to earn revenues from.

5 Outstream ad zone tips 

Tip 1 – Use Outstream sparingly: For the best user experience don’t create too many ad zones or the end user will avoid them, which will affect your CTRs, you need to find the sweet spot, we recommend you only use 1 Outstream ad zone per page. See the format as an extra display ad zone to compliment your banner ads.

Tip 2 – Positioning is key: Ideally above or below the mobile middle on mobile devices and between the content on Desktop devices. This allows the user time to interact with your site’s content first, before seeing the Outstream ad zones. If you also have a Video Slider ad zone implemented this gives the user time to see the Slider ad first when your page loads and then as the user scrolls down through your content you can start showing your Outstream ads. 

Tip 3 . Outstream ad zone size: The default responsive size is full container width, for example place it with a 600×300 container for Desktop and 100% width container for Mobile, however in your admin panel you can customise the size of the video that is shown to end users. We recommend that you select a custom size that fits in with the size of the video players you have on your site. This will make it appear more like site content to ensure a greater user experience and generate more clicks. You can choose a custom width from 200px to 1080px.

Tip 4 – Ads By: In your admin panel allow the ‘Ads by Exoclick’ label to inform the user that video content within your feed is an ad. This will make the ad less intrusive and provide better quality clicks to advertisers.

Tip 5 – Don’t use a video player or iframe: To display Outstream ad zones you do not need a video player, if you use a video player for a custom implementation of Outstream, you will negatively affect your viewability and CTR metrics. So all you need to do is simply use the ad zone code provided in the Admin Panel. 

Watch our video tutorial Effective Outstream Video Zones for Publishers