Leveraging video is one of the biggest earning opportunities in digital advertising. With all of the hard work, time, and resources you’ve invested in creating videos to present your craft in a unique way, we want you to take home as much video revenue as possible!
Our ad performance experts dug into video data and analytics across our network to show you how to turn these insights into actionable solutions for higher earning opportunities.
Here are five insider tips to get more bang for your video buck!
New to video?
Check out our step-by-step guide to Get Started with AdThrive Video Players!
1. Run the sticky Playlist video player for your biggest earning opportunity!
We offer two different video players to support your video content. The first is the Playlist video player. This is a collection of video content that you can create in your dashboard by choosing which videos to include. This player is great for all of your posts that don’t have a related video.
The second player is the Related video player. Use this player when you have video content related to a specific post, like a recipe demonstration or a DIY project.
Each player type has the option to be either ‘stationary’ or ‘sticky’. Sticky video players start inside the content, then collapse into a smaller size on the side of the screen and scroll with the reader (earning you more).
Our data shows that the sticky Playlist player is our highest-earning video option! With this player, if a reader doesn’t interact with the video (like adjusting the volume or pausing the video) within the first 30 seconds, our auto-advance feature helps you earn more by moving to the next video in your playlist, serving a pre-roll ad first.
Start here:
- If you haven’t created a video playlist in your AdThrive dashboard yet, that’d be the best place to start! Find the instructions for how to add your videos to a playlist here.
- Upgrade to the sticky Playlist option if you’re currently using the stationary player. Just send us a note, and our team will set it up for you!
2. Clean up mobile clutter to improve video completion rate
With our culture using smartphones for just about everything these days, your readers’ experience on mobile will leave a lasting impression, influencing whether they want to keep coming back.
A great user experience means they can find what they’re looking for without having to weed through a lot of clutter to get to it — making readers less likely to close your high-earning sticky video player.
“Completion rate” is a metric that looks at how many users completed a video ad, as opposed to closing the video player before the video ad was done playing. On sites with multiple sticky elements — anything that sticks to the screen as your reader scrolls — readers close out the video player twice as frequently as sites with minimal sticky elements.
Minimizing sticky elements on mobile can lead to a drastic increase in the completion rate for video ads, boosting your video earnings!
Start here:
- Keep sticky social media sliders, navigation buttons, newsletter opt-ins, and scrolling headers to a minimum on mobile, so readers are more accepting of your high-earning sticky video player and sticky footer ad.
- Check out your site on various mobile devices using Google Chrome’s Emulator to spot the clutter you can clear out, making way for bigger video ad earnings!
3. Position your pop-ups for success
Giving your readers a chance to settle in and get immersed in your content before they encounter a pop-up creates less overwhelm and a higher likelihood that they’ll keep the video player open while viewing your site.
Your engaged audience — the users who are most likely to convert — are typically the ones spending more than your average time on page. Delay pop-ups for newsletters, etc., until later in the session (30 seconds–3 minutes), allowing your reader to become invested and want more of your content.
Make sure your video player doesn’t overlap any ‘Close’ or ‘Submit’ buttons on mobile pop-ups. This can force your reader to close the video player too, costing you the opportunity to earn from one of your highest paying ads.
Start here:
- Check out your pop-ups and video player positions using an incognito window on multiple devices to make sure everything is playing nicely together.
- Revisit the timing settings for your subscription pop-ups in light of your average time on page. Are you asking readers for their info before they’re totally hooked and ready to provide it?
- Test pop-up timing to find your optimal conversion rate!
4. Location, location, location
Our goal is to keep your content front and center! Your sticky video player starts playing inside the content, then collapses once the reader passes the original embed location. There are actually several different options for where the video player collapses — the top right, top left, bottom right, and bottom left of the screen.
Looking at our aggregated data on video player close rates, we’ve found that readers are more likely to close sticky video players that collapse and stick to the top of the screen on mobile. Users seem to prefer a video player that sticks to the bottom of the screen.
By adjusting your sticky mobile player to collapse to the bottom of the screen, your content is at the forefront while your video player earns for you in the periphery!
Start here:
- Check your sticky video player positioning on mobile. Does it collapse to the top or the bottom of the screen when it becomes sticky? Shoot us an email and we can help you move it to the perfect location for your readers.
5. Boost RPMs by removing the video title wrapper from your Playlist video player
To title or not to title, that is the question! You have the option to show video titles in your Playlist video player and link out to the URL of the associated video.
But we’ve found that a very small percentage of readers actually click on those video titles, and by removing the video title wrapper, you can boost your RPMs with little to no effect on your readers’ experience! In fact, this simple adjustment can increase video RPM by 5-6% and overall RPM by 1%.
Start here:
- Head to your AdThrive dashboard Ad Preferences page and simply toggle on “Remove the video title wrapper” under Ad Options.
If you have questions on implementing any of these tips to optimize your site for top video earnings, your AdThrive team is standing by and ready to help!
