Video ad destination mix stabilises across channels in Q3
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Editor
| 03 November 2021
The latest Video Benchmarks Report from Extreme Reach has found very little movement in impression share by device in the third quarter of 2021, indicating said the creative logistics provider that video delivery by platform has stabilised with connected TV (CTV) continuing to garner the largest share.
Extreme Reach 3 Nov 2021
The new report tracked the aggregate performance metrics for impressions served from the company's accredited video ad server, logging campaigns for a diverse set of brands across multiple categories.

It found CTV accounted for 35% of total ad impressions for the second straight quarter, and for the third time in the past four quarters. CTV commanded the largest share of impressions of the delivery channels included in the quarter. Mobile apps, at 25%, accounted for the second largest share of impressions served by ER in Q3. That was down just 2% from the previous quarter, and down 1% year over year. Desktop accounted for 21% of impressions in Q3, down 1% from the previous quarter, remaining steady with where it was a year ago. Mobile web owned 17% share of impressions, up 1% from Q2, and up 4% year over year.

Another key finding was that content aggregators and premium publishers are in a dance, alternating as the leader in share of impressions over the last few quarters. At 53% in Q3, media aggregators led premium publishers for the second consecutive quarter, and the highest share aggregators have commanded since the start of 2016 when ER began publishing quarterly benchmark reports. This total share has been trending higher and is now a total inverse from Q3 2020 when media aggregators accounted for 47% share of impressions.

Video completion rates remained steady, and the overall average completion rate was up 1% from the previous quarter, despite a greater percentage of media going to aggregators, which historically have seen lower completion rates. In Q3, aggregators saw a 66% ad completion rate, up 2% from the previous quarter, while premium publishers saw a 94% completion rate — the same as the previous quarter and remaining at its highest level for the past year.

“Consumer viewing habits changed dramatically in 2020, as CTV became a much larger part of viewers’ lives at a much faster pace than anyone could have predicted,” commented Mary Vestewig, VP of digital account management at Extreme Reach commenting on the Q3 Video Benchmarks ReportVideo Benchmarks Report.

"Three-quarters of the way through 2021, we’re seeing only minor shifts in the share of impressions across the major channels, signalling that viewer habits and advertiser strategies may be reaching a new baseline. Here at ER we’ve seen tremendous growth in the volume of impressions served -- a year over year increase of 128 percent in Q3 -- yet the share of impressions by platform and media type remained steady, an indication that this may be the new normal.”