How to retarget shoppers through video

Kristina: Over 180 million Americans are watching online video; why haven't more brands tried video advertising? And are you seeing an uptick in video ad adoption?

Kelly Ford, Vice President, Marketing, SundaySky: Indeed, video advertising is on the rise. A recent Nielsen survey found that more people in the U.S. watch Internet video at least once per month than watch TV at least once per month. So, it's not surprising that Forrester projects the domestic digital video advertising market to swell from $2 billion in 2011 to $5.4 billion in 2016. We see advertisers shifting money from display budgets to video.

Kristina: What does retargeted, pre-roll content offer brands?

Kelly: From a performance perspective, this means that visitors who are engaged with these personally relevant ads visit the site, convert and spend more than equivalent visitors who don't receive these ads. From a brand impact perspective, site visitors is one form of measurement; the other is the number of hours the target audience is engaged with the brand.

Kristina: For retargeted video, should the content be all about the offer? Or can deeper content engage?

Kelly: At the most basic level, SmartVideo ads bring back abandoners through the promotion of the last item viewed or left in cart, which may or may not include a special offer. However, these ads can also balance product content with branding content, as well as play a key role in supporting strategic customer acquisition and engagement initiatives. Examples include, but are not limited to: Related item promotions to drive repeat orders; Loyalty program engagement, such as preferred customer status and refer-a-friend enrollment; Nurturing with special offers based on visitor frequency, recency of site activity and whether or not action was taken on last ad(s) viewed.

Tags: online video, retargeted video, SmartVideo, SundaySky, video ads, video trends