Playbook Contents

THE VIDEO ADVERTISER’S PLAYBOOK CONTENTS

PART 1 PART 2 10 things to look for in a 10 Steps to Killer Video video advertising provider Ad Campaigns

1. Completed Views 1. Set Objectives 2. Viewability 2. Establish KPIs 3. Reach 3. Strategize 4. Audience Targeting 4. Assemble Assets & Information 5. Ad Personalization 5. Get Measurements in Place 6. Programmatic Campaign Scalability 6. Execute Strategies 7. Strategies 7. Monitor Data & Results 8. Data & Insights 8. Optimize Performance 9. Transparent Pricing 9. Analyze & Discover Insights 10. Service 10. Pay it Forward PART 1 10 things to look for in a video advertising provider PART 1 10 THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN A VIDEO ADVERTISING PARTNER

Completed Views First and foremost, you want a provider that charges you only for completed views.

1 Face it, you’re paying to get the right people to watch your message and engage with it. So, can your provider deliver on that?

The Devil’s in the Details How does the provider define a completed view? Are the ads forced on viewers or do viewers get to choose whether to watch? For YouTube’s TrueView ads—the prime inventory we access through our TargetView™ platform—it’s defined it as a viewer Viewers really dislike forced view ads and they often show their watching your complete ad or 30 seconds of it, whichever is feelings by abandoning the video or tuning it out. Neither shorter. Advertisers can run longer form TrueView ads and still outcome is beneficial, is it? learn how many viewers watch the whole message but it’s considered a full or complete view at the 30-second mark. Studies have shown average completion rates of only 50 to 65% for forced view 30-second ads, which means 35% to 50% Other providers have different definitions. Ask how completed of viewers are completely abandoning the video or the page. views are defined and whether it depends on the length of the ad or any other factor. On the other hand, YouTube’s TrueView ads are skippable after five seconds, and theviewers who choose to watch a full ad are 75% more engaged with your message. PART 1 10 THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN A VIDEO ADVERTISING PARTNER

VIEWABILITY Viewability measures “viewable impressions,” i.e., how often your video ad actually appears on screen, and for how long. 2

You want a provider that can guarantee as close to 100% viewability as possible.

The current industry definition for a “viewable impression,” What many agencies and advertisers don’t realize that between according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Media 30 and 60% of the video ads they pay for are the Rating Council (MRC), is: NON-viewable kind—i.e., they are never even seen.

One major agency and a few of the brands they serve have 50% of the ad’s pixels must be in view recently stated they will only buy 100% viewable ad inventory. in the active browser window for at Using the industry standard, all of YouTube’s TrueView least two continuous seconds in-stream ads are viewable, as they run before videos that viewers have clicked to watch and must run for five seconds before you can skip them. Since many advertisers still buy video ads on CPMs (cost per mille, or thousand impressions), this is an important point. If there You want a provider that can guarantee as close to 100% are viewable impressions then there must be non-viewable viewability as possible. impressions, i.e., video ads that are served but not seen. PART 1 10 THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN A VIDEO ADVERTISING PARTNER

REACH You want to reach your audience in all your target service areas through premium inventory—i.e., programmatic, real-time (non-arbitraged) placements that are brand safe, fraud-safe, viewable, and most importantly—skippable, not 3 forced.

That’s a tall order, one that led us to YouTube as a prime inventory partner for our platform. Its TrueView inventory checks all those boxes and, as far as being able to reach the video viewing audience goes, YouTube is the undis- HERE ARE JUST A FEW STATISTICS TO CONSIDER: puted leader. Viewers watch 5 times more video on YouTube every month than its top three competitors combined. (56 billion minutes vs. 11 billion minutes for Facebook, AOL & Yahoo combined)

On mobile, YouTube reaches 91% of all video viewers each month vs. 6% for Hulu.

The top 10 channels on YouTube have more subscribers (176 million) than all the U.S. cable, satellite and pay TV systems combined (100 million)

EXTENSION OF TV REACH Now, if you’re still in the “TV first” mind frame, you want a provider who can extend the audience you reach through TV with multi-screen viewers.

Again, YouTube’s reach trumps all competitors. And if you rely on third party metrics like Nielsen’s XCR to measure extension of TV reach, you want a platform like ours, which can integrate and optimize to XCR data in YouTube TrueView campaigns. PART 1 10 THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN A VIDEO ADVERTISING PARTNER

AUDIENCE TARGETING Look for a provider that allows you to get as close to your audience as possible. That means targeting that goes beyond standard demographics and household income to include characteristics like contexts, behaviors, 4 emotions, devices, time of day, granular locations, etc.

Better yet, you want a provider that finds your precise, ideal audience for you in the course of your campaigns then optimizes to it and leverages its core characteristics for future campaigns. This is something we call Audience BUYING THE AUDIENCE Verification, and it should be an objective of every campaign. VS. THE PROGRAMMING

If you’re used to buying TV then you are probably comfortable with a couple of the medium’s limitations, namely: TARGETING TO EACH PHASE OF THE FUNNEL Having to buy programming as a proxy for the audience Another benefit of using a provider that allows the rich levels of precise Targeting broadly vs. precisely targeting is that they can potentially architect your campaigns to reach viewers in every phase of the purchase funnel. Be sure to check whether But now it’s possible to do both TV-style targeting and the video advertiser providers you’re considering have this capability more precise digital targeting. The right provider can enable you to buy online Finally, if third party data is used to target your audience, ask about the placements such as specific publisher’s sites or YouTube additional costs for that data. Many providers don’t include targeting data channels as part of a larger strategy that also targets many in their regular per unit pricing because it adds substantial costs. content topics, behaviors, emotions, etc. and then learns which “micro-segments” respond best and optimizes performance to them.

Providers that allow you to only target placements broadly are delivering just a part of the audience. PART 1 10 THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN A VIDEO ADVERTISING PARTNER 5 AD PERSONALIZATION Reaching your ideal audience with precise micro-targeting is doubly effective when your message is personalized for each of the segments, locations, affinities, etc. you’re targeting.

Research has shown that just running localized versions of your core ads boosts response as much as 200%.

Look for a provider that can affordably create personalized versions of your ads and integrate them with your targeting.

Ask whether they can incorporate elements into your ads for different locations, audiences, offers, etc. and recommend strategies to leverage these dynamic technologies for every branding or promotional campaign you’re thinking of running. PART 1 10 THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN A VIDEO ADVERTISING PARTNER

PROGRAMMATIC CAMPAIGN SCALABILITY 6 Can the providers you’re vetting create and manage as many as thousands of micro-campaigns that merge the rich targeting and ad personalization for each of your service areas, audiences, promotions or product offers?

Campaign scalability is key for high performance, ROI and cost efficiency.

Also, it allows you to run national or regional campaigns at the local level, driving targeted brand response and engagement at each store location, sales territory or service area.

AS AN EXAMPLE... Our platform accomplishes in a matter of minutes what it would take a campaign management team weeks and months to accomplish manually—and that’s just to launch a campaign. Our platform also automates ongoing monitoring, daily spend management and optimization for every micro campaign, making the impossible possible. PART 1 10 THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN A VIDEO ADVERTISING PARTNER

STRATEGIES Another capability to look for in a video advertising provider is strategic competence. With all that new technologies can do nowadays, strategy is becoming more and more important. Advertisers and agencies realize they 7 need more than a “place it and spend it” strategy today.

Ask for examples of strategies that your prospective Consumers respond better to ads that are most relevant to them so brands are demanding more “National - Local” or “One-to-One” marketing approaches. providers have delivered, how Great online video ad campaigns integrate several knock-it-out-of-the-park strategies including: they matched up campaign structure dynamic ad personalization with advertisers’ flighting optimization objectives and audience micro-targeting were measured. PART 1 10 THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN A VIDEO ADVERTISING PARTNER

DATA & INSIGHTS 8

This is an area where many providers just don’t deliver but it’s critical for measuring ROI, confirming results vs. KPIs and learning about your audience and the effectiveness of your ads.

Ask to see samples of reports that prospective providers deliver and whether they can deliver data in the particular format you need or through an API.

Another question to ask is what is the source of the campaign data? Also, find out how objectives like brand lift and conversions can be measured, especially if you have specific preferences for third party vendors or methods. PART 1 10 THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN A VIDEO ADVERTISING PARTNER

TRANSPARENT PRICING 9 Look for providers that offer all-inclusive pricing for running campaigns.

As mentioned earlier, typical add-ons that aren’t always called out can inflate your costs by a much as 30%. One of the benefits of using a provider that can programmatically access YouTube’s TrueView EXAMPLES INCLUDE: inventory is that all these costs are included in the price. Targeting data (legacy DSPs often charge as much as $3.00/CPM extra) Ad serving costs (legacy DSPs often charge as much as $0.85/CPM extra) Ad tracking costs (legacy DSPs often charge as much as $0.85/CPM extra)

Also, request that they specifically spell out any other additional costs, such as:

Fees for generating personalized ads Training and support costs Managed service fees Etc. PART 1 10 THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN A VIDEO ADVERTISING PARTNER

How well do they respond Do they think outside to your inquiries and RFPs? the box strategically? 10 SERVICE Finally, look for a provider that will go the extra mile to deliver the results you expect for your investments.

What are their support capabilities?

If you are interested in managed Do they offer tools and training to save you services, what do theirs include time and resources in ordering, provisioning, and how are they delivered? managing and tracking campaigns?

You want a provider that helps you achieve the best results no matter what level of service you ultimately access. PART 2 10 STEPS TO KILLER VIDEO AD CAMPAIGNS PART 2 10 STEPS TO KILLER VIDEO AD CAMPAIGNS STEP 1

There is one prime objective that you should have for every campaign, SET OBJECTIVES driven by the sight, sound and motion nature of video:

Awareness—Online video ads are more like TV commercials than they are digital The first step to creating successful display or search and as such, they primarily drive top of the funnel awareness. video ad campaigns is to articulate Two other objectives should be set for most campaigns: what you want to accomplish—your Brand Lift—Online video ads (especially skippable ones) are adept at increasing brand recall, favorability, consideration, etc. during a campaign objectives. Audience Verfication—The rich data available from online video makes possible learning which audience segments respond most to your message

OTHER POSSIBLE OBJECTIVES INCLUDE:

Response & Action [To drive leads, calls or sales for…]

Extension of TV reach [To reach unique viewers on new screens…]

Creative validation [To confirm your message or offer is resonating with audiences…]

A/B test different offers & ad [To discover which message or offer resonates more with a specific audience…]

Social engagement [To achieve more YouTube Channel views, Facebook likes, Twitter followers, etc.]

Brand safety [To ensure the brand is presented in the appropriate context…] PART 2 10 STEPS TO KILLER VIDEO AD CAMPAIGNS STEP 2 ESTABLISH KPIs

Decide how you will measure the success of the campaign and determine the source of the data (first party campaign data or third party data) and how it will be gathered. OBJECTIVES KPIs

Depending on the objectives you set in step one, Completed Views Awareness Viewable Impressions the KPIs will follow. Viewability Total View Time Reach

Brand Lift Brand Lift (Google or third party) Search Lift Site Traffic

Audience Verification Target View Analysis Nielsen OCR

Response & Action Clicks CTR Conversions

Extension of TV Reach Extended Reach and Cost per Incremental TRP/GRP (Nielsen XCR) PART 2 10 STEPS TO KILLER VIDEO AD CAMPAIGNS STEP 3 STRATEGIZE Many companies are content with a broadly targeted, “spray and pray” strategy because frankly, either that’s what they’re used to with other media like TV or, it’s the only strategy available once their number of campaigns exceeds their team’s capacity. Develop strategies to achieve

To go beyond a standard “spray and pray” approach, here are the strategies campaign objectives and meet KPIs. you need to apply: There are several types of strategies to Audience Micro-Targeting—What are the primary, secondary and content pillars for the campaign? Go beyond broad demographics to incorporate these other elements, that is if your provider can deliver them affordably and consider when building great in a high quality manner: video ad campaigns. Parental Status Ethnicity HHI Keywords Interests and Behaviors Placements Contextual Content Third Party Measurement Strategy—If you have specific requirements or vendors you must use in video ad campaigns for audience verification, fraud protection, extension of TV reach, etc. articulate your preferences so your provider can Flighting Strategy—Multiple start and end dates, day parts, etc. determine how the technologies will integrate with the campaign. Media Mix—What other media are you running in parallel with video and how do you plan to measure video’s lift effects on them? Creative Strategy—Determine the length of your ad, as well as the offer and call to action. As discussed earlier, ad personalization Geography—Determine the optimal geo targeting approach for the significantly increases view and response rates. If you wish to test campaign. Until recently, it wasn’t feasible to scale out hundreds of different offers, or include other variable information to create micro-campaigns with localized versions of ads and run them in and around personalized ad versions, determine what the variable elements your service areas. But technology now gives you that and other options will be (text overlays, images, video clips, etc.) and whether they beyond the traditional national or DMA-level targeting. are: Offers & CTAs Device Strategy—Do you want your ads to run mostly on one device type or another? Depending on your desired response (e.g., app downloads) and Location-specific information (addresses, maps, etc.) other media mix, you may want to focus on all screens or just one. You could Interest or affinity-based elements even target by cellular carrier, operating system, etc. Product variations Persona-based elements PART 2 10 STEPS TO KILLER VIDEO AD CAMPAIGNS STEP 4 ASSEMBLE ASSESTS + INFORMATION

Here’s where you gather the ingredients for your video ad campaign recipe.

AUDIENCE TARGETING SPECIFICS CREATIVE ASSETS AND SPECIFICS Your target Age ranges, genders, parental status, content Video ad files for the campaign, in acceptable format. interests, recent behaviors, affinities, ethnicities, etc. Optional companion display banner to run with video ad in certain instances (e.g., YouTube search) Also indicate keywords for the campaign, which will be used Ad personalization variable data—offers & CTAs, location to target videos found in searches where you want your ad to data, text overlays, images, etc. appear. Destination URLs, i.e., where viewers will land when clicking on the ads DEVICE TARGETING SPECIFICS Your preferences for targeting viewers on specific devices. TRACKING DETAILS UTM tracking codes for ad destination URLs LOCATION TARGETING SPECIFICS Third party specs (if preferred) for audience verification, Details on the locations where you want the campaign to run, brand lift attribution, extension of TV reach, etc. whether it is “nationwide” or specific DMAs, states, congressional districts, Zip codes, address radii, etc. BUDGET DETAILS What is the campaign budget and how should it pace? If the FLIGHTING DETAILS campaign includes micro-campaigns for multiple locations, Start and end dates, day parts, etc. specify how budget should be allocated initially and when optimizing for results—evenly across locations or some other formula. PART 2 10 STEPS TO KILLER VIDEO AD CAMPAIGNS STEP 5 GET MEASUREMENTS IN PLACE

Generate and integrate the third party tags and/or pixels required to track whether Objectives and KPIs like brand lift, conversions, social engagement, extension of TV reach, etc. are met.

Also, benchmark your results from other media— especially search—that will be running in parallel so you can determine lift from the video campaign. PART 2 10 STEPS TO KILLER VIDEO AD CAMPAIGNS STEP 6 EXECUTE STRATEGIES

Create the ad personalization template(s) and integrate If running a multi-location campaign, replicate the the variable data to render versions for all the micro campaign settings for each micro-campaign and campaigns. Integrate the ad-based tracking. integrate with the ad versions.

Set up the micro-targeted audiences, devices and Set start and end dates for the flights. geographies.

Set up conversion tracking on click destination pages. Set up the budget, the pacing and fund the campaign and provision it. PART 2 10 STEPS TO KILLER VIDEO AD CAMPAIGNS

STEP 7 MONITOR DATA + RESULTS

Check budget pacing daily and adjust variances.

Monitor campaign performance at audience, ad, device and location levels.

Review campaign and data in relation to KPIs: Completed views, view rate, viewable impressions, average cost per view, total view time, clicks, CTR, quartiles, frequency

Review third party tracking data in relation to KPIs: Conversions, brand lift, extension of TV reach, audience verification, fraud detection, etc. PART 2 10 STEPS TO KILLER VIDEO AD CAMPAIGNS STEP 8 OPTIMIZE PERFORMANCE

Based on performance at the ad, audience, device and location levels against the stated objectives for the campaign, manipulate any or all of these key elements to optimize for desired results:

Audience targeting,

Device targeting,

Day parting,

The creative (e.g., the offers, the timing of when variable elements appear in the ad, or the message itself) and

Budget allocations for all elements

EVEN IF YOU WANT TO OPTIMIZE TO THIRD PARTY DATA-DEPENDENT OBJECTIVES, THESE ARE THE LEVERS YOU HAVE TO PULL. PART 2 10 STEPS TO KILLER VIDEO AD CAMPAIGNS STEP 9 ANALYZE + DISCOVER INSIGHTS

Look for patterns in your data that match up with your KPIs and indicate high-performing audience At milestone moments—certainly after micro-segments, creative variations, day parts, the initial month and at the end of the devices, etc.and craft actionable insights for testing further modifications to targeting, personalization, campaign, but at other timely intervals flighting and budget allocation. If 18-24 females watching as well—do a deep dive into all the makeup videos on their iPhones in Providence are viewing and clicking your ad at a higher rate than the average, available data including first party then perhaps roll more budget and test different offers campaign data, third party tracking to see whether brand lift and conversions also increase. data and your own benchmarked data. PART 2 10 STEPS TO KILLER VIDEO AD CAMPAIGNS

STEP 10 PAY IT FORWARD

Now, instead of starting from square one again, take all the learning from this campaign and apply it to your next campaign.

The insights you glean from this campaign should inform the offers and personalized creative you produce for your next campaign. Audience targeting insights should provide “head start” strategies for your future build outs.

You can also use this new knowledge to inform your other media targeting and creative strategies. The rich data from your video ad campaigns helps you discover nuances about your audience, message and offers that can benefit your entire marketing and advertising program. THE ALL IN 1 SOLUTION Sightly’s award-winning platform and managed service option not only meet all of the 10 things you should look for in a provider, its powerful tools and processes accomplish all of the 10 steps for creating killer video ad campaigns easily, affordably and reliably.