Akamai study reveals online video ad-viewing habits

Mid-roll online video adverts are more likely to be viewed than pre-roll ads and viewers are more tolerant of video ads than off slow-loading online videos, according to a study of internet viewing habits by CDN provider Akamai.

According to a study of online ad viewing habits to be presented today at the ACM Internet Measurement Conference in Barcelona, a mid-roll ad is 18.1% more likely to be completed than the same ad as a pre-roll, and pre-rolls 14.3% more likely to be completed than the same ad as a post-roll.

The study also found that viewers who had to wait 10 seconds for a video to load are three times more likely to abandon the session than users who spend the same amount of time watching a pre-roll ad. Ads that play in long-form content such as TV episodes and movies register a higher completion rate – 87% – than those in short-form content such as news clips and sports highlights, only 67% of which are completed.

The study, “Understanding the Effectiveness of Video Ads: A Measurement Study”, also found that repeat visitors to a site have higher completion rates for ads on that site than one-time visitors to that site, and that users who abandon ads tend to leave the session at an early stage. One third of abandoners leave at or before the quarter-way mark and two thirds at or before the halfway mark in the ad. It found that the time of day and the day of the week do not affect ad completion rates significantly.