Twitter claims stronger recall as it strives to boost video ad business

Video ads on Twitter deliver better recall, particularly on mobile, stronger engagement and stronger brand recommendation from viewers, according to research commissioned by the company, amidst renewed efforts to establish itself as a serious contender in the video advertising market.

According to research by Dentsu Aegis Network and consumer neuro-science research outfit MediaScience, ad recall on Twitter is 20% higher than the second-placed video platform among those tested.

According to Twitter, ‘cognitive effort’ measurably decreased on all platforms tested except Twitter when ads were served during content. The company said that attention levels stayed the same or increased on Twitter whether participants were watching organic or branded ad content.

The company said that ad recall was significantly higher on mobile devices on Twitter than for other video providers, while favourability, purchase intent and recommendation was consistent across all three online video properties tested.

Twitter claimed that viewers felt more emotionally engaged with video ads in Twitter’s in-feed environment. The company also cited an earlier group of studies by Twitter and Facebook that showed that consumers absorb content faster on mobile devices than on desktops.

The company said the latest research showed that viewers who saw ads on Twitter were 12% more likely to recommend brands to friends and family than a group that saw the same ads on TV.

Twitter compared the latest findings with a study it ran earlier in the year with Starcom and Canvs that showed a 9% increase in ad recall when brands paired TV ads with ads on Twitter, versus running a TV ad alone.

The finding were based on research carried out with 179 viewers watching video content on computers and mobile phones in a natural environment. Participants were asked to watch shows on a premium video site and an online video platform, during which they were served with 15-second pre-roll ads. The group was then exposed to the same ads on Twitter via apps and the mobile web. A separate control group was exposed to the same ads on TV.

Twitter’s latest move to boost perceptions of its potential as a video advertising platform follows an admission at the end of last month that its work on video ads would take some time to come to fruition.

In a letter to investors sent ahead of its Q2 results at the end of July, the company said it would “take time for marketers to understand the impact of video ads on mobile vs. the alternative” and that “to unlock budgets, we will also need to launch additional features and functionality over the next few quarters including accurate audience verification, reserved buying, and reach and frequency planning and purchasing”.

On top of tools to support skip-able pre-roll ads and testing of ways to sell ads based on reach and frequency in Q2, Twitter said that it was working to enable advertisers to directly control the reach of their campaigns across target audiences.