Connected TV ad impressions grew to 44% of all video impressions served by Extreme Reach in the fourth quarter of 2018 from 15% a year ago, a 193% jump, according to a new report.
The share of 30-second ads delivered by Extreme Reach’s AdBridge continued to grow. In the first quarter, 30-second spots represented 58% of ad served. Their share has increased quarter by quarter since a year ago, when they represented just 28% of all ads. The growing prevalence of TV-like 30-second ads coincides with the growth of lean-back viewing on connected TVs.
Also on the rise was the video completion rate, which measured how many ad impressions were viewed all the way through. The video completion rate 87% in the fourth quarter, up 27.9% from a year ago.
The 30-second ads had a higher completion rate than short spots. The video completion rate for 30s was 89%, compared to 83% for 15s and 86% for six-second ads.
On connected TVs, the completion rate was a whopping 95%. On mobile just 77% of ads were competed.
The amount of invalid traffic was down 40.7% from a year ago and viewability was up 11.7%..
“TV viewers’ enthusiastic embrace of connected TV platforms is having a transformative effect on the entire video advertising ecosystem. Over the last few years, consumer adoption of CTV has soared to about 190 million users and shows no signs of stopping,” Extreme Reach said in its report.
“To keep up with the 57% of the population that has migrated from linear TV to, say, Roku or Apple TV or ad-supported streaming services, advertisers have followed suit—albeit cautiously at first,” the report said. “It’s clear from our video ad serving data that CTV investments are having an outside impact on advertisers’ ability to connect and engage with hard-to-reach audiences.”
