Online video ads are considered excellent for branding. But, the DoubleClick findings suggest that online video ads perform extremely well even on direct response metrics like click-through rate. While image ads have click-through rates of 0.1%. Online video ads in comparison have click-through rates as high as 0.74%. Spending on them is only 0.6% of their TV counterparts. Online video ads spending should see a surge if publishing networks can find a way of targeting videos contextually. US advertisers are expected to spend $775 million on online video ads this year.

Online video consumption has been increasing with 62% internet users viewing streaming video content once a week. Most of the consumers prefer watching streaming video content at home. Content most watched online include news clips (62%), movie trailers (38%) and music videos (34%). Users in the age group 18-34 are more likely to watch movies, TV Shows and user-generated content online. These users are also more likely to generate video content. In comparison users over 35 years are streaming more news clips, sports clips and user-generated content. 69% of internet users streaming online video content are above 35 years of age.

Consumers are 8% more likely to view to completion video ads that are 15 seconds in length compared to those that are 30 seconds long. However, the 30 second pre-roll video ad format slightly outperforms the 5- and 15- second ad formats in terms of CTR.

Consumers are more receptive to advertising appearing in informational videos as compared to entertainment videos. As consumers are already searching for content related to a product or service, they would be more receptive to relevant advertising. Content-rich videos websites have click-through rates of 0.72% in comparison to premium websites which have click-through rates of 0.35%. Consumers say they are more likely to view through ads (visit advertised sites without clicking on ads) than click-through.

References:
1. DoubleClick TouchPoints IV "How Digital Media Fit into Consumer Purchase Decisions" (White Paper)
2. Bi-Annual Online Video Study: First-Half 2007 vs. Second-Half 2006 "The Who, What, When And What Works of Online Video Consumption and Advertising", (Advertising.com)

Everyone who is not living in a cave must have heard about Internet Video Marketing and I can assure you that this is not one of the latest Fads, which keep appearing on the Internet scene every week.

Video marketing is here to stay and the success of Pipeline Profits venture by Brock Felt and Buck Rizvi has proved this as a fact. Brock & Buck were relatively unknown marketers who suddenly appeared in the Internet marketing scene and used Internet Video Marketing in their campaigns, with great Success. They used videos from the Stompernet event and captured the attention of a large number of audiences. The people who came to view these videos were then given attractive incentives to subscribe to their mailing lists, which became quite large in a very short period of time.

Then there are some other well-known marketers who have used Internet video marketing to reap huge profits. Some of these big name marketers are John Reese, Joel Comm and Michael Cheney.

I still remember how Joel Comm used Google videos to create awareness about his Adsense Template Packages and Michael Cheney started his Cheney's Marketing News. Michael was clever enough to make it viral by allowing his videos to be placed on any site around the web and thus generated a large number of links pointing to his site.

There are some other people who have started sending video mails to their customers. In this way they were able to capture the attention of their customers who had become immune to text mails. Receiving video mails is so intriguing that it makes a person curious and thus he is forced to open up his mail and see what it contains. Thus the marketer is able to get his message to the customer while the customer is happy because he got something, which was pleasing and appealed to him.

Internet marketers have started to understand the power of "Internet Video Marketing " and thus a large number of services and courses are coming up which promise to help marketers in their video marketing campaigns. These services offer to create professional videos for these marketers and help them gain maximum benefits from their video marketing campaigns.

Internet Marketers who are still unable to grasp the power and uses of Internet Video Marketing, now have access to courses which help them to understand and apply Video marketing to their online business and thus be able to compete with other marketers who have already started using this as part of their marketing campaigns.

The message here is that, you can either educate yourself and start using Internet Video Marketing in your campaigns or get left behind by your competitors.