Get to the point to make your point: if click through is a digital metric that is important to your ultimate brand goals, the call to action, as well as your key value message, should come early on (preferably before or after the halfway point in your advertisement).

1. Video Wars: Click Through vs. Completion Rates
What Is More Valuable to a Brand?
There is a lot of talk in digital video given outcome. In a quest to infuse a Get to the point to
about getting away from using Click video campaign with optimum value,
Through Rate (CTR) and Video some even look for both—high CTR,
make your point: if click
Completion Rate (VCR) as measures coupled with high VCR. through is a digital metric
of performance. The thinking behind
The truth is, however, while you can that is important to your
this argument is sound. Advertisers
are ultimately concerned with achieve a happy medium between the ultimate brand goals,
achieving brand marketing two, you cannot optimize for both CTR
and VCR. They are inversely related.
the call to action, as
results—awareness, favorability,
consideration, purchase intent, or Logically, this makes sense. If a viewer well as your key value
is clicking through on an ad, they are
actual sales. Not a click or a view. message, should come
not completing it. The following graph
Yet, it cannot be denied that CTR shows the numerical correlation early on (preferably before
and VCR are still widely used as between the two. or after the halfway point
performance indicators—easily
measured proxies, if you will, for a in your advertisement).
•At every quartile of partially
completed ad viewership, CTRs are CLICK THROUGH RATE INCREASES
dramatically higher compared to Partially Completed Video Ads Compared to 100% Completed Ads
100% completed viewership.
•Most importantly, CTR peaks at
approximately the 50% partial 279%
viewed point, then begins to decline.
For instance, viewers are almost 3x
233% 231%
more likely to click on a video
advertisement at the 25%-50% 180%
viewing mark compared to the
baseline of completion. Similarly, if
a viewer does not click by the 75%
viewing mark, they are likely to
complete the entire ad.
•In simple terms, this means that if
a viewer doesn’t click on a spot
0-25 25% 50% 75% Completed
before the halfway point, that viewer
is less likely to click at all.
Source: Videology, 20Million Impressions, February 2012, Controlled for Placement and Duration
(Includes both :30 second and :15 second units)

2. www.videologygroup.com
The Click Clock: 15s vs. 30s
It is known that Click Through Rate is
CTR INDEX
higher for :30 second spots than for
:15 second spots.
Quantifying this, Videology found that
Ads 114
:30 second spots outperform the
overall CTR norms by 14%, while :15
second spots underperform by 28%.
15 Ads
sec 72
Index=Likelihood to Click Compared to Avg. CTR for total spots (:30s + 15s)
Source: Videology, 20 Million Impressions, February 2012, Controlled for Placement and Duration
Looking at the timing of when a
ANATOMY OF A CLICK typical viewer clicks on a video ad
may help to explain this CTR
112 advantage for the :30 second spot.
104
96 92 The charts to the left show that
while most viewers click on a :30
second spot after watching 25-50%
of the ad, most viewers click on the
:15 second spot at the 50%-75%
level. Thinking about this from a raw
timing perspective, this suggests
that in both cases it takes about
7-15 seconds to generate enough
0-7.5 7.5-15 15-22.5 22.5-30
Secs Secs Secs Secs interest in an ad to prompt a click.
So in other words, advertisers
178 interested in generating click
167 through using :15 second spots
must work even harder, whether
through the use of compelling
15
109 creative, the early placement of call
to action prompts, or message
sec
relevancy, to engage the click.
51
Advertisers using :30 second
messages—though they too should
follow the general guidelines of
0-3.75 3.75-7.5 7.5-11.25 11.5 -15
Secs Secs Secs Secs prompting the click as early as
possible—benefit from 7 additional
Index=Likelihood to Click by Completion Percentage Quintile compared to overall CTR averages. seconds or so before click through
Source: Videology, 20 Million Ex, February 2012. levels drop significantly.

3. www.videologygroup.com
A Propensity for Completion
We have been talking primarily about For those advertisers seeking high The good news for advertisers
those advertisers interested in VCR rates, creative execution,
prompting click through. As we stated seeking VCR—almost 7 out of
storytelling elements that entice
earlier, however, there is a large completion, message relevancy, and 10 viewers complete an
segment of video advertisers who are quality of the actual video content
interested in video completion
online video advertisement.
following the pre-roll all help to
rates—ensuring that viewers watch
promote completion.
their entire message.
PRE-ROLL AD 85.3%
COMPLETION 78.0%
72.7%
PERCENTAGES
67.5%
FOR ONLINE
VIDEO VIEWERS
>25% >50% >75% 100%
Source: Videology, 20 Million Impressions, February 2012, Controlled for Placement and Duration
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER A COMPLETED VIEW?
It is generally assumed that VCR The results of our analysis were advertiser in days following
corresponds to upper-level significant. In the following case exposure—in this case, to request a
purchase funnel metrics, such as study, we found those who completed quote—than those who only watched
awareness and brand affinity. viewing a spot were significantly part of the video (whether to click
Conversely, it’s assumed that CTR more likely to interact with the away or click through).
is the metric needed for sales
conversion, customer acquisition Case Study: Insurance Provider Sees Quote Requests Jump Post-Ad Exposure
and other direct response metrics. Category: Insurance
However, as part of our analysis, Objective: Generate Quote Requests
we explored what happens after Media: Online Video :30 second Pre-roll
the completed view. Do people
•Those who were exposed to the online video campaign were 45% more
remember? Do some take action
likely to request a quote within the next week than those not exposed.
after seeing an ad? Or is click
through the sole gateway to action. •Those who completed viewing the spot were 45% more likely to request a
quote within the next week than those who completed only part of the ad.
Source: Videology data monitoring, February, 2012. [Note: Quote requests were monitored 5-8 days after ad exposure.]
Video Wars: Click Through vs. Completion Rates
What is more Valuable to a Brand

4. About Videology, Inc.
The Videology Addressable Audience Platform (videologygroup.com) is a
screen- agnostic video advertising technology that works to connect brands
with consumers. Videology achieves this through mathematically-driven
data analyses that allow us to target precise consumer segments—at
scale—by demographics, psychographics, and behavioral segments. This
precise targeting permits advertisers to extract increased value from every
media impression, and allows our content partners to monetize their
audience more effectively.
Videology, Inc. is headquartered in Baltimore, MD, with key offices in
New York, Austin and London, and sales teams throughout North America.
For additional information, please contact:
Michele Skettino, Director of Communications
michele@Videologygroup.com