Facebook Declines In Social Video Engagement, Web Site Visits Rise

MediaPost Blogs by Daisy Whitney, Yesterday, 12:37 PM Facebook is still a dominant force in social advertising, but it has started to dip in video ad engagement. That’s one of the findings of a just-released report from social video ad platform Jun Group that analyzed a sampling of 7.7 million user-initiated social video ad views that ran between May and August across consumer packaged goods, apparel, consumer technology, retail, auto and other ad categories. The data comes from opt-in ads that viewers choose to watch before listening to streaming music or playing a social game, for instance. The report found that checking out a brand’s Facebook page is still the most popular activity for viewers to engage in after watching a social video, but it has declined 9% in the last year while visits to advertisers’ Web sites have grown by more than 20% as a post-viewing activity. Other activities have increased, such as checking out a store locator, learning about the brand or downloading recipes and coupons, Jun Group said. Another interesting finding from the study may shed light on the ongoing debate over the best type of creative to use in video ads. Jun Group found that the engagement rates between ads repurposed from TV commercials and those created for the Web is negligible. The study also gives the lie to the oft-held belief that shorter video is better. About 70% of social ad views came from ads more than one minute or longer, while ads longer than two minutes were still watched to completion 87% of the time, which compares favorably to the 98% completion rate for social video ads that are 30 seconds in length. Also, videos over one minute long earned the most engagement at 4%. Finally, don’t assume that because younger consumers are active on social media they will interact with your brand after a video. The 18 to 34 age group is least likely to take a social action after viewing a video.