Facebook Doubles Down On Video, Tests New Video Experiences

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It’s no secret that Facebook’s video content has been doing incredibly well over the past few months, scoring higher ROI than YouTube and expanding with a greater mobile audience. Today, the social networking company explained how it will continue to increase its video services, particularly across mobile platforms.

VP of Product Management Will Cathcart wrote a detailed blog post that highlights the many new video features that will be coming to the service. The most prominent features include authentic and candid live videos, which have been supported by celebrities, in addition to picture-in-picture, which enables users to view smaller videos on their News Feed as they continue browsing posts.

Suggested Videos is currently being tested as an upcoming feature, which allows users to find multiple videos based on a subject found in the News Feed. Although it’s still in testing, results have been positive thus far, and could indicate that advertisers may be able to use it more extensively, as Star Wars and Discovery have done in the past.

As for the picture-in-picture feature, it ties in with the “floating video” option that Facebook introduced last July. “We all know that sometimes people want to watch a video, but they don’t have time or aren’t in a place where they can turn on sound,” states the Facebook blog post. “To make it easy to return to the videos you’re interested in, we’ve been testing a button that allows you to save a video to watch later, which can be accessed in your ‘Saved’ bookmark.”

There will also be a devoted section for videos on the mobile app, so that users can follow their friends and other video publishers with ease. This feature will also be rolled out to desktop users, since Facebook video is finding great exposure there.

Erik Schmitt, Social Strategist at Ayzenberg, states that  As Facebook becomes more and more video focused we re likely to see more and more brands shift to short-form video content to keep users engaged. Having a solid video strategy is becoming increasingly important. As a result, the impact on users will be evident.  This will change how people use Facebook and will likely keep them on the platform much longer.

The video above demonstrates some of these features in action, so be sure to check it out. It should definitely add a factor to Facebook’s continuing video success.

Programmatic Video Continues To Grow

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Programmatic video advertising has become increasingly accepted across both mobile and desktop formats, and based on numbers provided by eMarketer, it’s not likely to slow down anytime soon.

The site’s latest report indicates that the format will continue to see growth, even if automation is playing a part in U.S. digital video ad spending. Both buyers and sellers see the advantages behind it, in an effort to reach out to general audiences.

The report, titled “Programmatic Video Advertising: Poised For Rapid Growth Despite ‘Premium’ Holdouts,” indicates that, based on a previous poll conducted by Digiday, over two-third of advertisers have already purchased some form of programmatic video.

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The above chart ties in with those numbers, with Display channels getting the most attention by 85.6%. Following closely behind is Mobile (69.1%), Video (67.1%) and Social (49%). TV and Out-of-home also made the chart, albeit with considerably lower numbers.

Enthusiasm for the format remains at a critical level, but investment has a smaller interest compared to the general digital display market. The report indicates that 59% of the $26 billion being spent on U.S. digital display ads will be done through programmatic means for this year alone, while 39% of digital video ad dollars will go towards its spending.

This trend will grow. eMarketer estimates that by 2017, programmatic activity will reach about 65%, or $7.43 billion of the overall advertising market. The chart below shows a bigger breakdown of just where the growth will lie.

Chart 2

“When it comes to video, programmatic from an inventory perspective is very different,” said Rany Ng, product management director for display advertising at Google. “Just the sheer fact that there’s scarcity in the market creates different dynamics, so we’ve seen many of our broadcasters and programmers becoming much more comfortable with participating in private marketplaces and striking private deals than they are with the open option.”

Buyers still have issues with programmatic means, mainly due to the lack of premium inventory and ad quality issues, according to the report. They wish to see expansion of video ads across various formats, but wonder about issues like audience identification, measurement and targeting; all of which could get in the way.

Still, eMarketer believes that most of these will be alleviated over the next couple of years, with a triple-digit jump in programmatic video ad spending for this year alone, and an even bigger increase by 84.5% over 2016.

It’s still too early to tell where programmatic advertising will end up, but there’s definitely interest in it. More details on the report can be found here.

GamesBeat: Authenticity And User Engagement Go A Long Way

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The GamesBeat 2015 conference, where executives and investors from today’s hottest companies discuss video gaming trends, wraps up today in San Francisco. Here are some of our biggest takeaways from this year’s event:

User Engagement Goes a Long Way

John Koetsier, vice president of research for VentureBeat, spoke about how user acquisition has changed so much over the past few years, based on this report.

With it, he explains the importance of user engagement, as a customer is much more vital than trying to get a casual user involved with a game. “There’s no point in acquiring users if you’re not going to engage them,” he explained. With the increasing cost of acquiring users, it’s important to have the right players on board, especially with mobile advertising reaching $70 million for this year alone.

Social channels, like Facebook and Twitter, can also play a part in reaching out to such an audience, as promotions can be made outside of more than just the routine channels. User-acquisition partners can go a long way as well, and timing also plays a part. Koetsier believes that the beginning and end of the year, January and December, can be incredibly competitive for mobile offerings.

Authenticity Plays a Big Part

It helps to be original and unique in this industry if you want to stand out. Authenticity goes a long way.

Twitch’s Greg Vederman and Coca-Cola Company’s Matt Wolf spoke on the subject, both with video game marketing expertise and the knowledge required in regards to finding the right outreach to audiences. Wolf spoke about the previous “game-a-thon” event that Coke hosted last year, which can help improve gaming experiences as a whole.

Creating games today is akin to social media, Wolf said. The two are inextricably linked. Because of that, people are communicating nonstop. Because people are constantly communicating, they are a lot more aware and savvy of what they re being presented. If you build things that are meaningful and have value [consumers can be] incredibly rewarding and loyal.

For Twitch, brands come to us looking for help with authenticity we will tell them the best way to do that for [our] community, Vederman said. There is a challenge that comes with this, though, as some firms don’t know how to approach Twitch and game streaming, despite its imminent success. As a result, certain compromises need to be made to bring a program to life.

Authenticity plays a part when it comes to a product’s image, especially considering the specific demand that comes from a gaming audience. You have to keep it real, according to Vederman. They re going to see through BS real fast, he said. They ve also been marketed to for a long time badly, so they re sensitive nobody wins if the brand brings something to the platform that the audience sort of cringes at.

But to see an idea connect with the audience is really something. To see a brand deliver really cool content in a way that s resonating with [consumers] when you see it and it s working, it excites the hell out of me,” he added.

A passion from creative types is necessary to see these products succeed, both agreed. It s got to come from a real place, says Wolf. Things need to be meaningful, or why are you doing what you re doing

India Can Do Better With Monetizing

With over a billion citizens, the gaming market for India is ripe with potential. Dhruva Interactive and GameTantra CEO Rajesh Rao explains that, especially with the country’s young population, it’s also ripe for massive success.

Part of that success lies in the mobile phone market, with over 100 million phones activated. “These are the building blocks of a market,” said Rao. “The first thing people want to do is try Facebook and WhatsApp but eventually they want to try out (more) games and apps.” The audience is expected to download a whopping nine billion apps this year, making it the second largest mobile ad market in the world.

This makes gaming more accessible as a whole. “When we were growing up, there was a perception that games were a waste of time today, with moms playing Candy Crush and FarmVille, they’re realizing that games are quite alright.”

But monetization is one area that could use a huge amount of focus. The lack of credit card usage for small transactions in part of this obstacle. “There isn’t very much credit card penetration (just 20 million credit cards). But we have about 400 million debit cards, but the majority are just used to withdrawing money from ATMs,” explained Rao. He expects more methods to be introduced in terms of generating e-Commerce.

We re seeing that people are playing. If the pricing was right, and there was less friction, there would be more conversions, Rao said. That s the thing to crack. If we see that change, I think the market size would improve very dramatically over the next eighteen months or so.

Many of the large companies are looking at India and saying, We are having fantastic numbers from here! But they re not monetizing. We just have monetization challenges right now.

More information on Rao’s panel can be found here.

Key Stats Behind Social Media’s Explosive Growth

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Social networking has come a long way over the last ten years. In 2005, barely anyone managed to use the Internet for communication. Now, most adults can’t seem to get through the day without it.

This report from the Pew Research Center breaks down just how much social media has grown over the last ten years. Sixty-five percent of adults use social networking site to some extent, which is a long way from the seven percent that were using it ten years ago. This is through many uses, such as work, politics, or general social use, along with getting information in vital areas such as health, civic life and dating.

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The chart above shows the slow but steady growth for social media, not just with adults but all Internet users. As you can see, both categories increased with each coming year, eventually reaching the high point they’re at now. And that’s not likely to slow down anytime soon, with the continued growth of sites like Twitter, Facebook and others.

As for breakdowns across demographic groups, PRC broke down the statistics below, taken straight from the report:

Age differences: Seniors make strides — Young adults (ages 18 to 29) are the most likely to use social media — fully 90 percent do. Still, usage among those 65 and older has more than tripled since 2010 when 11 percent used social media {link no longer active}. Today, 35% of all those 65 and older report using social media, compared with just 2% in 2005.

Gender differences: Women and men use social media at similar rates — Women were more likely than men to use social networking sites for a number of years, although since 2014 these differences have been modest. Today, 68 percent of all women use social media, compared with 62 percent of all men {link no longer active}.

Socio-economic differences: Those with higher education levels and household income lead the way – Over the past decade, it has consistently been the case that those in higher-income households were more likely to use social media. More than half (56 percent) of those living in the lowest-income households now use social media, though growth has leveled off in the past few years. Turning to educational attainment, a similar pattern is observed. Those with at least some college experience have been consistently more likely than those with a high school degree or less to use social media over the past decade. 2013 was the first year that more than half of those with a high school diploma or less used social media.

Racial and ethnic similarities: There are not notable differences by racial or ethnic group: 65 percent of whites, 65 percent of Hispanics and 56 percent of African-Americans use social media today {link no longer active}.

Community differences: More than half of rural residents now use social media — Those who live in rural areas are less likely than those in suburban and urban communities to use social media, a pattern consistent over the past decade. Today, 58 percent of rural residents, 68 percent of suburban residents, and 64 percent of urban residents use social media {link no longer active}.

Despite this information, however, young adults seem to be the most likely to use social media. Ages 18-29 seem to be the biggest demographic, with 90 percent of young adults using it, compared to 12 percent ten years ago. The chart below breaks down just where these groups differ from 2005 to today, and, as you can see, each one shows a significant increase.

chart 2

Then there are genders. Back in 2005, only eight percent of men and six percent of women used social media. Oh, how far it’s come since then.

chart 3

By today’s numbers, 68 percent of women and 62 percent of men say they use social media to an extent, although the differences are minor in the long run.

But what about education That’s broken down as well, with 70 percent of those with some form of college education and 54 percent of those with a high school diploma use social media to some extent. The chart below shows the differences with the groups, and they aren’t that far apart.

Chart 4

Finally, economics were measured, but, as provided by the chart below, the numbers aren’t all that different between those that make less than $30,000 a year and those that make over $75,000. Seventy-eight percent of those in the highest-income households use social media, while 56 percent in lower brackets use it. That is a 22-point difference, but, again, the increase is about the same.

chart 5

The full report, with even more statistics on use by community and race, can be found here.  {link no longer active}.

Twitter Continues To Expand Video Options

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With Facebook and YouTube video services taking off with millions of daily views and a number of brands on board as partners, it’s no surprise that Twitter wants to get in on the action.

The company has announced that it will expand its Amplify services in an attempt to help creators monetize their work through videos posted to the site, according to this report from VentureBeat. Kicking off today, the program will allow video ads to run inside preferred content categories. It’s currently in beta, but could expand over the next few weeks to more advertisers and publishers.

Twitter Demo

As highlighted by the image above, publishers will now have the option of uploading their premium quality videos directly to the site, selecting a few content categories where they wish their pre-roll ads to run. From there, Twitter’s Amplify service will then put together the ads with the right programmers, so that no additional deals need to be arranged with the company.

With this ad system, publishers will be able to make money a bit easier through the streamlined advertising process, even with or without sponsored deals. A few estimates indicate that the revenue split would be along the lines of 70/30, with more money going to the publishers — that’s a higher average than most video sites offer these days.

This “direct upload” process could be a lot simpler for companies to advertise their wares, as they don’t have to go through big-name partners (like WWE, Fox and Dick Clark Productions) to get their video message out.

This ties in with Twitter’s launch of Auto Amplify, a program that allows brands and publishers to create campaigns together. With it, it’s drawn in a number of high-profile brands already, including the National Football League, the BBC and Neutrogena, amongst many others.

Will this be effective for Twitter in the long run While the audience may not be as large as Facebook Video and YouTube — at least, not yet — the simplification of setting up ads without needing to sign any major partnerships with either companies or publishers could be just the step some companies need to move forward. We’ll see just how effective it is as the program moves on in the next few months. Amplification, indeed.

Immortals Taking the Gaming Stage

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With eSports continuing to grow heavily in popularity on all fronts streaming, television and live tournaments it shouldn’t be a surprise that new ventures are getting introduced. Now, the world should prepare itself for the Immortals.

The new eSports organization was introduced earlier this week, with a number of media, gaming and tech investors announcing the acquisition and rebranding of Team 8 eSports. As a result, it’s set to shake up the eSports team, especially with placement in the North American League of Legends Championship Series, which is watched by millions of fans around the world.

The CEO of Immortals, Noah Whinston, talked about what the organization has in mind for success. “Immortals is starting with a League of Legends team, but expect to see us expanding rapidly into other top eSports like Counter-Strike and DOTA 2. We recognize that the best way to grow the Immortals franchise is to work in conjunction with other team owners across every title to help the entire eSports ecosystem expand in a healthy way. We look forward to industry-wide conversations about sustainable business practices, competitive regulation, and player treatment and representation.”

The organization has a number of reputable investors, including president of Lionsgate Interactive Ventures and Games, Peter Levin; co-owner and Chairman of the Memphis Grizzlies, Steve Kaplan; and Machine Shop Ventures, which works in conjunction with popular rock band Linkin Park. AMD will also play a major part with Immortals, as its marketing and technology partner.

“eSports and its legions of fans are a key audience for AMD, which makes our partnership with Immortals both important and exciting,” said Roy Talor, corporate vice president of Alliances and Content for Radeon Technologies Group, AMD, regarding the partnership. “As a leading designer of graphics processing units and essential technologies for eSports gamers of all levels, we are looking forward to future endeavors with the Immortals franchise.”

The roster for Immortals hasn’t been shaped up yet, but it’s expected to be released in the near future, in time for future League of Legends tournaments and other eSports events.

This is a pretty big deal for the eSports world, as a number of highly considered investors are taking part, looking to shake up the competitive gaming scene. Let’s see what kind of impact they make in the months ahead.

Study Shows Facebook Video Ads See Better ROI Than YouTube

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We’ve talked at great length about the success of Facebook video, and while it still has yet to reach its true potential (it is less than two years old, after all), a new study suggests that it’s becoming more well-received in terms of video ads than its main competitor, YouTube.

As reported by Ad Age, the study, conducted by RBC Capital Markets, polled 1,000 advertising professionals. Out of those surveyed, 11 percent believe that Facebook video ads are “significantly” better than YouTube’s in terms of return investment. However, another 25% stated that its video ads were “somewhat better,” indicating that a majority does prefer how they’re set up.

Only six percent of those polled stated that YouTube’s ads were “significantly” better, while 15% indicated they were “somewhat better.”

Based on numbers compared from last year, fewer marketers indicated that they were going to “significantly” or “modestly” increase spending on YouTube ads, according to the report.

That’s a pretty big deal, especially considering that digital video ads will receive a tremendous amount of spending, to the tune of $7.77 billion, according to eMarketer.

The study also suggests that marketers will pick up their online advertising spend through the next few years, with interest in different platforms, including Instagram (leading with 72%), Pinterest (41%), SnapChat (36%) and Amazon (34%).

There’s still room for Facebook to grow, though. The study indicates that its overall ad dollar penetration still has room to expand, with 61% of marketers stating that they will increase ad spending with the social site. Instagram, owned by Facebook, could attract additional revenue as well.

That said, Google isn’t out of the running yet, as a number of marketers are pleased with the results that YouTube produce. 14% of those polled stated that 51% (or more) of their online marketing budgets go towards the site, while only seven percent said they won’t be pouring any more money into YouTube-based campaigns.

A good amount of digital advertising dollars seem to be coming from print and television, according to the study.

The same eMarketer report, which was published earlier this year, does suggest that the change in video spending will increase over the next few years, reaching $14.3 billion by 2019. With that, YouTube is expected to make a big chunk ($1.99 billion by 2017), and Facebook will likely see similar shares as it continues going head-to-head with its video competitor.

The video ad market is about to get more interesting, depending on what moves Facebook and YouTube make next

Is Instagram Going Pay to Play?

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Instagram’s advertising has certainly picked up over the past few months, including mobile game ads that have managed to gain attention across a number of genres. However, according to a new study from Locowise, the recent drop in organic engagement could mean a significant change for the site, moving over to a “pay-to-play” platform.

Originally reported by SocialTimes, the report suggests that, even though Instagram ads are now open to whichever companies want to take part, they could be the only way for them to reach users on the site.

Looking across over 2,500 brand profiles, Locowise came up with the following results from the study, which are also pointed out in the chart below.

  • Follower growth for the month was 0.25%.
  • Engagement per post was 1.76% of the post’s audience.
  • Profiles posted a daily average of 2.62 posts.
  • 93% of posts were photos, and 7% were videos.
  • Photos drew an engagement rate of 1.85%, while the average engagement rate for videos was less than one percent (specifically, 0.9%).
  • Likes represented 98.12% of all interactions, and comments just 1.88%.

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These numbers look like stark differences in the chart above, with organic growth and engagement both dropping off. But does this mean that the site will go “pay-to-play” with brands to try and pick things up

Regarding the results, Locowise stated, “The ads platform leverages all of the best aspects and features from Facebook’s ads, so if you’re already doing ads on Facebook, you will be very familiar with ads on Instagram, too. Instagram has announced that it is seeing ‘significant demand’ for ads, particularly in e-commerce, travel entertainment and retail.

“Some early numbers from a selected number of partners shows that the click-through rate on Instagram is 1.5 percent, compared with 0.84 percent on Facebook. The average CPM (cost per thousand impressions) is reported everywhere from $3 to $6.29. Videos costs as little as $.02 per view. A view counts when the video has been seen for at least three seconds, exactly the same on Facebook.”

At the moment, it’s unknown if Instagram looks to change its status quo when it comes to ads, but considering its current status with organic engagement, a change to its program could be instituted sooner rather than later.

More and More Time Is Spent On Mobile Devices

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The daily time spent by consumers on smartphones and tablets continues to increase, although the growth of that increase is slowing down.

eMarketer reports that non-voice time spent on tablets and mobile phones alike will grow 11.3% for this year, to 2 hours and 54 minutes. That percentage may look pretty significant, but the growth rate is beginning to level out as less time is being spent with other media.

Chart

“As the data shows, a large majority of American adults are already using mobile devices,” said Monica Peart, forecasting director for eMarketer. “That means there will be fewer new smartphone and tablet users added each year. Also, the number of activities currently possible on mobile devices limits the amount of time a user can spend per day. For these reasons, growth in the amount of time spent on mobile devices will slow down significantly.”

The utilization of apps, however, continues to grow as opposed to web browsing. This time is expected to increase by ten minutes in 2016, while the use of mobile browsers will continue to be around 51 minutes. The chart below breaks this down more specifically.

Chart 2

But even with the drop-off, mobile is still showing progress in daily usage while traditional television is stumbling a little bit. The report indicates that traditional TV viewing has dropped 4.1 percent over the past year, down to four hours and 11 minutes. That number is expected to drop another 3.1% next year, to just over four hours.

Chart 3

This third chart shows the average time spent per day with digital video, and as you can see, there are stark differences between mobile, desktop and other devices.

Radio also plays a part in this report, as traditional radio will decline by just about a half hour between this year and the next, while digital radio will see an increase to 54 minutes by next year.

Digital consumer behavior has changed in other areas as well, based on this report from Digital Context Next that breaks down comScore’s recent 2015 U.S. Digital Future in Focus report. There are a number of takeaways from this report, including the following:

  • While most of the growth in digital media consumption over the past four years has occurred on smartphones (up 394%) and tablets (up 1,721%), these mobile platforms are not eating into aggregate time spent on desktop, which has still grown 37% over this time period. The digital media pie continues to get bigger and Americans engage with screens during more occasions throughout the day than ever before.
  • Across every age demographic, there is a substantially higher percentage of multi-platform and mobile-only internet users than the previous year. More than 3/4ths of all digital consumers (age 18+) are now using both desktop and mobile platforms to access the internet, up from 68% a year ago. Mobile-only internet usage is also becoming more prevalent, driven largely by the 21% of millennials who are no longer using desktop computers to go online. Meanwhile, the 55-years-and-older consumer segment is actually the fastest growing faction of mobile users, increasing its combined multi-platform and mobile-only share of audience from 60% to 74% in the past year.
  • Because people prefer different devices depending on the online activity or task, the desktop vs. mobile skews by content category can vary widely. Categories such as Photos and Maps are more often than not used on the go, lending themselves to heavy mobile usage, while the Portals and Business/Finance categories comparatively index much higher on desktop devices. Although Portals function as an accessible hub of information on desktop, the mobile environment is markedly different where apps have taken on the role as the gateway to the web.

The full report can be found here.