2020 Q1 Video Benchmarks

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The CTV Share of Total Video Ad Impressions in Q1 Dropped to Its Lowest Point in Two Years

Does the steep decline in CTV correlate with the impact that stay-at-home orders have had on consumers’ viewing behavior?

We drilled down to look at monthly averages for both Q4 2019 and Q1 2020. After a highpoint of 48% share of total impressions in December 2019, the CTV share saw a decline to 41% in January followed by a drop to 35% in February, then a slight increase in March to 36%.

Impressions for 30-second Ads Reach New Heights

In Q1 2020, impressions for 30-second ads hit 77% of the total, an 11% jump over the previous high of 69% in Q4 2019. At the same time, 15-second ads continued to decline, possibly indicating that, despite the significant shift back to mobile viewing, audiences are still consuming longer-form content.

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Our full report provides additional performance metrics for the aggregate of all brands serving ads through AdBridge as well as a specific look at how ads for DTC brands are performing.

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Desktop, which has seen its share of impressions decline nearly every quarter for the past 3 years, is clearly the main beneficiary of CTV’s loss. Impressions rose 44% from Q4 2019 to Q1 2020. The jump, which brought the desktop share back to nearly one quarter of all impressions, may be the result of the increased amount of time that audiences are spending on their larger computer screens as they work and study at home.

Premium publishers remain dominant, but aggregators increase their share of impressions

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We’re happy to share our Q1 2020 Video Benchmarks. Due to the unusual circumstance of the pandemic and its impact on the advertising industry, we also provide an early look at Q2 data for the share of impressions served by device for April 1-May 11.

Desktop Gained Share of Impressions

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Video ad impressions on CTV dropped to 37% of all ad impressions served by Adbridge in Q1 2020, a decline of over 21% from Q4 2019, and the lowest share that Extreme Reach has served to CTV since Q1 2018.

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands’ inventory mix reflects an accelerated pace of change

While DTC brands continue to favor advertising in premium media environments at a rate higher than overall video advertisers, the difference in proportion is narrowing at an accelerated pace. In Q1, 12% of impressions were served through media aggregators, up from less than 1% in Q1 2019 and double the proportion in Q4 2019.

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In Q1 2020, 78% of video ad impressions were served into premium environments. While this is still the majority, the decline from Q4 2019 means more impressions are being served via media aggregators. Perhaps with the uncertainty driving advertiser demand down, inventory previously only available via premium direct is now being sold on programmatic exchanges.

Extreme Reach’s Video Benchmark Report tracks campaigns for a diverse set of brands across multiple categories served through AdBridge™. Dive in for a look at how Q1 2020 metrics compare to each quarter of 2019.

For a peek at how these trends have shifted significantly in Q2 to-date (Apr 1 - May 11), download the full report.