The technological world is advancing at a very fast pace. And many new techniques have come up, facilitating business promotion and marketing. One of them is advertising, which has become an integral part of video monetization strategies for pay TV operators, broadcasters and content programmers. While TV advertisement remains the primary source for a long time, making money and delivering video content on connected devices is in the budding stages.
However, the popularity of online videos is expanding exponentially. The ability to monetize this online video content is critical for publishers, media and entertainment companies in order to meet their bottom line.
What Is Dynamic Ad Insertion?
In simple terms, DIA (Dynamic Ad Insertion) is a technology by which the advertisers are allowed to serve various ads to individual viewers based on the audience insights and the ad campaign performance. Rather than serving the same ad to all the viewers, this makes it possible for advertisers to target each viewer specifically. The benefit of dynamic ad insertion is absolutely clear, with the more refined and clear target; it is possible to deliver relevant ads. This increases the chances of consumers engaging with the intended message and makes purchases at the end.
When Dynamic Ad Insertion can be used?
Dynamic ad insertion can be used for replacing the TV broadcast commercial in a simulcast Internet video stream or ads can be inserted dynamically in on-demand content. For instance, TV catch up.
- Replacing TV Ads– In case of a simulcast of a TV broadcast the duration of ad breaks to be filled with dynamic ads are all of the same lengths. This very requirement can be a challenge because all the ads are not necessarily of the same length. The ad server needs to take into consideration this issue.
- Inserting Ads online in TV catch up– In this case, the advertisers are no longer bound to a fixed duration. The length of the ad break while watching the on-demand version can either be longer or shorter than the ad break on the TV broadcast. In this case, more breaks can be added but with smaller ads.
While advertisers may use dynamic ad insertion as a primary tool, media owners do gain a lot from it. It is the advertisements that keep the internet free and many media owners are dependent on the revenue from ads for supporting the content they create. However, badly targeted ads can be frustrating to the viewers and may lead to viewers navigating away from the content. Hence, from the seller’s perspective, dynamic ads insertion is one such technology that not only improves the ad performance but also preserves the user experience, translating to increased revenue for the media owner as a result of higher CMPs.
Some Terminologies in DIA
- Content Conditioning– Content conditioning refers to the process of splitting the content at the time of a mid-roll ad break. This is done after the package of the content by the content provider to the DAI provider to stream.
- Content Preconditioning– Content preconditioning is done before the content provider packages the content to the DAI provider to stream. It is a process where the content is split at the time of a mid-roll break.
- Cue Point– It is a marker that points to a precise time during the video. Cue points can be used to trigger mid-roll ads.
- IMA SDK– With the help of IMA SDK, a player can request a video on demand stream or live stream and also send signals to the Ad manager for reporting. SDK is known to be more accurate than server-side beaconing.
- Live Linear– Live linear video has originated from broadcast television content, known as analog. Content needs to be converted into digital form, before inserting digital ads in order to be viewed on IP-enabled devices.
Conclusion
Prior to the era of dynamic ad insertions, it was expensive to build ad insertion. There were many challenges to maintain it and also the viewing experience was poor. However, with the help of DIA, these issues can be addressed. It gives a seamless experience to the user which is easy to implement and also makes sure that the content and ads reach the widest band of the audience. Dynamic ad insertion has improved the capabilities of a modern video as a server, thus enabling the advertisers and media owners to take full advantage of all that it has to offer.