CTV Share of Total Video Ad Impressions Drops to Lowest Point in Two Years as COVID-19 Initially Drives Massive Changes in Media Consumption, Shows Report from Extreme Reach
By Sandy Drayton |
By Sandy Drayton |
Q1 2020 Video Benchmarks show anomalies in previous steady trends, though new data for April and May to-date reveal a rapid rise in CTV share of impressions back to the dominant levels pre-pandemic
NEW YORK, NY — May 13, 2020 — Video ad impressions on connected TV (CTV) platforms dropped to 37 percent of all ad impressions in Q1 2020, a decline of over 21 percent from Q4 2019, reveals the latest Video Benchmarks Report from Extreme Reach (ER), the complete asset management solution for TV and video ads. But while the sudden CTV share decline observed in aggregate metrics from ER’s AdBridge™ platform for the 2020 period ending March 31 was the lowest percentage since Q1 2018, analysis of the data since this then shows a rapid return to more “normal” levels, with CTV share up to 42 percent for April 15 – May 11.
To explore whether this rapid, dramatic change may be correlated to the impact that COVID-19-driven stay-at-home orders have had on consumers’ media viewing behavior, ER also looked at monthly averages for both Q4 2019 and Q1 2020 and distinct periods in April and May. These metrics show that after a highpoint of 48 percent share of impressions in December 2019, the CTV share of total impressions saw a decline to 41 percent in January followed by a drop to 35 percent in February, then a slight increase in March to 36 percent. In the first two weeks of April, CTV share fell to 29 percent but rose rapidly after that, reaching 42 percent by May 11.
While it’s too early to fully understand the long-term effects of the pandemic on media consumption, ER’s data certainly illustrates the volatility brought on by the COVID-19 situation.
Additional Q1 (January-March) findings in the report include:
“After seeing our benchmarks throughout 2019 point toward the industry’s stabilization around a CTV-driven future, the first quarter of 2020 reveals big changes that we surmise are a result of the unprecedented global health crisis,” said Mary Vestewig, ER’s Senior Director, Video Account Management. “That said, we are almost halfway through the second quarter, and now we are seeing a rapid rise in CTV share of impressions that suggests a return to a level of consistency indicative of a new normal.”
Extreme Reach’s Q1 2020 Video Benchmark Report is based on the aggregate performance metrics from AdBridge™, which tracks campaigns for a diverse set of brands across multiple categories. The full report, which provides an industry-wide snapshot and identifies trends across performance metrics such as video ad completion and general invalid traffic rates as well as breakdowns by media destination (premium publisher vs. media aggregator) and device (desktop, mobile, tablet and CTV), is available for download here.
About Extreme Reach:
Extreme Reach (ER) has revolutionized the way marketers and their agencies control the deployment of creative assets and how the media sources those ads to execute campaigns across the complex media landscape. The company’s creative asset management platform, AdBridge™, is built upon a decade of innovation—seamlessly integrating video ad serving, linear TV distribution, OTT/CTV delivery and Talent & Rights management.
With over 13 million ad creative assets in its care, every path to any screen is built right inside with over 750 team members ensuring customer success. ER connects the buy and sell sides of the advertising ecosystem for the new way creative gets everywhere.