The answer to this question depends on who you ask. If you were to ask an online viewer, he or she will most likely tell you video ads should be no longer than 10- to 15 seconds in length, and that they should also be very relevant to the content viewed (see PodZinger Market Research Study, 11/20/06, “Video Ads Should Be Short, Relevant”).
But if you’re an advertiser who’s main interest is to create deep awareness of your products or services and excellent brand recognition, most likely you’ll want the video ads to run for as long as possible (at least 30- to 45 seconds) to get your message across, and a positive ROI. After all, most online video consumers prefer to watch video ads than having to pay a fee to view the content. (see Advertising.com 02/06/07 “Online Video Study”).
So who’s right as to how long video ads should be? The answer to this question should become clearer in the months to come as more and more advertisers begin to test the waters placing video ads on across websites like PodZinger, YouTube and Google Video just to name a few. User tolerance, or intolerance of ads for that matter, will become present as content viewing patterns on video websites remain the same or begin to drop as users begin defecting to other sites that do not server as many ads.
