It’s no secret that Ad Supported Video on Demand (AVOD) is on the rise . Even with the current momentum, many providers are quickly realizing the challenges that exist in this monetization model.
Whether pivoting from a subscription model or getting started with streaming video, Caretta Research has noted that AVOD is a major commitment in both technology and resources. Furthermore, maximizing the revenue potential requires a new level of expertise, not to mention continued investment and experimentation as the industry navigates through this transformation.
For the unprepared, the obstacles to building a successful AVOD strategy are significant. But for those ready to tackle the technology, data, and operations challenges, AVOD offers more than commensurate benefits.
Technology Considerations
Having the appropriate technology is necessary, but knowing how to establish an ad tech stack that will empower revenue results without waste is the real challenge. Media companies entering into AVOD should strive for the right mix of flexibility and sophistication while keeping cost and integration efforts in mind. The following principles can help ensure a strategy is both effective and efficient.

Select specialists. Focus on the systems and tools that are pivotal to your streaming environment. If FAST is the focus, choose ad servers, channel facilitators, and technology providers specializing in this space rather than those built primarily around the web.
Prepare for fraud. Particularly in CTV environments , ad fraud is a growing concern and poses the risk of disruptive user experiences, bad ads, and damaged advertiser relationships. For example, a larger inventory can provide more opportunities for fraudsters to insert fake or low quality ad impressions, leading to wasted ad spend and less effective ad campaigns. Leveraging SSAI can mitigate ad fraud, especially when using a platform that handles SSAI in-house as opposed to a third party. SSAI is also an optimal ad insertion technique for maintaining a seamless viewing experience without excessive ad loading delays.
Prioritize load times. Too many intermediaries, a slow content delivery network (CDN), and suboptimal video encoding processes can significantly affect load times. Optimizing for a smooth playback will minimize user frustration and maintain viewer engagement.

Data Considerations
Unified data paints a holistic picture, which informs accurate projections for future decisions. That’s why interconnected ad tech systems are critical: they need to pass information to and from one another and in similar fashion. Providers investing in smart data tools will be able to see which metrics are most important not just to ad revenue, but the entire viewer experience. In turn, businesses can achieve growth in revenue and engagement without compromising one or the other.
It’s equally important to consider the information made available to tech partners. Not only are transparency and privacy a must, so is signaling. Content, audience, and other identifiers allow marketplaces to be selective in their buying and empower packaging for internal sales teams. By harnessing data for targeting, AVOD platforms can enhance user experiences by increasing ad relevance and drive engagement—benefiting viewers and advertisers alike.
Operations Considerations
Like any other kind of advertising, sales operations in AVOD requires a well thought out structure with the right mix of talent. Inventory management, pricing and packaging, sales support and training, and reporting and analytics are all important factors to be considered.
However, due to the unique nature of video content consumption, AVOD differs from web-based operations. Since this is not an area of expertise for traditional ad ops teams, it’s imperative they understand several aspects unique to the video landscape.

Video formats. AVOD platforms deal primarily with video content, requiring specific considerations for video ad formats. Ad ops teams need to ensure seamless integration of video ads within the content, maintaining visual and audio quality while optimizing for different devices and screen sizes.
Ad insertion and timing. Ad ops teams must strategically determine the placement and timing of these ads to balance user experience and ad revenue. They also need to manage repetitiveness and maintain diversified ad content to curb viewer fatigue and ad avoidance.
Content categorization and targeting. Ad ops teams must understand the content taxonomy and audience preferences to accurately target and deliver relevant ads. Unlike web-based ad operations, AVOD platforms can leverage video-specific targeting capabilities. For example, they can utilize contextual targeting based on video metadata or dynamic ad insertion based on user behavior within the video stream.

When it comes to sales methods, direct sales and programmatic have their advantages and may coexist within AVOD platforms. Direct sales allows for more control and customization and is well suited for premium ad placements or specific partnerships, providing greater flexibility in pricing and targeting. Programmatic offers automation, efficiency, and access to a larger pool of advertisers.
Partner Considerations
Monetizing media with a video ad marketplace requires yield management expertise and contracts with DSP and SSP partners. It takes time to implement and produce results, not to mention the need for optimizations over time. Depending on the sales approach, the right alignment of operational support will also need to be put in place.
To get the most out of an AVOD strategy, buyers need to beware that not every partner will have the experience or offer the support needed. Before deciding on a partner, make sure they have solutions for the key obstacles, because anything they can’t do is something you’ll need to learn fast to succeed. If that’s too much pressure to take on your own, Brightcove’s Ad Monetization service can manage the entire experience for you from start to finish.

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The opportunity to monetize with an AVOD model has never been greater. In 2022 alone, the growth of AVOD viewers was higher than subscription OTT and free premium video streaming combined (Insider Intelligence ). Furthermore, traditional pay TV is steadily declining and expected to account for roughly a third of households by 2027.
Yet, anyone who’s spent time in the media industry knows that implementing an AVOD service is easier said than done. In fact, Caretta Research described this process as “fiendishly complicated,” noting that many companies simply ignore this route altogether.
While AVOD can, indeed, be challenging, there’s another option for media companies who want a low-risk entry point: video ad marketplaces.
What Is a Video Ad Marketplace?
In its simplest form, a video ad marketplace is an online advertising platform that allows advertisers to buy video ads and publishers to monetize content.
For advertisers, ad marketplaces provide an efficient way to reach their target audience through placements alongside high quality content. For publishers, they provide a convenient way to sell inventory (in-stream ads within their videos) to advertisers. For both, ad marketplaces serve as an intermediary, using a single platform to manage, optimize, and facilitate programmatic video ads.
Publishers generate revenue through a programmatic advertising system, which eliminates the time-consuming process of finding individual advertisers and includes features like real-time bidding and unified auctions. Most leading ad services now have integrated supply-side platforms (SSPs), giving publishers the opportunity to quickly set up and control their revenue streams. By tracking and analyzing users, web traffic, costs, and reporting metrics like CPM (cost per thousand impressions), publishers can optimize their approach to maximize potential earnings.
There are three key elements to ad monetization solutions.

Ad marketplace. The ad marketplace matches buyer and seller preferences via SSPs and DSPs (demand-side platforms) to deliver meaningful impressions for all parties.
Ad server. The ad server distributes the ads, facilitates the management of the campaigns, and tracks performance. For advertisers, it offers tools and analytics to help manage and optimize the campaign. This includes quantitative data (video views, clicks, and impressions) as well as qualitative data (information about the audiences engaging with the ads). For publishers, it instantaneously determines which ads to serve with which video, and delivers that ad as a seamless part of the experience.
Video player. A high quality player allows publishers to offer a variety of video ad strategies, including floating players, picture-in-picture ads, and header bidding.

What Are the Benefits for Publishers?
One of the key benefits for publishers on video ad marketplaces is the stable and reliable income they can generate. They offer a fixed payment per click, view, or impression whether or not the ad directly contributes to a sale. This can take a lot of the guesswork out of how much the publisher will be paid. For many publishers, it’s simply a matter of creating great content and leveraging the marketplace’s ability to acquire advertisers that want to fill vacant advertising spots with relevant, high-quality ads.
Ad marketplaces can also offset the cost of producing content with the revenue generated from offering advertising opportunities. By opening up these additional streams of revenue, content creators can focus more on creating compelling content and less on finding and negotiating with advertisers.
Finally, ad marketplaces give creators peace of mind knowing they are getting the best possible rate for their ads through the automated bidding system. Advertisers tend to prefer this approach as well. According to eMarketer, more than 82% of digital video ad spending is transacted programmatically in the UK, Canada, U.S., Germany, and France. Ad marketplaces assure them that they’re paying the best available market price while getting a high-quality ad delivered on a premium video player to highly targeted audiences.
How Do You Know If You’re Ready to Monetize Your Content?
Every video ad marketplace has different requirements for publishers, but they primarily involve two aspects of the publishers’ business.

Content Library. Publishers must have an established content library. Advertisers expect their ads to reach the audiences they’re targeting, so having a well-curated library allows marketplaces to serve up ads on the most relevant content.
Monthly Viewership. Publishers must also meet the demand for views and impressions. Beyond relevance, advertisers expect their ads to perform efficiently, reaching as much of the right audience as possible.

What Should You Look for in a Video Ad Marketplace?
Every publisher should also have requirements for video ad marketplaces. Features and options can vary dramatically, but the following examples from Brightcove’s Ad Monetization service illustrate what an industry-leading media platform prioritizes.
Bidding Options
Unsold inventory is a common challenge for media companies, typically due to technical issues, pricing issues, or to avoid the same user seeing the same ad too many times. But as a publisher, your goal is to sell as much of your inventory as possible at the best rate possible. Ad servers do this by bidding out your inventory to advertisers in several different ways.
To maximize revenue, a good ad marketplace should include the following options.

Fallback bidding. This approach allows bids to be made against unsold inventory, with the highest paying bidder winning that impression.
Header or player bidding. This approach allows the player to conduct the auction and pass the winning bid back to your ad server without latency. The highest bidding marketplace will get the inventory, maximizing the revenue potential from your content.

Ad Insertion
Ad insertion is how your ads are inserted into the video stream through your video player. There are two primary methods for inserting ads.

Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI). SSAI inserts ads directly into the content at the server end of the streaming delivery chain. It typically provides the best viewing experience, as the transitions between content and ads are much smoother with less buffering. The tradeoff is that SSAI tends to require more technical expertise to implement, and the overall ad experience isn’t very flexible. It’s also important to note that since SSAI is an integrated part of your content, this method ensures the ads are delivered instead of being blocked by ad blockers.
Client-Side Ad Insertion (CSAI). CSAI inserts ads directly into the video player on the user’s device. It offers a more flexible ad experience, as ads can be personalized based on user data like browsing history and inserted at any point in the video. However, since playback is dependent on the user’s device and internet connection, it’s more susceptible to buffering and ad blockers. While the overall viewing experience may not be seamless, the ad experience can be enhanced with other options like the ability to skip, click, or close an ad.

Ad Experience
Selling ad inventory will only generate revenue if the ad experience is exceptional. This means your video ad marketplace needs to be able to serve ads to your video content regardless of what format it is.
For example, while most of your content may be video on demand (VOD) or over the top (OTT), you may still want to monetize a special live event you’re broadcasting. The key is having the flexibility so that you’re able to get the most out of your video content in any format.
Furthermore, your video player should offer viewability metrics, so you can track the effectiveness of your ad experience. Advertisers don’t just want impressions anymore; they expect publishers to prove that viewers are actually seeing the ads.
Taking Advantage of Video Advertising Opportunities
Video ad marketplaces offer publishers a variety of ways to monetize their content in an increasingly competitive landscape. Understanding how video ad marketplaces work can help you reach your goals and position you to seize the opportunities this significant growth market offers.
With Brightcove, taking advantage of this opportunity has never been easier. Not only do we offer a full-service ad marketplace solution, we offer industry-leading ad metrics like ad sensitivity. Getting started with AVOD can be hard, but Brightcove Ad Monetization makes it easy to get the most revenue from your media.

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While interactive content and shoppable videos are nothing new, the demand for live commerce and live interactivity videos continues to grow. Not only are viewers showing higher engagement rates, brands and retailers are recognizing their potential to drive higher conversions, connect with younger buyers, and boost sales.
So it shouldn’t be surprising that live commerce has been shown to generate up to 10x conversion uplift . In fact, the U.S. livestream commerce market is projected to account for $35 billion in sales and 3.3% of all U.S. e-commerce by 2024 .
However, the technical complexity of live streaming, particularly when incorporating interactive elements, can be daunting. Furthermore, understanding the nuances of interactive videos can be especially challenging for some content creators.
In this post, we’ll take a deep dive into the benefits, the technical requirements, and the challenges you’ll need to navigate. You’ll learn how to harness the power of live interactivity and ensure you get it right to maximize its potential.
Business Benefits of Live Interactivity
For starters, adding interactivity to your live events helps you stand out from the millions of videos that are uploaded to the internet every day. But there are several other ways it can benefit your business.
Deeper Community Building

Interactivity plays a crucial role in helping viewers feel as if they are truly a part of your community. This community-building can extend beyond your brand and products by fostering connections between like-minded viewers who are engaged with your video. Allowing them to actively participate in the content facilitates social interaction and creates a more dynamic and enjoyable experience for all.

Better Audience Feedback
Another key benefit of interactive video is the ability to gather instantaneous feedback and insights. Traditional metrics such as video views are table stakes by now and by themselves are no longer sufficient. Today’s creators must understand which aspects of their livestream resonate best with viewers and incorporate these understandings into future content. Data gained from interactivity, like viewer behavior, preferences, and demographics, will offer insights that can also help achieve other key goals like sales, subscribers, and retention.
Enhanced User Experience
Moreover, live interactivity can enhance the overall user experience by integrating seamlessly with various technology ecosystems, such as Learning Management Systems (LMSs), e-commerce platforms, marketing technology (martech), HR platforms, and Over-the-Top (OTT) media platforms. Adding interactivity to any of these platforms should be an essential part of the viewer’s overall digital experience. Using that interactivity to deliver greater personalization creates a unique end-user experience tailored to your company and specific to each viewer’s journey.
Ideal Cyclical Journey
When implemented effectively, live interactivity can propel users into the ideal cyclical journey: content consumption, engagement with your digital experiences, positive response to calls to action, and brand affinity growth. Successful completion of this cycle will encourage users to share their experiences with others. The end result is amplified reach and increased impact of your interactive video content, bringing even more users into the cycle where it can repeat and continue.
Technical Requirements of Live Interactivity
With a thorough understanding of these benefits, you may be ready to level up your live interactivity but questioning what it takes to start implementation. Short answer: that depends. Why? It may be helpful to break the technical requirements down into two categories: basic setup and advanced setup.
Basic Setup
A basic setup has a couple main requirements.
Online video platform (OVP) for content distribution and playback
Platform capable of handling video overlays and calls to action (CTAs)
However, this only scratches the surface of live interactivity’s potential.
Advanced Setup
To truly unlock the power of live interactivity, creators need to go beyond the basics and integrate their interactive video platform with other systems, such as e-commerce platforms, LMSs, and marketing technologies. An advanced setup in this sense means more than simply connecting the two. Rather, it should enable interactivity that is personalized and unique based on specific attributes of a user’s profile pulled from the system you’re connecting to.
An advanced setup will open up new possibilities, for example:

Connecting with e-commerce platforms to allow users to buy a product from within the video without having to navigate to a purchasing page.
Personalized calls to action based on previous purchase history.
For internal use cases, like training, the LMS system and player working together to create in-player quizzes, establish success criteria, and determine whether the user passed.
Create customized content recommendations based on user behavior within the LMS.

These scenarios offer a glimpse of the potential, but there are countless additional opportunities for your particular use case. By producing a well-integrated interactive video experience that communicates with other technologies, it greatly enhances the end-user experience and becomes an invaluable asset for creators.
How Brightcove Can Help
Brightcove Live Interactivity simplifies the advanced setup. With features including surveys, polls, quizzes, real-time chat, and shoppable e-commerce, you’ll be fully prepared to deliver captivating experiences that boost live audience engagement.
For example, Brightcove’s proprietary chat technology allows you to incorporate chat into live videos and provides greater control over branding and user experience.
With mobile web-first interactive player overlays, you can also create a consistent and visually appealing experience that aligns with your brand while seamlessly integrating with product management platforms. Retail and e-commerce businesses will also appreciate the easy-to-manage events console that gives you the ability to add product information to the livestream in real time.
Although live-streaming can be stressful and challenging, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t realize the many opportunities and benefits it holds. If you’re nervous about truly going live but still want to incorporate live interactivity features, Brightcove Simulive and/or Cloud Playout could be the answer. These solutions allow you to pre-record your content, air it as “live” when you choose, and then simulate a live experience complete with live interactivity features. They essentially combine the best of both worlds while mitigating the risks and costs.
Additionally, these features will be automatically transitioned from your live event to a video on demand (VOD) asset that can continue to drive value over and over again.
For creators looking to take their interactive experiences to the next level, developer events and APIs allow you to customize and build upon these features.
With the rich analytics on both a user and aggregate level, you’ll be able to understand which of these interactive elements are driving the most engagement.
Challenges of Live Interactive Events
Clearly integrating live interactivity into video content offers significant benefits and opportunities. However, it’s important to be aware of the challenges and pitfalls that could occur when incorrectly implemented.
First, it’s important to strike the right balance. While incorporating interactive elements is appealing, overuse or poor implementation can distract viewers from your content. It can also inhibit the actions you want viewers to take as a result of viewing the content.
You should also keep in mind that interactivity goes well beyond merely incorporating shoppable video within a player. The most effective interactive experiences are those that integrate seamlessly within the user’s journey across your digital properties. Interactive elements shouldn’t be jarring or overly apparent, but designed to subtly enhance the user experience and gently guide them towards desired actions on your site.
Live Interactivity Done Right
Successfully implementing live interactivity requires having the right mindset that focuses on creating a seamless user experience. In addition to the right technology, it also requires that all of the systems work together harmoniously. Brightcove Live Interactivity offers a comprehensive solution that delivers everything you need to enhance audience engagement and create captivating interactive experiences in your live events. By leveraging Brightcove’s powerful features and adopting a user-centric approach, you’ll unlock the full potential of live interactivity to help achieve your goals.

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