The online media and advertising industries still have a long way to go to ensure a consistent TV-like viewing experience across all screens. With the growing adoption of Smart TVs and OTT solutions, larger screens have to now be considered too. As brand builders, protectors and storytellers, advertisers and agencies need to control every factor possible to ensure the best quality and viewer experience of every digital video ad.
Online video quality remains inconsistent and often poor, particularly when it comes to advertising. According to one recent report* more than 2 in 5 online video views are of inferior quality. For brands, this can be a serious issue. Studies have shown that poor quality video often sparks a negative viewer response.
Here is a step-by-step video quality checklist to improve the watchability and effectiveness of your digital video ads:
Step 1 – Start at the Source
Go directly to the post-production house that did the finishing work to obtain the creative master. The post-house has the highest-resolution master file and they can provide that pristine file digitally upon request. Always request and use the HD version of the creative whenever possible. HD (High Definition) contains more than four times the visual information than SD (Standard Definition), All subsequent steps being equal, digital ads that stem from an HD master will always look better than those with SD origins.
Step 2 – A Full, Automated Quality Inspection
Now that you’ve digitally obtained the broadcast-quality master, make sure your ad server performs a thorough, automatic quality assurance inspection immediately upon upload to ensure that there are no issues or defects in the video, audio or formatting. Testing each ad’s crispness, frame-rate, color levels, etc., is a crucial step to ensure optimal viewing for TV. Make sure your digital video platform provides the same level of quality assurance to head off quality concerns down the line.
Step 3 – Ad Serving Direct from Master File
Use an advanced third-party ad serving platform to serve every impression possible across all digital media. You should also ensure that your third-party ad server taps the full-quality master to automatically create a high-quality transcode and serve each impression to each publisher’s exact specifications. This automated step eliminates the degradation that often occurs as video files get manually copied and transferred throughout the frequently disconnected digital advertising workflow.
Step 4 – Real-Time Ad Quality Tracking
The viewer experience can be compromised by various media vendors as well. Your beautiful ad creative may end up appearing in small website players, as in-banner placements, on inappropriate publisher sites and other undesirable places. Today’s most advanced third-party ad serving solutions can track these specifics in detail and expose these issues in realtime, so you can quickly make adjustments and further protect the quality of your digital video ads.
The future offers even greater quality enhancements. With the implementation of new codec standards (H.265), you should be able to increase perceived video quality even at the lowest of bitrates. Of course, the consumer’s bandwidth is a factor that advertisers can’t control. But, if you follow these steps, you will make a significant improvement in the way the audience experiences your video ads online.