Ginny Marvin says, “YouTube has announced that it will no longer support 30-second video ads that users can’t skip, starting next year. “We’re committed to providing a better ads experience for users online. As part of that, we’ve decided to stop supporting 30-second unskippable ads as of 2018 and focus instead on formats that work well for both users and advertisers,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement. The change, first reported by Campaign, will not affect shorter ads, such as 20-second videos. Advertisers will continue to be able to set those units as unskippable on... [...]

Barry Levine says, “Live-streamed video took another step toward becoming a new kind of broadcasting with the release today by Traction Labs of its Live Suite. The San Francisco-based company offers a platform for connecting influencers and bloggers with video content. As part of that service, it began providing simultaneous distribution of recorded video streams to multiple sites and social networks. Last June, it offered the first distribution to multiple destinations of a live video stream, for a rally that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders held in San Francisco. Today, it has productized... [...]

Anna Shirley says, “A 2016 study by comScore showed that adults are 30 percent more likely to choose online video over TV when given a choice of where to watch video content. Many of us have been running TrueView campaigns on YouTube from within AdWords for a while, but how many of the newer or updated features are you taking advantage of? First, let’s take a step back in time and remember what TrueView was like back in the day: There was a separate interface for TrueView campaigns. Reporting options were pretty limited and very clunky to use. Optimization was limited, with very few bid... [...]

Megan Totka says, “Online marketing trends change with every new delivery method and channel. Each year brings new technology, new opportunities, and new social channels to catch user fancy. The big winners in the battle for buyer attention might be early adopters throwing resources into promising new technology that proves successful, or businesses who stick with a particular channel to build a huge following. Video marketing is certainly not new, but the market is changing, and video has emerged as a clear winner. Video Marketing Trends YouTube already dominates the field, with a billion... [...]

Adam Hayes says, “It seems like every year is labeled ‘the year of video’ by one expert or another — but 2017 could well have the best claim yet. Of course, it’s no secret that video content has become staggeringly popular. And, as with most marketing trends, the more consumers have watched, the more marketers have spent. Brand new research released by Wyzowl suggests that video is more effective, more widely used, and more popular among consumers than ever before. The survey spanned across 311 unique respondents — both marketing professionals and online consumers. Some... [...]

Scott Samson says, “When it comes to video marketing, your goal is not to inform, entertain, or create awareness. Your goal is to make someone involved in a buying decision want to learn more. Your call to action should lead to more detailed content, a software download, a live demo — anything that helps educate the buyer. You’ll find it a lot easier to shape a user-friendly and engaging video if you keep these tips in mind. 1. Understand how the viewer arrived at your video To get to your video, the viewer clicked on a link to your website, video channel, Facebook page — somewhere... [...]

Hope Horner says, “Finally! You can now make real money using Facebook videos. This mega-platform is clearly taking video seriously as an advertising resource — as it should. Historically, Facebook videos have been free of advertisements; but then came last year’s announcement that pre-roll ads would play before videos within Facebook’s Audience Network. And that started brands exploring new ways to leverage video on the platform. What’s become popular over the last year, for example, is in-article ads appearing between paragraphs of text on mobile; they begin playing silently... [...]

Jay Baer says, “As an author, it breaks my heart, but we are entering the “no-read” era.1 Every year, I think there is no possible way online video consumption can climb again, but it does. And finally, content marketers are catching up to the consumption trend. Video for content marketing used to be a sometimes thing. An occasional deviation from tried-and-true blog posts. But now, for many companies, video IS the new blogging. New research from Vidyard (a great partner of ours at Convince & Convert) called the 2017 Video in Business Benchmark Report to put math around this shift. According... [...]

Amanda Zantal-Wiener says, “There’s something to be said for a truly remarkable experience. Whether it’s a great party, the trip of a lifetime, or a particularly hilarious comedy show, having lived through it makes us want to talk about it. We share these experiences. We tell our friends about them, post the pictures and videos we’ve captured on social media, and — when they’re really good — try to relive them. It seems that we’re starting to prefer living those experiences over having material possessions. No wonder that 360° video is becoming... [...]

Brandon Verblow says, “Up until now, paid services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and HBO have dominated US online video viewing, particularly for long-form, TV-style content. Uptake of ad-supported, TV-style online video has been slower; traditional TV providers control much of this content, and they’ve been cautious about making their programming available outside the lucrative TV bundle. Even if many viewers want to cut the cord, they may not follow through as they realize they cannot get all the content they want. YouTube, of course, has a massive ad-supported online video business that... [...]