Jun Group Compares Effectiveness of Pre-Roll and Incentivized Ads

Video ad platform Jun Group has released the results of a study comparing pre-roll and incentivized ads for engagement, completion, sharing, and brand awareness. Incentivized ads ran away with the contest, delivering much better numbers for each category.

An incentivized ad is one where the viewer can choose to watch the ad, and in return gets some kind of reward.

Jun Group conducted its study by sampling 7.7 million incentivized ad views from campaigns that it ran between May and August, 2012, then comparing that to industry data on pre-roll performance.

The comparisons showed that viewers were twice as likely to interact with a brand after viewing an incentivized video ad, compared to a pre-roll, and that viewers were 50 percent more likely to complete an incentivized video ad. Incentivized ads were shared three times as often. Incentivized video ads are better at driving brand favorability, Jun Group says, while pre-rolls are stronger for driving brand awareness.

"Gripes about pre-roll are nothing new, but until recently most marketers haven't realized that there is an alternative," says Jun Group's CEO, Mitchell Reichgut. "At Jun Group, we've long held that opt-in units are a better, more respectful way to reach consumers, and now the data speaks for itself. Incentivized ads outperform pre-roll on nearly every significant metric and deliver vastly better results for advertisers."