VAST & VPAID by AdSpyglass: how to earn with Video Ads

The growing popularity of video content on websites makes video ads more relevant and applicable. Today we want to talk about types of video ads and how to use them to maximize your profit.

US marketers will spend $29.24 billion on programmatic video this year, which accounts for 49.2% of all US programmatic digital display ad spending. For the next years, we expect the portion of programmatic spend that goes to video to remain steady.

Types of Video Ads

There are two types of Video Ads:

1. In-stream video ads are displayed in your video player (pre-roll, post-roll, playing at pause or a specific minute playback). You may see that type of ads on Youtube. In AdSpyglass we also call it «in-video».
2. Out-stream is a type of video ad that is placed between content blocks or as a pop-up element. For example, a slider is a video ad that is played in a pop-up window in the lower right corner of the screen.

VAST and VPAID standards

There are two main standards for implementing an in-stream advertising format. VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) standard is an XML document requested by your video player. It contains information about what ad is supposed to be played. VAST doesn’t determine all aspects of displaying video ads. It is impossible to set up complex interactions between a video player, a web page and an advertising message using VAST. In case you need that option, for example, to create a script that will stop playing the video and start advertising or will ask the user to take some action, you should use the other standard called VPAID (Video Player-Ad Interface Definition). Most video players support both VAST and VPAID standards and able to display the advertising content of most ad networks.

What are Wrappers?

The other thing you need to know about these two standards is that they both allow implementing a very convenient feature called Wrappers. Instead of one ad, Wrapper loads a chain of video clips into the player. If for some reason the first one can’t be displayed, for example, the ad network doesn’t have an ad for your visitors, the player will try to play the next video from the chain and so on until the video ad is shown or until the chain ends.

In AdSpyglass we developed a video player especially for advertising to maximize your revenue. Our algorithm is configured in such a way that a chain of videos in Wrapper consists of ads from all connected ad networks and is sorted by CRM (in descending order). It means that the most expensive ad always goes first.

Also, Wrappers allowed us to add an autoplay feature that displays video ads one by one until all of them are shown or until a site visitor closes the advertisement. This approach also allows for increasing profit.

How does AdSpyglass in-video player work?

AdSpyglass provides 2 options for displaying video ads on your site:

1) We provide a VAST link which you insert into your player. This link contains the list of video ads sorted as we mentioned before – from the most expensive ad to the least one. AdSpyglass algorithm sorts it on our server based on the available offers of advertising networks. The only drawback of this option is that the vast majority of free players do not support ads. You will need a paid ‘pro’ version that requires monthly payments. The subscription can be costly. For example, Flowplayer has a Professional plan that costs $100/month, and Enterprise plan costs as much as $500/month. Cloudinary paid subscription starts from $89/month. In addition, some players might not be able to play all formats of video ads. These two factors can significantly reduce your revenue.

2) Also, we provide an overlay-player that you place over of your video player. AdSpyglass Overlay VAST/VPAID provides higher flexibility of in-video ads: you can select the specific moment for showing ads. Install any free video player on your site, and the overlay player from AdSpyglass will show video content when you need it. After showing the ads it will collapse and the visitor will see your player with your video content.

The advantage of this option is that AdSpyglass Overlay Player can display any type of video ads. We constantly release updates and make sure that every content provided by advertisers or ad networks is played. Our solution is free for AdSpyglass users. The only inconvenience is that you have to insert an additional player on the site.

Moreover, you can use AdSpyglass Overlay Player for out-stream advertising. This is one more advantage of our solution.

Video Ads settings

Effective work of video ads requires correct setups which sometimes might be difficult. The problem with many video players even paid and expensive is the lack of an intuitive interface. To set up advertising in your video player you have to understand the code. At the same time, ads on websites are often managed by marketers, not programmers. In the AdSpyglass player, we paid special attention to the settings interface and made it simple and understandable.

Currently, in the interface of our service you can set the following:

• Skip offset time – time after which visitor can skip the video ad
• Ads on loop – allows displaying the list of ads one by one.
• Continue to play ad after click – this feature allows increasing the profit from networks that pay not for the click, but for a certain number of seconds of viewing.
• Start video after ads –  after visitor closes the ad your video starts automatically.
• Enable VPAID – enable or disable to display VPAID ads in your video player.

How much can you earn on Video Ads?

Now the most important part – how big is the profit of video ads on your website? According to our statistics, video ads reach up to 10 million impressions daily. In-video ads CPM starts from $0,5 and might be up to $20. It is comparable to popunder format and actually, video ads are a great alternative to popunder ads, which leads to sanctions from Google more and more often.

With the growth of the popularity of the video content, more and more advertisers are starting to use video ads. As a result, we see the competition for traffic and price increases. Our advice to publishers is to wisely use that opportunity. Both AdSpyglass technical solutions allow optimizing the process of choosing the Ads. With our algorithms revenue rises by 30-40%, and in some cases, up to 2 times compared to working with one ad network. In addition, you get useful reports, alternative statistics, and will be able to monitor the system. Also, we provide excellent support from our experts. They will help you to set up the monetization of your website and get the most out of it.

The completion benchmarks every publisher needs to know:

Comparison chart for the most popular video players

We prepared a comparative table for the most popular video players, taking into account their cost and functionality.

Capabilities	Fluid Player	Video JS	JwPlayer	FlowPlayer	AdSpyglass
Support VAST standard	✅	need a plugin	✅ **	✅ ***	✅
Support VPAID standard	✅	need a plugin	✅ **	✅ ***	✅
Price for video player	free	free	from $5 *	from $25 *	free for AdSpyglass users
Price for supporting ads feature	free	need a plugin	from $12*	from $100**	free for AdSpyglass users
Statistics	❌	❌	✅ **	✅ ***	✅
The ability to display ads from multiple ad networks	✅	need a plugin	✅ **	✅ ***	✅
Required technical skills to set up	advanced	expert	advanced	advanced	beginner

Notes:
* /month/website
** enterprise plan
*** pro plan

5 reasons to try VAST/VPAID from AdSpyglass:

1. No coding is required. All you should do is insert the player tag in the website’s template and tune settings on the webmaster’s panel.
2. Detailed and precise reports provide information about impressions, requests, and income in real-time. This is a great alternative source of statistics.
3. Support of VAST/VPAID tags from all popular ad networks!
4. The possibility to run ads from several ad networks.
5. The most profitable ad networks are found automatically for each of your target audiences. 

Try it now

Read also Best Anti-Adblock Script For Popunders
Read also Pro Tips For Choosing Ad Monetization Partner
And compare all ad networks CPM rates by countries here: Top Ad Networks