Online video ad views continued to mount in September, though at a slower rate than seen earlier this year, according to the latest figures from comScore. Total video ad views numbered 22.9 billion for the month, up only slightly over August’s total of 22.8 billion, but still representing a marked increase from the year-earlier total of 9.4 billion. The latest figures indicate that AOL – on the back of its acquisition of Adap.tv – assumed the mantle of the top video ad property in September for the first time, delivering 3.7 billion ad impressions, ahead of Google’s 3.2 billion.
In total, 9 properties delivered more than 1 billion video ad impressions, which is a new high. By comparison, 5 properties delivered at least 1 billion ads in September of last year, with Google topping the list at what now seems like a relatively small 1.8 billion.
All those video ads mean one thing: per-viewer frequency continues to go up. In September, the proportion of the US population reached by online video ads dipped slightly from 55.6% to 55.4%. But those viewers each saw 133.6 ads on average, up from 132 a month earlier. Hulu delivered the highest frequency of ads to its viewers, at an average of 74, although AOL boasted the largest duration of ad minutes viewed, at almost 1.7 billion, or nearly 20% of the 8.5 billion total.
Overall, video ads accounted for one-third of all videos viewed and 3.5% of all minutes that were spent watching online videos.
Google Still the Top Video Content Property
In terms of video content, Google Sites again had the highest number of unique viewers (165.4 million), while Facebook moved into the second spot with 67.2 million viewers, overtaking AOL (61.8 million). Microsoft jumped to the 4th spot (49.2 million), leapfrogging NDN (49.1 million) and VEVO (49 million).
Overall, comScore’s data indicates that 87% of online Americans watched video content in September, with the total number of videos viewed dropping to 46 billion from 46.7 billion in August. The duration of the average content video was 5.1 minutes, with the average online video ad lasting 24 seconds.
The average online video viewer spent almost 21 hours watching video content during the month, which, for the time being, remains far less than comparable numbers for TV.
Other Findings:
- Among the top 10 video content properties, Google Sites generated the highest engagement, at an average of 462 minutes per viewer during the month, though that was down from 522 minutes in August.
- VEVO retained its top spot in the YouTube partner rankings with about 47 million unique viewers, followed by Maker Studios and Fullscreen.
