Seventy-five percent of social video publishers are optimistic about the revenue-generating potential of their assets, according to a new survey from video creation platform Wochit.
Based on responses from representatives of publishers, brands, agencies and other content creators, the findings demonstrate the increasing importance of social video as a path to monetization while also offering insights on the tactics and strategies companies plan to leverage in the months and years ahead.
“People are consuming more and more videos, so video monetization is the way to go,” said the head of social media at an international social news network, according to a news release.
The findings of the survey include:
Revenue sources
- Seventy-five percent of publishers feel optimistic about social video monetization in 2017
- Most popular revenue sources for publishers are YouTube (68.35 percent), Facebook (55.70 percent) and owned and operated websites (51.90 percent)
- Publishers were more than twice as likely to employ pre-roll ads on owned and operated websites (68.35 percent vs 33.96 percent)
- Sponsored videos were used nearly equally across the board (49.06 percent)
Future plans
- Publishers overwhelmingly plan to increase the number of videos they produce (75.95 percent)
- Other revenue growth options under consideration are: expanding distribution networks (60.76 percent), creating sponsored videos (56.96 percent) and partnering with content sponsors (50.64 percent)
- Increasing the number of ads per video is the least popular option, considered by only 15.91 percent of respondents
- Two-thirds of all participants plan to experiment with Facebook’s mid-roll option this year
”There is a ton of demand, but advertisers are just starting to catch on to the right tech. Once those two align, it will be awesome.,” said Kyle Ivins, co-founder of ad network Monumetric, which is a beta tester for Facebook’s video pre-bid, in the release.
On the other hand, some publishers remain skeptical about the monetization promise. “It’s hard to trust…promises of monetization. They always change the rules,” said Matt Gnaizda, vice president at New Tang Dynasty Television, in the release.
Perceived barriers to monetization
- Declining consumer attention spans topped the list, with 68.18 percent of all respondents identifying it as among the top three worries
- Ad blockers and dependency on social network policies were the next most prevalent concerns, each indicated by 50 percent of participants
“Insights like these give us an important view into the realities faced by content producers today. Based on these results, it’s clear that having the ability to create video at scale is imperative to our customers’ bottom lines,” said Wochit co-founder and CEO Dror Ginzberg, in the release. “Along with the additional data we’re collecting on issues like factors that contribute to virality, we can ensure we’re helping companies to get the most from their social video strategies, whether that be engagement, brand lift or monetization.”
