Are your ads retaining viewers? At what cost?
Industry averages show that only about 7% of viewers make it to what we call “the paygate.” At Creatably, we work hard to test, revise, and re-edit until we can improve that percentage. Our target range is to get 20-30% of the viewers to stick around. Recently we’ve had results as high as 35-40%, but we don’t want too many.
Why, might you ask, do you not want too many viewers? It’s hard to make entertaining content, and it’s hard to get viewers to stick around. But along the way, it’s easy to lose sight of the goal, to convert viewers into customers. 90% viewer retention is excellent if you are a YouTuber but not so great if you are paying for every viewer, and 90% of that 90% isn’t interested in buying.
We examine every drop in viewership on a second-by-second basis and debate whether that is a drop or a sort. A drop is when a viewer loses interest, hates a joke, or is offended by the ad. A sort is when a viewer realizes what the ad is for and says, “This is not for me.” We remove or reduce as many drops as possible and embrace the sorts, so we only pay for the viewers who want to watch the ad.
So as you evaluate your advertising budget and strategy, we recommend spending a significant portion of your budget at the top of the funnel, specifically with skippable ads. If you have great creative that gets at the itch and scratch of the customer, you’ll find that you’ll soon be skipping to the bank as you watch your ROAS improve, and your brand recognition soar.