Ad Platforms - Web/Internet Pre-Roll Videos

In the last 4-5 years, web and internet pre-roll videos have become the new favorite choice of advertisers, as more and more users in target demographics (like Gen Z and Millennials) “cut the cord” on cable and network TV, instead turning to internet streaming services to consume their content.

In essence, web and internet pre-roll videos are pieces of paid advertising that play on individual pieces of content — like embedded videos on sites like YouTube, Facebook and local news sites. When a user clicks play on a video of their choosing, a paid “pre-roll” ad will play first. These pre-roll advertisements are typically :06 seconds, :15 seconds or :30 seconds in length, but every once in awhile, you will see pre-roll ads that extend to :45 or even :60 seconds. Thankfully (for viewers), that is more rare.

Typically, advertisers can pay per-view or per-click with pre-roll advertisements, which can make targeted campaigns more cost effective than blanketed local network or local cable ad spends. These ads are trafficked to different websites by ad networks: Google is a huge provider of ads — not only on its YouTube platform, but serving to other sites as well. Amazon and other tech giants participate in delivering advertising to web pages that are not their native owned sites.

Of course, some pre-roll advertisements must be watched for the full duration before the user can move on to consume their desired content, while others can be skipped mid-way into the ad if the user clicks on the “Skip” button embedded within the video, or an “X” in the upper right or left corner of the video.

Each pre-roll platform and player has different functionalities: many pre-roll advertisements include voiceover with animated graphics, or look and feel like mini-commercials — complete with on-camera actors, branded music and voiceover by professional voice talents.

A benefit of paid pre-roll advertising is the ability to target users by key demographics as allowable by that particular platform. Top filters are gender, age, education levels, zip codes and pre-existing “likes” or “dislikes” on that particular platform. This can be particularly useful for political advertising, when district lines might overlap in a metro area and can be drilled down further by zip code… or simply to gain traction with a particular age or affinity group.

At the end of the day with all of these options, the one that works best for your political ad campaign is the one that’ll attract and persuade the highest concentration of Democratic voters.