Top-Performing Brands Focus Resources on Video Ads to Capture a Greater Share of Target Audiences
The Digital IQ: Advertising Benchmarks for 2021 report measures and ranks the digital advertising performance of 1,142 B2B and B2C brands from six industries: consumer products, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing and natural resources, retail, and travel and hospitality. Retail is the top-performing industry in this year’s benchmarks, driven by strong impressions on Facebook and high scores for desktop and mobile display. Consumer goods ranked the second-highest while financial services ranked third.
“Top-performing brands are agile across the media mix,” said Andrew Frank, distinguished VP analyst in the Gartner for Marketers practice. “They quickly test and adapt their campaigns and publisher placements. Additionally, they are leaders in video and continue to increase investments in the format to take full advantage of the ongoing boom in media consumption.”
According to Gartner research, video advertising on Facebook and YouTube surged in the past year. “To extract the most out of video production cost and its resulting assets, digital marketers should extend the use of video ads for various platforms, devices and customer journey stages,” said Frank. “Instead of creating net new ads for every use case and form factor, leading brands are reusing parts of a single video ad to fit different platforms, devices and viewing habits.”
To improve advertising performance overall, Gartner recommends that digital marketing leaders take the following actions:
- Understand their brands’ performance across the digital ecosystem and learn from leaders in and out of their industry to maintain a competitive edge.
- Stay up to date on privacy changes, their impact on advertising and major trends across platforms and publishers.
- Learn the basics of advertising on key platforms and how to use video content effectively.
- Respond to changes in ad targeting, identify resolution and the integration of TV and video.
- Plan for the future of advertising technology, targeting and measurement.
