Monetization Starter for a Video Ad Publisher

If you want to stay on top of the monetization wave, you cannot walk past the video ad format. Combine it with programmatic – and you’ll get the must-have kit for raising your revenue as a video ad publisher.

How does a publisher become a master of programmatic video ads? In this article, we’ll cover the basics, like video ad types, video ad pricing, video header bidding specifics and some video trends for the future.

Video ad types

IAB divides video ads into linear and nonlinear. Linear ads play before, in the middle or after the main video. These are our traditional pre-rolls, mid-rolls and post-rolls.

Nonlinear video ads don’t interrupt the stream of хєр any video content, that is why they are also called “out-stream”. Such a video may appear within the text content or social feed.

More specifically, this includes the formats, like in-banner, in-page and native video ads.

Video pricing models

It’s better to get the specifics of the pricing from your video ad network. Here are the definitions of the basic pricing models from IAB:

  • CPM – cost per 1000 impressions,
  • CPCV – cost per 100 % complete view,
  • CPV – cost per view, count for the start, no settled time of watching,
  • VCPM – viewable cost per 1000 ad units,
  • VCPV – viewable cost per view, it’s calculated as VCPM / CPV,
  • CPE/CPI – cost per engagement or user interaction with a video,
  • CPS/CPH – cost per second or per hour per 1000 impressions.

Video header bidding

The combination of the two is nothing new. Header Bidding has its obvious benefits. You can connect multiple demand sources and get the maximum revenue.

There are still some question as to the code implementation, since Flash video players don’t have the headers. It’ll still work with some clever coding, or if you use HTML5 player.

Video advertising trends

This year, out-stream video ads were the trend. Now, native advertising is on the rise. We can expect more native video ads to be produced.

Native advertising ignores the ad blockers and supports user experience.


And don’t forget about the impressive figures. Almost half of 2017 video ad spend went to video advertising. As user content consumption moves all the more to the video format, advertising has to keep the pace.