When it comes to using videos to promote your brand, product, or services, there are lots of video formats you could choose from.
Native and pre-roll videos are two of the popular ones. What is the difference between these two video formats?
And more importantly, which one is better? In this article, you’re going to learn two things: the difference between native and pre-roll videos, and why native video is better than pre-roll.
Native vs pre-roll video: the difference between them
The key difference between the two types of video format is the ability for people to either choose to or not to watch, or have no choice but to consume the video.
Pre-roll video format forces users to watch. They disrupt the content you’re interested in, and you have no other choice but to view them before you can be able to access the content you want to consume.
On the other hand, native videos give you the chance to choose to keep scrolling, without any disruptions to your user experience.
Native vs pre-roll video: which one is better?
Native video is a better advertising approach than pre-roll video. The following are the reasons why you should allocate more of your ad budget to the native video:
1. Native videos generate higher brand lift
In a study conducted by share through and Nielsons to compare which one is better and more effective brand building strategy between native and pre-roll video, native advertising produced a higher brand lift in 5 out of 5 campaigns that were run using different marketers, but the same advertising message delivered with the two video formats.
This means that native video is more effective at increasing consumer – brand interactions more than pre-roll video. Also, native video increased the consumer’s positive perception of the brand more than pre-roll.
2. Native video facilitates engagement
While pre-roll video acts like the typical TV commercial that we are used to, native videos engage consumers by offering value in the form of information of entertainment.
Pre-roll is just like other traditional advertising approaches, which is all about displaying the product of service before the eyes of consumers and using persuasive tactics to convince them to buy — the hard selling approach.
Unlike pre-roll, the native video takes the soft selling approach.
What this means is that rather than focusing on the product or service, the native video tries to educate or entertain viewers while subtly delivering the message.
3. Native video ads are not limited to 30 seconds.
In a pre-roll ad, you’re under pressure to get your hour message across to the viewer as quickly as possible.
But that is not the case with native video ads, as there is no specific time limit with native video ads.
As a result, you can spend more time establishing a connection with your audience before delivering your message.
Plus, with native video ads, you can do more than just advertising.
For example, you can spend a few seconds or minutes telling your viewers the story behind your product or entertain them any way you can.
Key takeaway
The difference between native and pre-roll video ads is in their approach.
With a pre-roll video, you have no choice but to watch if you want to continue with the content you’re interested in, while native video ads give you a chance to choose to watch or not, while scrolling, without any disruptions.
Plus, native video ads are more effective than pre-roll video ads.