Best Ad-Based Video Monetization Platforms for News Publishers

Video is becoming the dominant form of content consumption. Cisco’s Visual Networking Index (VNI) found video to be 85% of internet traffic now. Apart from videos being more engaging, it also brings in video advertising revenue. More than half of BuzzFeed’s advertising revenue comes from video ads, it is expected to reach 75% in a few years. Similarly, The Washington Post, Forbes, and CBS, have begun exploring video advertising channels and video ad networks.

One of the most popular video monetization platforms for publishers is YouTube.

DailyMotion is another popular video platform. However these platforms take a significant cut, YouTube takes 45% of the revenue leaving publishers with only 55% of total revenue.

In this article, we will cover how bloggers and news publishers can generate revenue using video monetization platforms.

There are two ways of monetizing using video ads; Instream Video ads and Outstream Video ads.

Instream videos ads appear in the video player either before, during, or after the video content. These ads offer good viewability and engagement. Outstream video ads appear outside the video player, either on the webpage or the sidebar, or in the editorial content itself. These type of ads are less intrusive compared to instream ads. 

Instream Video Ads

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There are four main types of instream video ads:

Outstream Video Ads

There are three main types of outstream video ads:

Overlay Ads

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These ads are displayed over the video player. They are typically non-skippable and do not obstruct the video content.

Non-overlay Ads

These ads are displayed alongside the video content. They do not obstruct the video content in any way.

Types of Ad Insertions: 

Client-side ad insertion: The most common type of ad insertion, ads are inserted into the video player on the user's device. Ads are loaded and played by the user's device, and the video platform isn’t involved.

Pros: 

• Simple to implement, no changes to the video platform. 
• Easily scalable.

Cons: 

• Less reliable since it is user device-dependent to load and play the ads. 
• Ads might not load or play correctly, or be blocked by Ad blockers.

Server-side ad insertion: In server-side ad insertion, the ads are inserted into the video player by the video platform, and the user's device isn’t involved.

Pros: 

• More reliable than client-side ad insertion.

Cons: 

• More complex to implement, and it requires changes to the video platform. 
• Less scalable

Advertising-Based Video Monetization Checklist

There are certain factors that publishers should keep in mind when choosing a platform for generating revenue through video monetization-

• Revenue share: There are two main types of revenue share models.

• Fixed charge: With a fixed charge model, you pay a set amount of money to the platform, regardless of how much revenue your videos generate. This can be a good option for large publishers since they have high.
• Percentage based: With a percentage based model, you pay the platform a percentage of the revenue generated from your videos. This can be beneficial for smaller publications with low volume of traffic.
• Video player compatibility: Make sure that the platform you choose supports the type of video player you are using. Most platforms support HTML5 video players, which are very common.
• Video analytics: Video analytics can help you track the performance of your videos, keep a track of views, video watch duration, and where viewers are coming from. This information can help you improve the performance of your videos and make more money from advertising.

Best Video Monetization Platforms For News Publishers

1. Brightcove

Brightcove Video Cloud is a cloud-based video hosting and publishing platform that makes it easy to create, manage, and deliver video content to your audience. It is a leading video platform that offers a variety of features for news publishers, including ad insertion, video analytics, and video player customization. 

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Top Features

• Adaptive bitrate streaming ensures smooth playback regardless of the viewer's internet speed.
• DRM protection prevents unauthorized copying or distribution of videos.
• Closed captions for better viewer accessibility.
• Multilingual subtitles to appeal to a wider audience.

Pricing

2. Aniview

Aniview is a video advertising and monetization platform that delivers customized solutions to publishers and ad networks across the web and mobile. Aniview's patented video player technology ensures smooth video delivery to over 200,000 publishers worldwide, including many of the world's largest web publishing groups. 

Aniview's high-performance ad server and video marketplace offer access to a wide range of advertisers and ad formats.

Top features

• Patented video player technology ensures smooth video delivery.
• High-performance ad server helps publishers maximize ad revenue.
• Publishers can buy and sell video ad inventory.
• Provides insights into video traffic and ad performance.
• Easy to integrate with existing websites and CMSs.
• 24/7 support

Pricing 

Contact for Pricing.

3. Ezoic Humix

Ezoic Humix is a video management platform that allows publishers to host, share, and embed videos on their websites. Humix also allows publishers to configure each video's settings, choose where those videos are displayed, measure user performance, and track revenue. This information can be used to optimize video campaigns and improve ad revenue.

Humix Monetization Method and Revenue Share 

• You get 100% of the ad revenue for own videos embedded on your website.
• You get 50% of the ad revenue generated from your videos when shared on other sites in the Humix network. 
• You get 50% of the ad revenue from other videos displayed on your website.

Top Features:

• Videos are stored securely, and protected from unauthorized access and distribution.
• Make money from your videos through ads, subscriptions, and donations.
• Detailed insights for publishers to check their video ad analytics.
• Customize video player's design with your branding.
• 24/7 support.

Pricing 
Ezoic bundles Humix with its other offerings such as Flickify and NicheIQ. It offers a free trial for all products and features for 30 days. There are two paid plans, 

Ezoic Standard: 10% revenue share

Ezoic Premium: For Current Customers Only, Level 2+ 

4. InPlayer / JW Player

Recently acquired by JW Player, InPlayer is a top video content monetization platform that helps video creators make money from their content. It offers tools for both pay-per-view and subscription-based revenue models. 

With InPlayer, you get a bunch of useful features. You can use coupons to give discounts, block viewers from specific regions, and let people pay in different currencies. Viewers can also pay by sharing on social media, like giving a "like" or tweeting about it helping distribution. 

InPlayer gives you access to their API for easy integration. They also have a built-in system to help track viewers and their information.

Top Features

• They have an easy click-and-pay system designed for selling videos online using an in-video subscription wall.
• Raise funds directly by incorporating videos on your website and Facebook.
• Utilize videos to gather important user information through forms and data collection.
• In-video purchasing options.

Pricing

Contact for Pricing.

5. Cincopa

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Cincopa is a video monetization platform that specializes in short-form videos. Cincopa's platform can be integrated with any website and CMS, it also has plugins for WordPress, Joomla and Drupal making it easy for publishers to implement. It is a cloud-based multimedia solution that can help media publishers create, manage, and deliver videos and other media assets more effectively. 

Top Features

• Allows good control with different user roles with different permissions.
• Allows branding additions to your videos and other assets. 
• Integrates with a variety of content management systems (CMS), such as WordPress and Drupal. 
• You can customize the look of the player such as the ability to change colors, fonts, and logo.
• Manage the metadata for your assets. 
• Supports a variety of multimedia formats, including videos, images, audio, and documents.
• Make your assets public, private, or password-protected.

Pricing

6. Vimeo Livestream

A comprehensive live streaming platform that offers a variety of features for businesses and organizations, including custom branding, analytics tracking, and password-protected streams. It also offers live chat, Q&A, polls, recording, and live streaming to social media.

Top Features

• Publishers can charge viewers a monthly or annual subscription fee to watch their live streams.
• Publishers can also charge viewers a one-time fee to watch their live streams.
• Donations: Viewers can donate money to publishers directly through their live streams.
• Sell advertising space through livestreams.
• Publishers can partner with businesses to sponsor their live streams.

Pricing 

Vimeo Livestream offers a free trial and paid plans start at \$65 per month/seat billed yearly.

7. Primis

Primis is a video discovery engine platform that helps publishers increase revenue by recommending high-quality video content to their users.

Primis' technology is used by hundreds of digital publishers worldwide. Every month, Primis makes over 4.8 billion recommendations of 3.4 million pieces of content across 30 verticals. This results in the monetization of over 4.5 billion video impressions.

Features of Primis 

• Publishers have full control over categories, channels, and keywords.
• Primis' video discovery engine scores every video in real time and recommends content that users will likely be interested in.
• Primis Next is an interactive experience that empowers users to actively choose which videos they watch.
• A variety of monetization solutions to help publishers maximize the revenue from their video content.

Pricing 

Contact for Pricing.

8. VDO.AI

VDO.AI provides video advertising solutions for publishers and advertisers. It offers a variety of tools and services that help publishers monetize their content, including a video player, ad server, and programmatic advertising platform. However, VDO.AI prefers to work only with websites that are already generating at least $4,000 in monthly ad revenue.

Publishers can leverage VDO.AI to monetize their video content through a variety of ad formats, including pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads. 

VDO.AI Features

• Native ad units to improve user experience.
• Custom video player, option to choose ad formats, targeting options, and user experience features.
• Programmatic advertising platform for publishers to sell their ad inventory to advertisers
• AI-powered ad optimization to improve the performance of ad campaigns and ad delivery.
• Cross-channel integration
• IP-enabled datasets such as location, weather, date/time, audience, and retargeting
• A smart server that makes creative decisions easy and targeted.

Conclusion

Advertising is a major source of revenue for media publishers and they can maximize their earnings by ensuring their ads are seen by the right people. 

For small publishers with a limited budget, platforms like YouTube, DailyMotion, and Vimeo offer free or low-cost plans to start video monetization. The aforementioned platforms demand a considerable chunk of the ad revenue which isn’t ideal for publishers with significant traffic.

Publishers with over 1M visitors a month getting significant playbacks on their website should consider moving to an ad-based video monetization platform. Since the revenue share model is relaxed, publishers will be able to retain a significant chunk of their revenue. 

For larger enterprise-level publishers with over 10M visitors a month, it is essential to opt for a platform that offers on a fixed fee model instead of a revenue share model. Platforms such as Uscreen or Brightcove offer more features and customization options and will prove to be more value for money as the video views climb up.

Once you have chosen a video monetization platform, you can start creating and monetizing your videos. With the right platform, you can turn your videos into a profitable business.

If you’re a publisher wanting to generate more revenue, you can also try push notification monetization and exit-intent recommendations.