Rapid growth in mobile video advertising and the rising recognition this mobile video has what it takes to influence a wide range of engagement activities beyond the app install has put it at the top of the app marketing agenda.

For consumers, video is a perfect fit with their appetite for bite-sized content and advertising that is engaging and gets to the point. For marketers, it’s an effective way to activate and motivate audiences at scale.

In fact, 2018 will mark a milestone for digital video advertising in the U.S., according to research firm eMarketer’s latest ad spending forecast. It reckons video will grow nearly 30% to $27.82 billion. That means video ad spending will make up 25% of total digital ad spending in 2018.

What’s more, mobile video is a global trend with over 60% of marketers and media agencies in China calling video out as their leading mobile marketing and social media marketing tactic, compared with just 22% the previous year.  

The Global Video Index Report published by Ooyala, a provider of software and services to assist in the production, streaming and monetizing of video content, reports mobile video plays have hit a new high—and engagement everywhere on the planet is off the charts.

Mobile's Growing Video Share (2016-2018)

In APAC mobile accounted for 60% of all video plays, up 12% compared to the previous year. In EMEA mobile’s share of video plays grew more than 35% to reach 63.5%. Finally, LATAM saw mobile plays hit the halfway point, reaching 56.3%, up 9% from the previous year.

Ad spend is pouring into mobile video and the money is well spent.

Money follows the audience – and your audience is watching mobile video. Marketers are lagging, but the gap is closing. Market surveys reveal marketers’ use of mobile video advertising across every channel has increased significantly over the previous year. Overall, more than one in three marketers said video was “very” or “critically important” to the customer journey. As a result, 85% of marketers said they planned to increase investment in video, up from 75% the previous year.

Video spend isn’t just pegging the needle; it’s aimed to drive results at more stages in the funnel.

A top-performing strategy involves rewarded video, an ad format popular in gaming ads that gives players the opportunity to watch an ad in exchange for a reward within the game, is gaining serious traction.

Latest data from video ad network Unity Ads calls rewarded video ads the market’s “hottest revenue generator,” revealing 80% of players are open to engaging with rewarded video ads. What’s more, the same study found that less than 1-in-10 developers saw retention drop after introducing rewarded video ads.

On average, mobile video ads drive a significant share of publisher revenues (31% for gaming apps and 36% for non-gaming apps). More importantly, games publishers believe rewarded video offers the best user experience, with 75% calling it out as the most effective monetization method for mobile. IAPs came in second place with 63% and interstitials (44%) came in a distant third.

But marketers are also investing in other ways to get the most mileage out of this top-performing ad format. For example, major entertainment brands are harnessing mobile video ads to boost brand awareness and power top-of-the-funnel brand interaction. And this is just the beginning.

App marketers have to keep up with the ever-changing and increasingly video-first landscape. Next week we will share some of the best practices you can follow to get the best results.