If Digital Video 1.0 was characterized by the repurposing of TV content for the PC, then the current growth in mobile video is anything but repurposing web or TV video content for mobile devices, according to research commissioned by YouAppi.

The study, conducted by Dimensional Research, found that 94 per cent of the 218 global mobile marketer and agency employees surveyed in May and June said that mobile video best practices are different from traditional desktop video best practices. And it’s the differences between mobile video and legacy video implementations that are creating the challenges for mobile marketers and their agencies as they increase their use of mobile video.

96 per cent of respondents claimed they faced challenges with mobile video. The leading challenge, cited by 44 per cent of them, was ‘developing compelling creative’. So mobile marketers seem to understand that repurposing video from other platforms won’t cut it on mobile.

The second leading challenge, cited by 35 per cent of respondents, was ‘finding properties to effectively deliver video’. This challenge of finding the right properties and channels was also seen in another question, where 42 per cent of respondents said that they run their mobile videos on six or more channels, while 17 per cent run mobile videos on over 20 different channels.

A third major challenge cited by respondents was the broad range of metrics and KPIs used to measure performance. Respondents cited no less than15 different, including Cost Per Install (CPI), Clickthrough Rate (CTR), Video Completion Rate (VCR) and Cost Per Completed Video (CPCV), with none used by more than half. 55 per cent of respondents said they are using three or more KPIs, yet despite this, 46 per cent said they are not satisfied by their ability to measure the success of their mobile video programs.

“This research shows that mobile marketers are dealing with a huge number of different metrics and KPIs for video, and an enormous range in the types of measurement,” said Dimensional Research founder and principal, Diane Hagglund. “When you combine this with fact that not even half can agree that any of these metrics is worth tracking, it clearly indicates a metric standardization challenge for the industry.”

Despite these challenges, however, marketers see tremendous opportunities with mobile video. Among the respondents who work in a range of mobile marketing and mobile user acquisition positions not solely focused on mobile video, 94 per cent said that the importance of mobile video has increased in the past few years and 93 per cent said that mobile video will continue to increase in importance in the coming years.

Asked about channels and applications, 75 per cent of respondents found Facebook important, followed by in-app advertising on other apps (69 per cent); YouTube (66 per cent); the company’s own app (20 per cent); and Snapchat (18 per cent). And when asked about running time, 70 per cent of respondents said that the ideal length for a mobile video is 15 seconds or less.
There’s more information about the study here.