Consumers are increasingly engaging with TV-like ad experiences on the web, particularly during live online events and mid-roll commercial breaks, research has shown.

The 2012 Adobe Digital Video Advertising report, based on 2.5bn ad impressions, showed that online video ad viewing is starting to mirror that of traditional TV ads. In comparison to last year, there has been an increase in the average number of video ads per content stream in professional, long form content with an average of 5.5 ads now being served at an average completion rate of 70%, according to the figures.

The report also showed that the mid-roll video ad format (most comparable to traditional TV ads) continues to be the most engaging online ad format, performing almost 30% better than pre-roll formats.

Additionally, the research showed mobile viewers are more engaged with completion rates on mobile devices, the highest of any environment with 94%. Live content also drives the highest engagement rates in comparison to video-on-demand (VOD) content with the completion of live video ads is 23% higher than VOD content.  

Jeremy Helfand, VP of Monetisation at Adobe, said: “Market research shows that over the next five years the number of people watching video content online could grow as much as 50 percent, and a significant number of them will be doing so on connected devices like tablets, IPTVs and smartphones. For professional content owners and media companies exploring TV-like ad experiences online, the latest data demonstrates the strong potential for extending traditional broadcast advertising dollars to digital video.”