Monetizing Short-Form Vertical Video Content 

Short-form video has evolved greatly over the last two decades, redefining how audiences engage with content. Vertical videos have a 90% higher completion rate compared with horizontal videos. With 71% of video marketers saying short-form videos provide the highest ROI, it’s clear that vertical, and highly-immersive video content is a must-have.

These streaming experiences should be both seamless and scalable. For content providers, monetizing these high-value experiences is equally important.

The Challenges with Monetizing Short-Form Video Content

Despite undeniable audience demand and high ROI potential, monetizing short-form vertical video remains a significant technical challenge. Building high-quality streaming experiences that work seamlessly across every device is complex and costly. Choppy playback, buffering, and inconsistent quality cause audiences to drop off instantly.

Recouping investments in producing and streaming this high-value content is another challenge. Traditional ad insertion methods often introduce frustrating delays, black screens, or jarring transitions between the content and the ad. Content providers need a modern, lightweight solution that not only streamlines delivery but also integrates monetization natively. Smooth, server-side ad insertion maximizes monetization opportunities without sacrificing the viewer’s experience.

Spins: Taking Short-Form Vertical Video Streaming A Step Further

Spins is Wowza’s lightweight, TypeScript-based package for delivering short-form, vertical video experiences. Now, you can insert ads in between videos in Spins, turning an engaging viewing experience into a powerful monetization engine.

With ad insertion, Spins evolves from a storytelling tool into a revenue-generating platform. Customers can now place pre-roll, mid-roll, or interstitial ads seamlessly between video segments. This maintains a smooth viewing experience while creating new opportunities to grow revenue. This streamlined, scalable, and modern approach to short-form video monetization fits effortlessly into existing streaming ecosystems.

Inside Spins Ad Insertion: How It Works

Spins minimizes drop-off and maximizes engagement, with full flexibility to configure high-quality video delivery experiences. This short-form vertical video workflow is built for memory efficiency. It employs lazy DOM loading, HLS instance recycling, and optimized viewport management. This ensures smooth playback at scale and conserves memory. The new update to Spins lets users:

• Configure custom ad slots within their short-form video playlists
• Use dynamic ad triggers, such as after every few videos or on time-based intervals
• Employ smooth transitions between content and ads without buffering

Now, viewers can stay immersed while creators and publishers benefit from new monetization opportunities.

How Ad Insertion in Spins Helps Content Providers

Audiences have moved toward vertical, mobile-first video. Brands and creators are racing to meet these demands, and monetization is the next frontier. Content providers who use these new tools can:

• Drive revenue through targeted ad placements
• Boost audience engagement with uninterrupted viewing
• Future-proof short-form vertical video streaming

By bringing ad insertion capabilities directly into Spins, customers can unlock the full potential of short-form content monetization.

Key Use Cases for Short-Form Vertical Video Ad Insertion

The applications for ad insertion in Media & Entertainment are clear. Spins provides a way to monetize high-velocity content across devices and platforms. Seamless ad insertion ensures that related merchandise, streaming service subscriptions, or movie ticket pre-sales appear without breaking the flow of immersive, story-driven content. Smooth transitions between content and ads maintain audience engagement where drop-off is a constant threat.

In Sports Broadcasting, teams and leagues can utilize short-form vertical video to deliver high-impact game highlights, player features, and pre-game hype reels optimized for mobile viewing. With ad insertion, these groups can then monetize these highly sought-after moments with targeted advertising. For instance, a sports app could run an ad for a team jersey or a local sponsor’s product in between clips of game-winning plays. The flexibility to configure dynamic ad triggers ensures maximum revenue capture during peak fan excitement.

Monitoring & Surveillance may not seem like a natural fit for this feature. However, consider a security service that delivers a playlist of vertical clips. Each clip would represent a detected event, like a package delivery or motion alert. This new feature could insert unobtrusive, highly-targeted advertisements for home automation products, enhanced security services, or insurance products between the delivered event clips. Thinking of the ads simply as additional video content, this workflow could also be leveraged to serve important alerts and messages, such as a device running out of power.

Are you ready to monetize your short-form vertical videos? Talk to your Wowza representative or request a demo today