As the year unfolds in the unprecedented whirl of challenges, digital publishers are searching for ways to make the most of existing monetization opportunities, particularly in the video niche. Here are a few practical tips to consider.

While digital video remains among the trendiest, hottest sectors in the global online advertising industry, many publishers find it difficult to keep up with the pace and sustain their revenue streams in this niche amid the growing competition for viewers’ attention and engagement. 

Missed the first part of the series? Read our comprehensive guide to some of the effective publisher revenue strategies for 2025. 

In this respect, while marketers are shifting their budgets from brand building campaigns to the more performance-focused mediums, especially effective in the short-term perspective, it’s high time that publishers of editorial inventory make more with less, experimenting with a variety of video formats and variations, while also mixing video header bidding with waterfalling and direct inventory sales in order to secure maximum fill rate at the highest possible price. 

Sound On vs. Off? Try Both

When it comes to digital video, a lot has changed over the past few years in how both advertisers and gatekeepers, like Google and Apple, perceive the notion of sound. 

Namely, it all started with the massive block of sound-on autoplay video ads, i.e. through the launch of the “Stop Media with Sound” default feature in Safari, and the similar one in Chrome, which effectively prevents autoplaying video ad creatives with volume without the prior viewer’s click on them. 

Fortunately enough, providing users with control and the ability to change this setting anytime in their desktop/mobile web browsers (and Chrome also enabling 1000 sites to autoplay video content with sound for users with clear browsing history) has improved the situation. However, it’s absolutely vital that publishers cover all of their bases, i.e. by making each video ad placement (sold directly or programmatically) accessible and viewable to their target audience on their digital properties. 

Efficient workarounds? Well, one of the potentially working publishers’ strategies to keep readers engaged with the advertising content could imply educating them on how to unmute the content using gamification tools and interactive elements. 

Another, perhaps, more restrained tactic involves adding subtitles to video ads (when an advertiser doesn’t provide them directly in their assets) via the publisher’s ad-enabled video player technology, accepting their being inevitably muted by any means.  However, this may negatively impact video ad revenue rates, with muted video usually being associated with the lower CPM/CPV price.

Well, perhaps, 2025 is the perfect time to consider adding another solution to the mix, while not entirely rejecting the mentioned two.  What it refers to is to enforce sound in autoplaying accompanying content and standalone video ad variations (e.g. AdPlayer.Pro’s InPage, InView and Sticky video ad units), BUT! at the specifically set, lower volume*, and still encourage readers to initiate the sound switch-on, when their browser settings prevent it. 

In such a way, the displayed video ad creative will remain respectful of readers’ experience with the website, yet drive higher engagement with the ad itself, while at the same time respecting readers’ choice to continue watching it muted, if made so in browser settings. 

*Contact your dedicated account manager or send an email at business@adplayer.pro to find out more about the available sound enforcement features at AdPlayer.Pro.

Video Header Bidding vs. Performance-based Waterfall? Leverage It All

Even though the major ‘oRTB vs. header bidding’ dispute is far from being resolved (if that’s ever possible), from a publisher’s perspective, utilizing both inventory selling approaches may, actually, result in better performance. 

Namely, in the Prebid-focused niche, video header bidding, undoubtedly, unlocks massive benefits for publishers (and no, pre-implementing Prebid.js code on their website is NOT necessary to set up video header bidding with AdPlayer.Pro).

Yet, when digital businesses wish to expand their inventory sales beyond header bidding, experimenting with parallel waterfalling, i.e. configuring it based on the bid price increments (e.g. by adopting AdPlayer.Pro’s Performance-based Waterfall**), can improve the price-value balance, too.

Certainly, this doesn’t mean removing direct inventory sales out of the picture for good. On the contrary, a smart move would be to determine, perhaps, a smaller, yet highly addressable reader cohort in one or several specific segments and put it for direct sale to premium video advertisers, who might be interested in reaching this particular audience. 

And while such strategy inevitably requires extra analytical and operational effort, the potential outcomes may be worth their while, especially if a publisher offers niche-specific, highly informative articles, rather than generic, news-related content. 

**Contact your account manager at AdPlayer.Pro to switch on the Performance-based Waterfall features.