The video live streaming service, Twitch, like many other live streaming services, also offers various advertising options to the brands willing to use this platform to promote their products and services. Twitch supports traditional ways for ad placements like banners and pre-roll videos. But, its support for ad placement is limited to conventional methods only; instead, advertisers can also find Twitch influencers and partner with them. The live streaming platform is widely popular among people interested in online gaming. However, those advertisers who are not sure how the platform works or whether they will get the opportunity to advertise on this live streaming platform in the first place, often overlook it.
Twitch: What is It?
The video live streaming platform is geared towards online gaming and online game players. Since its launch in 2011, the platform has grown enormously, capturing over 3.8 million broadcasters. Above all, Twitch has expanded to include many other topics such as crafting, music, food, and many more things. The users can watch live streams from any device.
Why Advertise on Twitch?
Twitch, the widely popular video streaming service, is the subsidiary of Amazon and has over 140 million active users monthly and 15 million users active daily. In the third quarter of the year 2020, users watched live streaming more than 4.7 billion hours on Twitch, giving it almost 72.2 percent of the video game streaming market’s share. More than half of the Twitch viewers spend every week more than 20 hours watching live streams, while daily, the users spend an average of 95 minutes hovering over the platform.
If we keep numbers aside, even then, there are several strong reasons to advertise on Twitch.
Large Community
The platform has a vast community as most creators share their activities of various video games and keep talking to their viewers about their dreams and lives and asking viewers about their own life.
Interaction in Real-Time
The live streaming platform has made it easy for the viewers and creators to engage in real-time. It has made their connections more personal. Twitch viewers seem to trust the opinions of the Twitch influencers when they come to know them.
Twitch Ads: How Much Do They Cost?
Several factors impact the running cost of ads on Twitch. These factors include seasonality, number of concurrent viewers, viewer location, age and gender of the viewers, and the content type. The live streaming platform also allows for marketing strategies based on non-traditional methods such as the partnership with Twitch influencers.
Twitch Ads: How Do They Work?
Twitch offers tons of options to the brands when it comes to advertising on its platform. Apart from partnering with streamers and influencers on this platform, Twitch provides a menu filled with many traditional advertising options. Besides, the platform does not allow fourth-party tags or third-party redirects. Here is a look at the ad types available on Twitch.
Desktop Video
Desktop video-based advertisements are directly integrated into live stream broadcasts that can be accessed through a desktop computer. The desktop video ads can either be played during ad breaks or can be pre-roll. These videos can be either for 60 seconds or 30 seconds and support the third party’s tracking events.
Cross-Screen Video
The advertising format on Twitch allows the users to play their ads across the devices. The length of the ads can be 60 seconds and 30 seconds. It supports tracking events of the third party like clicks, completes, quartiles, and impressions.
Homepage Headliner
Such types of ads are considered as the prime placements of the live streaming platform. The scale of these ads depends on the display size and screen resolution. It includes three components consisting of a hex color code and two end images. The end images have a mandatory gradient color fade and space for branding. Homepage headliner ads must be in the PNG or JPG format with a maximum file size of 150KB and at 450×350 pixels.
Homepage Carousel
The ad type allows advertisers to promote live streaming right on Twitch’s homepage in one of the slots of rotating carousels. Its descriptions should be within 250 characters, and the thumbnails should be in the JPG format at 280×156 pixels with the 01KB maximum file size.
Mobile Video
The mobile video ads will only play on the mobile app on stream broadcasts. These can be either played for 30 seconds or 60 seconds.
Medium Rectangle
The ad format shows up when viewers scroll through content on Twitch. These ads come in PNG, JPG, or GIF format at 300×250 pixels and with the 100KB of maximum file size. The ads can be played for 15 seconds.
SureStream
These ads can be played for 30 seconds or 60 seconds and integrated into broadcasts.
Super Leaderboard
These ads are banner image ads shown at the screen’s top. It can be displayed for 15 seconds.
The Best Practices of Running Ads On Twitch
There are several ways to get more out of your ads on Twitch. Here are some of the best practices.
Know the type of your ads
You need to become familiar with the ads that you want to stream on Twitch.
Design an excellent Ad experience
To design your best ad on Twitch, you will need to take care of these things.
- Keep your ad design simple and avoid adding too many details, graphics, and information to your ads.
- Your ad design should include colors and fonts matching your brand.
- You can create an engaging ad by using video editing tools available for free to make the ads pop.
- Keep the graphics and fonts of your visually appealing and easy to read.
- Get the preview of your designed ad on multiple devices before posting it on Twitch.
Run Ad Breaks Accurately
Let your viewers know when they can expect ads, Make them used to slowly see your ads on live streams. Start with only one minute of the ad in the beginning, and then you can increase the time from 1–3 minutes.
Include Correct Information
You should include all the essential information when creating your ad, consisting of brand name, a suitable headline, information about your offer, and a call to action.
Consider the Needs of Your Audience
When creating ads, you should consider your audience’s specific needs. Make your ads entertaining and filter your audience based on their location, gender, and age.
Ad Breaks Automation
You can use Twitch’s advertising automation tools like Nightbot, StreamElements, or Moobot to automate your ads.
Implement the Latest Trends
Always pay attention to the latest trends and news and relate it to your brand to get your audience attracted to your products and services.
Set up an ad-free stream
Twitch ads vary by the availability and location of the users, which means not everyone will see your ads on your channel. You have to provide an ad-free viewing option to the viewers.
Measure ROI on Twitch Advertising
You can use Twitch tools to track viewability, in-view time, invalid traffic, and many other metrics to determine the ROI on Twitch advertising.
Finally, using the best practices of advertising on Twitch can help you minimize disruptions and keep you and your viewers happy.
Twitch is all about interacting with other people.
Join a group and help out the community, list of the Best Twitch communities for new streamers are described here.
