Show Your Own Adverts On Your Live Stream

Our low cost video advertising option means you can show your own adverts on your own live stream. You can use this feature to promote your own business or promote a local company or charity etc. Any charges you make to your customer for running an advert are yours, you only pay us a flat additional fee for our advertising feature. Business and Professional plans include the advert option. For other plans this option is available for an additional £5.00 per month.

For the purpose of this demonstration we are showing 4 x adverts (Demo Videos) inserted at very short intervals with SKIP options enabled for different durations followed by a period of clear viewing and then a watch time limit to force your viewer to reload if they want to keep watching the live feed. In reality you would choose longer spans between the videos being shown. Clicking on a video will send you to a URL of your advertiser, for this demo we send you to one of our pages. Now you can show your own adverts from your own community on your live webcam feed.

How Our Advert System Works

Our Advert Option has a number of features to allow you to show your own short advertising video's, with or without sound, on your own live webcam stream. You can show a pre-roll advert which is shown when your viewer first clicks on your live feed to view it, plus up to 3 more adverts at a few minute intervals while the viewer is still watching your live webcam. You can choose to allow the viewer to skip the advert after a few seconds or make them watch the whole advert before the live feed resumes. You can also choose to let the live feed run continually so there is un-interupted live video after the last advert or have the live feed stop a short time after the last advert so your viewer has to refresh the page to resume watching the live feed again which means they will also have to watch the adverts again (or SKIP).

We can place the adverts at the time intervals you require from the point the viewer starts watching and this will depend on your choice according to how popular the webcam is. It may be that you only want a pre-roll video (one that starts at the beginning of the live feed) or just a pre roll and another at one minute in to the live feed - so you dont over do it and spoil the effect for your viewers. You may want the live picture to start first then show a couple of adverts at a few seconds or a minute interval in to the live feed - The choice is yours.

Check out the demonstration above. This feature can be added to any live camera you stream though us. You can either host the advert files on your own web server and our system will show them on your stream which is ideal if you want to regularly change or update the content, or for more permanent ads we can host the advert files for you.

The video files need to be .mp4 format and ideally be relatively short so as not to spoil the effect of your live stream but the length is up to you.

NOTE: Video content is your responsibilty and must not infinge on any coyright material what so ever and must not be pornographic or adult in nature. Any material broadcast which does not comply or any valid complaints regarding content will result in the immediate termination of the live stream and advertising facility.

Available Options Include

Pre-Roll Advert - This advert shows immediately before the live stream begins to play. Can be used on its own or in conjunction with mid-roll adverts.

Mid Roll Advert - These can be placed at various intervals after the pre-roll advert. Can be used on its own or in conjunction with pre-roll advert.

Skip Option - Can be used to allow viewer to skip the advert after a short interval of the advert playing e.g. 5 seconds or so.

Watch Limit - We can set the live stream to only play for a limited time before the page has to be refreshed in order to watch live with ads again.

End Message - Used in conjunction with Watch Limit, an end message can be used to restart the live feed and adverts or take the viewer to a new URL.

End Image - Used in conjunction with Watch Limit, an end image can be used to restart the live feed and adverts or take the viewer to a new URL.

Advert URL - For Permanent adverts we can set an advert URL so if a viewer clicks the running advert they are redirected to the advertisers URL.

Post Roll Advert - This is the last advert that will be shown. Fter this advert the live feed will continue indefinitely for the viewer unless watch limit is used.

How Effective Will My Vidoe Adverts Be?

Video adverts can be very effective, but how effective depends on the quality and content of the advert itself and also how it is used in your live stream. Your content should be brief so as not to bore the viewer, engage with the viewer and get across all the points that you need to make clearly. A degree of entertainment in the advert can help too.

Where adverts are shown are also important. A pre-roll advert, one right at the beginning of the broadcast, will be the first to be seen so arguably will get the best response. Mid roll adverts - those that show during the live stream, interrupt the live feed and again should ideally be brief as, after all, your viewer did not go to your live stream to watch the adverts, they have gone there to see the live feed so you dont want to put them off from coming back.

You also need to think about how many adverts you want to show and if you want to force the viewer to reload the player to watch the live feed again (and see the adverts again) after a period of time or if you want to allow your viewer to keep seeing the live feed once the adverts have gone. The longer a viewer watches the live feed, potentially the more adverts they will see. But many viewers will only watch the feed for a few minutes then move on - very likely coming back later for another look, so in this case it would be better for maybe a pre-roll advert plus another a minute or so in to the live feed.

How Much Should I Charge My Advertisers To Show Their Adverts?

The amount you charge your customers for showing their adverts on your feed is entirely up to you. We will have no input into that at all - your decision - your profit. But a couple of points to remember.

A pre-roll advert will get the very most exposure as this will be seen right at the start when the viewer first clicks on your live feed. Adverts shown a few seconds or a minute in to the live feed will also get more exposure than an advert shown some time later as the chances of the viewer leaving the live stream increases with viewing time. So it follows that the charge for a pre-roll advert would be more than one further down the viewing time scale.

Also think about what you want to offer your viewers too, which primarily is to enjoy your live stream. Forcing the viewer to refresh their browser to start watching the camera again after some minutes is good for showing the adverts again to the same person but may also put that person off from coming back if the time is too short.

So a balanced approach to this needs to be thought of and maybe just allow the viewer to keep watching the live feed once the adverts have all timed out.

What Format Should My Video Files Be & How Do I Host Them?

Your Video Filles should be .mp4 format, ideally 720P - 1080P max resolution for best device compatibility. Make sure they are good quality and get the point over quickly. Depending on the length of the advert you may want to allow your viewer to SKIP the advert once they have watched a few seconds of it and continue with the live feed. Let us know and we can set that up in your player for you.

If you are using a pretty standard video that you want to show at all times e.g. an information video about a club or organisation that will not be changing often then we can securely host it for you.

If you are planning to change the video at regular intervals however e.g. rotating your customers videos to give equal shares at the start of the feed or changing an adverts content on a regular basis then you will need to host the video files yourself so you can make all the changes to the file as and when required then upload it to your hosting server. This location can be your own web server on a business machine or your web site hosting server etc. But the server must be secure with a valid HTTPS security certificate in place and CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) enabled so our system can securely access your secure video and broadcast it via your live feed. If you are using a web host provider they will be able to set this up for you - if it is not set up already and if you are showing multiple content on your own site in your own pages already then most likely this will already be in operation.