Video (VAST)

What it actually is

A video ad served into a publisher’s player via the IAB VAST spec — Video Ad Serving Template. The advertiser supplies a VAST link, the player calls it at the pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll slot, and the unit plays inline. There’s also a slider-video variant: a small corner unit that floats over the page on sites without a native video player.

I ran video least of the formats in this catalogue while I was at PropellerAds. iGaming clients with video creative are rare; most affiliate offers don’t have the production budget for a polished 15-second pre-roll. The buyers who did run video — usually finance and crypto exchange operators — saw eCPMs in the €4–€8 range on tier-1 inventory, well above any other format on this list.

Why advertisers pay the premium

• IAB VAST 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 supported — most publisher players read at least one of these
• Pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll positions with different CPM and completion-rate profiles (pre-roll highest CPM, post-roll cheapest, mid-roll the deepest engagement)
• Slider variant unlocks the format for non-video publishers — useful for affiliate buyers who want video creative on text-content sites
• Exceptional eCPM — the highest of any format on this list, by a margin of roughly 2× over popunder on tier-1

Best for

• VOD platforms, streaming sites, sports-content publishers — anywhere the user is already in video headspace
• Movie and TV-content sites with mid-roll inventory
• Brand video campaigns where 15-second creative is the deliverable
• Finance and crypto operators whose offer needs trust-building above the click

What it is not

Video is not where small-budget popunder-vertical operators play. Production cost for a workable 15-second creative starts around €1,500; below that the unit looks amateur and the CR drops to zero. If you’re testing offers under €500/month spend, popunder or in-page push is where the money belongs — not video.

Specs

• Pricing models: CPM only. CPA is not standard on VAST inventory — completion rate is the implicit performance metric
• Devices: Mobile and desktop. Mobile carries the majority of streaming-content inventory; desktop dominates for long-form video sites
• GEO coverage: 240+ countries. Tier-1 EU and US are where the VAST CPM premium pays back; tier-3 video CPMs are too thin to justify the production budget
• Anti-fraud: Multi-layer filtering plus ML scoring on each impression. VAST has a quartile-completion signal that the fraud filter can read — fake completions are the cleanest fraud signal in the catalogue, easier to spot than bot impressions