Online video delivery and management solutions provider Klipmart yesterday released a key metric based on how users have interacted with almost 500 online campaigns: on average, people watched 21.04 seconds of :30 online ads (that is, a full 70 percent of the video content.) The category with the longest average viewing time is home video (22.51 seconds), followed by theatrical/movies (21.45); both categories usually offer timely or fresh content.

"There has been endless debate in the advertising community about the optimum length of online video spots…we (now) know that users are watching 70 percent of the (:30) video, an impressive metric when you consider the user's opportunity to attune to other content on the page," said Aimee L. Pamintuan, Klipmart's Research Director, according to a statement released Tuesday.

In the technology category, average viewing time was 22.20 seconds; music, 22.12 seconds; theatrical, 21.45; travel, 21.32; consumer, 21.22; automotive, 21.08; gaming, 20.58; television, 20.08; and financial, 19.14.