Video advertising involves creating and displaying video ads on various digital platforms such as websites, social media, video sharing platforms, and more.

Here’s how it works:

1. Advertisers create video ads and choose their target audience based on factors such as location, age, gender, interests, behaviors, and more.
2. The video ad platform uses algorithms to determine which websites, pages, and videos to show the ads on based on the target audience the advertiser has chosen.
3. The video ads appear on the selected platforms, and users can interact with the ads by watching the entire video, skipping the video, or clicking on the video to view more information.
4. Advertisers are charged based on the number of views (the number of times the video was watched) or the number of clicks (the number of times the video was clicked on) the video received.

Pros of video advertising include:

1. Engaging: Video is a highly engaging form of media, and video ads can capture the viewer’s attention, making them more likely to remember the brand and the message being communicated.
2. Measurable results: Advertisers can track the performance of their video ads and make data-driven decisions about their campaigns.
3. Cost-effective: Compared to traditional advertising, video advertising can be very cost-effective, especially when targeting a specific audience.
4. Brand building: Video advertising can help build brand awareness and recognition by repeatedly showing the ad to the target audience.

Cons of video advertising include:

1. High production costs: Creating high-quality video ads can be expensive, which can make video advertising cost-prohibitive for some businesses.
2. Ad blindness: Users may become desensitized to video ads, especially if they see the same ad repeatedly, reducing the effectiveness of video advertising over time.
3. Low engagement: Video ads may not receive as much engagement as other forms of digital advertising, such as social media ads, reducing the impact of the ad.
4. Ad fraud: Some video ads may be shown to bots, fake or low-quality traffic, instead of real human users, which can be difficult to detect and reduce the effectiveness of the ad.

Here are some of the main video advertising platforms:

1. YouTube: YouTube is the world’s largest video sharing platform, with over 2 billion monthly active users. Brands can run in-stream, discovery, and bumper ads on YouTube to reach their target audience.
2. Facebook: Facebook is a social media platform with over 2.8 billion monthly active users. Brands can run in-stream, in-display, and in-story video ads on Facebook to reach their target audience.
3. TikTok: TikTok is a social media platform that allows users to create and share short-form videos. Brands can run in-feed, in-slide, and brand takeover ads on TikTok to reach their target audience.
4. Vimeo: Vimeo is a video hosting and sharing platform for professional creatives. Brands can run in-stream and in-display video ads on Vimeo to reach their target audience.
5. Twitch: Twitch is a live streaming platform for gamers and other content creators. Brands can run in-stream video ads on Twitch to reach their target audience.

These platforms allow brands to reach their target audience with highly engaging and shareable video content. They also provide a range of targeting options, such as demographic, geographic, and behavioral targeting, to help brands reach their desired audience. Additionally, these platforms provide real-time reporting and analytics, allowing brands to track their campaign performance and optimize their advertising efforts.