Video advertising is the displaying of promotional content either inside online video content or as standalone ads. Video ads placed inside online video content can be displayed before, during, or after a video stream, known as pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll.
Video ads are an essential piece in an overall marketing strategy. It has become central to your outreach and campaign efforts. Especially for social media strategy, video ads are playing a pivotal role in converting audiences to customers. According to HubSpot Research, four of the top six channels on which consumers watch videos are social media channels.
According to experts, video advertising will dominate the next decade. tubularinsights found that, sixty-four percent of consumers make a purchase after watching branded social videos. A lot of marketers are wondering whether they should invest in video advertising or not. The current state of video advertising indicates that although it’s a great way to convert customers, a lot of people feel that video ads stop them from seeing their desired content without interruptions.
Concerns like these are the reason marketers need to be exceptionally careful when creating video ads and choosing platforms that show these video ads. The goal of a video ad should be to make advertising content as less disruptive as possible.
The video advertising niche has not remained consistent since it started getting traction. Experienced marketers know they must stay on top of new developments and trends to understand what their audiences want and need. Let’s look at some of the recent trends in video advertising.
Back in the day, YouTube offered six-second ads - a concise and captivating way to gain attention. However, since 2015, the most popular video length is around 30 seconds. This data indicates that people are willing to pay attention for a long while when it comes to video ads. One advantage of a longer time frame is that advertisers have more space and time to share their stories and catch their audience’s attention.
Smartphone users are more likely to watch long-form video ads than those watching on other devices. Once they have watched the first six seconds, 72% of users continue to watch till the end on mobile phones.
But even among mobile users, attention drops sharply after 22 seconds. This indicates that marketers should focus on creating video ads with the video duration in mind. So be mindful of how to make a good video intro, main and conclusion part.
Digital video ads budgets are up 25% year over year. This growth is different in different industries. One example is the media and entertainment industry, where video ads spending has increased by 75% since 2018.
Animated video ads are gaining popularity in recent years. Animation allows you to create various video types that may be difficult or impossible otherwise. They also make the video content more appealing and engaging.
There are a variety of video ads to choose from - depending on the platform, your audience, and the content. Let’s look at the different types of video ads and where you can add these.
In-stream ads are the most popular types of video ads. These appear before, during, or after video content. YouTube relies on in-stream ads. Some advertisements are also interactive, encouraging a viewer to click a link or claim an offer.
Non-linear ads play outside the main video, sometimes as an overlay. If a person clicks on one of these ads, the primary content they’re watching stops. Non-linear ads don’t connect to other content. If you don’t want to view it, you can keep scrolling.
These ads are added in games to incentivize viewers with a game-related perk, such as an extra life, a health boost, or a new tool, in exchange for watching a video.
A native auto-play ad lives at the end of content, such as a blog post. It works better if the ad supports the content a person just consumed. If someone reads an article about email marketing, a native auto-play ad might talk about how to create email sequences or drip campaigns.
Shoppable video ads encourage people to practice their purchasing power and buy things rather than just browsing for them. The shopping part of the experience happens directly in whatever app the person is using. TikTok, a platform particularly beloved by teens, is reportedly testing shoppable ads by making them available to selected influencers who boost tiktok view engagement by adding interactive elements to their content.
The statistics prove that your target audience is watching videos, which is probably the only benefit you need to hear. According to research, 4 billion videos are watched on YouTube every day, and about one-third of shoppers will purchase a product after viewing a video ad. These stats clearly show that video ads have a lot of potentials to connect you with your potential customers. Let’s have a look at some of the other advantages of video advertising.
Video content catches users’ attention, which is a great way to increase awareness of your brand. You can make compelling video content that catches the attention of your audience while increasing awareness of your company.
Video ads convert sales. According to Amazon and eBay, adding a video ad to a product description increases the chances of a shopper buying that item by up to 35%.
The number of people watching videos on mobile devices continues its upward climb. As I mentioned above, about 88% of short videos, less than 30 seconds, are watched through to the end on mobile. The same isn’t true for those viewing the ad on a laptop.
Video is the best medium to inform your audience about your services and products. They’re especially effective when used for product demonstrations or for how-to guides, as viewers can actually see how certain things work or learn a new skill.
Search engines put a priority on video content when making tweaks to the algorithms that present certain sites higher on the rankings page. Distributing videos via social media, posting them on blogs, and embedding them on your website increases the likelihood that your target audience will find you when searching for relevant information.
Video helps your message go viral. BrightCove reported that social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined. This is great for marketing and brand awareness as potential customers will get to know about your brand and services through video content.
Now that we have covered the benefits of creating video ads let’s talk a little about how to create video ads that convert. Whether you are creating video ads for YouTube or Facebook or for any other platform, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.
Here is the framework to create video ads that convert:
Let’s discuss these in detail.
People will stop watching your video if they don’t find it compelling enough. No matter how great your content is, how catchy the video is or how moving the message is, people are going to drop off your video if they don’t see something relevant and engaging.
Start your video with an engaging question depending on your target audience. If you are targeting business owners, one question you can ask is, “Do you know what separates a successful business from the mass majority that fails?”
When the video starts off with a problem that you are currently facing and want to fix, your attention can’t help but be captured.
Within 20 seconds, you must establish your credibility to connect with the audience on why they should be listening to you. Let your audience know you are going to provide them with a solution to their problem. To provide the solution, you can begin sharing about the product or service you have created that contains the answer.
An effective Call To Action (CTA) in a video ad contains three parts:
Before creating your first ad video, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. Your ad video should showcase your brand voice, tone, and colors and should be consistent throughout.
You have 20 to 30 seconds to create an impact and convert a potential customer into paying for your products or services. Even if you use a great video, if the script isn't consistent, you're likely to lose viewers. One of the biggest mistakes people make with video advertising is not getting it right in the beginning. Most advertisers don't realize that a good script can make or break their videos. It's easy to jump into creating a video when you don't have much experience - but if your video has an inconsistent tone and doesn't have a strong hook, your conversion rate will suffer.
Before you can start targeting video ads, you need to know what goals you want to achieve. When setting goals for video ads, you need to take into consideration three very important parts — you, your audience, and your product or service. If you’re running video ads and they’re not converting, it means something is not right. Start by defining your target audience so you know what type of content they enjoy and find valuable. That way, you’re certain they can see the value in what you are creating. Create a series of videos that perfectly capture those key phrases that appeal to those people; you will be optimizing for search and driving leads to more engaging content.
If you want your video ads to convert better, select the right service and platform. YouTube is a great place to start looking for effective ways to use video ads to increase awareness about your brand and drive new prospects into your funnel. Similarly, you can run ads on Facebook as well as Google to increase brand awareness and convert the audience into customers.
If you are starting out in video advertising, don’t spend too much time and resources on creating videos. The most important thing is to test the waters and see what works for you. By employing free resources and making use of online tools, you can create content that converts exceptionally well. This type of content may not drive quality traffic to your website, but it will drive traffic to your video's YouTube version, and eventually, toward your website through articles written solely from your videos. You can use free resources to create good video ads and later move to paid services.
Creating video ads doesn’t have to be complicated. There is no magic trick for converting more leads. To be successful, you’re going to need to be willing to take more calculated risks than other B2B marketers are. A lot of people tend to try and drive traffic by creating videos the traditional way - by posting content on social media. Whatever you decide to do, don’t make the process hard on yourself. Keep your target audience in mind, make sure you are providing a solution to their pain point, and don’t be sale-oriented.
If you’re intimidated by the prospect of creating video ads or think it will be too expensive to do well, it doesn’t have to be that way. You can make a high-converting video with almost no money at all and you don’t need any video editing expertise. There’s a variety of video editing tools that will take you through the process step by step and make it easy to reformat your videos for any platform, including TikTok, Instagram Stories, YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram.
Content marketer by day and book nerd by night, Momina works at Mailmunch as a Marketing Communications Specialist. Momina eats, sleeps, and breathes content marketing. Her expertise ranges from ideation to production to distribution of content, thanks to 4+ years of experience in the B2B content marketing sphere.
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