Video content advertising has been growing at a significant pace, mainly owing to its ability to grow customers’ attention. Studies find that more than half of all internet users watch videos related to a product before buying them online or from brick and mortar stores. Even among B2B buyers, over 59% of company decision-makers prefer watching a video relating to a product rather than reading about it.
Succeeding with video advertising is critical to the overall success of your business. This article will provide you with the essential tools to help you with this.
Pick the right platform
There are lots of platforms you can use for your video ads. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and even TikTok offer businesses the ability to reach users via video ads. The best way to choose the right platform is to understand your target group and pick a platform that is popular among this crowd.
Facebook is by far the most popular among social networks. However, it is still mostly popular the older crowd. Instagram is a visual social platform that is quite popular among millennials while the younger, Gen Z crowd is active on platforms like TikTok. In terms of other parameters, LinkedIn is popular among business audiences while there are content platforms that is popular among people of very specific interests and profiles. Find the platform that is most popular among your customer group and target them here.
Pick the right advertising channels
While using native advertising platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads is great, this is not necessarily the only way to reach your audience. You may, for instance, directly partner with influencers on platforms like YouTube and Instagram to reach your target buyers. Influencers are users with a large and loyal following and collaborating with them is a more effective strategy to build a brand for your business and increase conversions.
Doing so is not only more effective, but can also provide you with a greater bang for the buck as far as video advertising is concerned. This is because you do not have to necessarily invest in video production. The influencer you partner with takes care of this - and consequently, the turnaround is quicker with such strategies.
Define your goals
Every ad network lets you choose your advertising goals (website views, conversions, brand awareness, etc.). Define these goals and then choose the right metric to go by. For example, with video advertising, choose ‘Video Views’ if you are looking for brand awareness or conversions if you have an effective call to action in the video.
To build a strong marketing strategy, you need to be clear about your goals. Once you have identified this, work on producing the right kind of content to help with this. For instance, explainer videos are great when you are reaching out to users at the top of the funnel while case studies and testimonials are quite effective at the conversion stage.
To crown it all, track your success by understanding all the different metrics and choose the ones that align with your goals. Keep tabs with those metrics and then keep fine-tuning them, and refine your video content based on the results you get. It is essential to note that setting your goals will surely boost your brand awareness and help you reach your target audience much easier.
Create multiple variants of your videos
Creating multiple variants of your videos will help you track how various elements influence conversion. You may, for example, experiment with video length, messaging, Call to Action, voiceover gender, etc.
Short videos typically attract more attention than long ones. But YouTube algorithms favor long ones over short ones - so if you are looking for organic traction for your videos, you may perhaps consider investing in longer videos as well.
Generally though, a short 15 second long ad is effective while running pre-roll ads. However, when running native campaigns on Facebook or Instagram, you may consider investing in larger videos since the user is there to consume content and may be open to engaging with longer videos. Use tools like Biteable to create multiple videos in a relatively short time.
Keep experimenting with innovative ad formats
You do not have to stick to the tried and tested platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads. It is a good idea to allocate a portion of your ad budget to upcoming and less-established platforms like Pinterest, TikTok, etc. Also, even among platforms like Facebook, there is a constant churn of advertising formats. For example, Facebook recently announced the shutdown of their Audience Network web and in-stream placements. By not relying on a single platform or format, you may be in a better position to identify the most cost-effective advertising strategies and also establish a scalable advertising model.
Final Words
With faster internet and greater accessibility, more and more internet users now consume video content online. Reaching them with this format is thus a quintessential need of the hour for all kinds of businesses. While succeeding with video marketing isn’t easy, the points listed above should help you gain a better traction on your campaigns.