Last Updated on December 17, 2024 by Caesar
Video ads soar above all other digital marketing mediums when it comes to connecting with customers quickly and driving conversions. However, while everyone is excited about the possibilities of video ads, not every brand is hitting them out of the park. In fact, many brands are missing the mark entirely and wasting both their creative resources and ad budget on poorly constructed video ads that don’t reach or resonate with their target audience. To help ensure you are making the most of this incredible opportunity, here are things you must not ignore when creating your video ads.
You Must Tell a Story
People connect with stories, not facts. This is why video ads work so well. They enable you to convey a message in the fastest way possible as well as involve the emotions of the particular viewer. The problem is most brands still don’t understand this, and they hit customers with hard sales pitches that make no effort to connect at the emotional level. Here’s what you need to do instead. Develop a short story that showcases your brand or product, solving a relatable problem. Rather than the protagonist being any ordinary character, give them the look and feel of the intended local audience. Ensure that the context justifies everything that they would listen to, and entice them to embrace your brand or product at the tail end. Finally, include a clear call to action.
You Must Choose Your Platforms Wisely
Video ads can drive customer action faster than any other digital marketing medium, but they can also waste ad budgets quicker than anything else, too. Therefore, choosing the right platform for each video ad is crucial. One common issue in brands is that they adopt a standardized approach to distributing video ads. What works on Instagram will likely fail on TikTok or YouTube. And don’t make the mistake of stuffing your video ads into the same distribution channels as your banner or display ads. By understanding a given platform well you will be in a position to ensure that the ad fits with that specific audience. Find out how each platform use video and what kind of video is effective. The more tailored your video ad is to the platform, the better results you will see.
You Must Target The Right Audience
Video ads are highly customizable and can be programmed for tighter targeting than traditional television ads. Don’t waste this opportunity by being lazy with your targeting parameters. Too many brands either take a spray-and-pray approach to audience targeting or fall back on demographic info that isn’t very meaningful. For example, all moms are not created equal, so targeting ads toward “women 25 to 45 with children” might not generate the results you want. But do get specific on life stage, interests, Internet usage, and purchasing patterns. Most DSPs offer powerful tools to help you create audience segments based on various attributes and behaviors, so invest the time in building these segments rather than falling back on generalities.
You Must Optimize for Mobile
Nearly 75% of all video views occur on mobile devices, and this number continues to grow quickly. This statistic is usually followed by another that alerts that mobile failure is more of a concern, that if a video does not load in less than three seconds, the viewer will most likely not get back. This puts mobile video in a unique position: Both loading and viewing are critical to success, and both are challenging due to mobile’s inherent limitations. Many brands still create videos formatted for desktop and stuffed into mobile ad units. Don’t do this. Design mobile-first video ads that load quickly and are easy to view without resizing or rotating the device. This means creating vertical or square videos rather than horizontal ones. Optimize every second of those videos, and lead with your most important messaging quickly.
You Must Measure Success Beyond Clicks
Because video ads have become so customizable, they can be programmed for many different metrics of success beyond just clicks. Certainly, clicks are important and need to be tracked, yet brands can lose sight of other metrics that can provide guidance on how well an ad resonates with the goals set. For example, if the goal was brand awareness, then measures like reach, impressions, frequency, and even engagement (comments, shares) become important metrics to calculate overall success. If the goal was view-through conversions (purchases after viewing), then measuring the percentage of people who saw the entire video becomes critical, along with any resulting conversion metrics — even if they are not direct clicks from the ad itself. The more tailored your measurement is to its goals, the better you will understand your ROI.
Amplify Reach with Purchased Engagement Metrics
Your video ads can benefit from investing in followers, views, likes, shares, and watch time as catalysts to improve the visibility and trust of your ads. Your content with lots of engagement numbers attracts organic viewers through the ‘bandwagon effect’ because people tend to follow popular content and rely. For new brands looking to generate some buzz quickly in a crowded digital landscape, this strategy works well. Purchased metrics can initially help you establish a foothold in your target market by creating the illusion of authority and interest. Combined with compelling ad creativity, this accelerates your marketing efforts and will ensure your video content actually gets the attention it deserves: real growth and a wider audience base.
Conclusion
There are no signs that the rise of video will slow down anytime soon. If anything, new technologies like augmented reality and virtual reality will only bring more video along for the ride. This makes it imperative that brands maximize every opportunity with video ads. Don’t just jump on trends or follow what everyone else is doing. Take the time to create meaningful video ads that truly resonate with your audience on their terms.
Sourceshttps://youtubestorm.com/
