Are your online video ads not converting?
You are investing resources, money, and time but still not getting the kind of results you want?
Then this article is for you.
In this article, I’m going to share with you 7 practical tips for creating outstanding video ads for social media or any other online marketing channel.
Video ads are one of the best ways to grab someone’s attention and convert them into customers.
Video ads were popular before but still, it was an optional choice for businesses.
But now it’s not an option anymore…
It became a necessity.
If your business doesn’t invest and pay attention to video ads now then you’re going to get into huge trouble in the future.
According to Hubspot, 81% of businesses use video as a marketing tool — up from 63% over the last year.
On top of that, one study by Cisco found that, By 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic — 15 times higher than it was in 2017.
So you can understand the power of video marketing and video ads just by looking at these two mind-blowing statistics.
Still, if you’re worried about investing in online video ads and not quite sure about the results, then you can simply follow these 7 tips that I’m about to share with you.
I’m not saying that by following these 7 tips you’ll become a video ads wizard.
But I’m quite sure that these tips will eliminate some of your doubts and help you to get better results with your video marketing efforts.
#1 The First 8 Seconds Will Decide Everything
Here’s an amazing fact:
According to a study done by Microsoft, they found out that an average human being has an attention span of less than 8 seconds.
That means human beings have less attention span than a goldfish.
That’s ridiculous.
And the biggest reason for this is the growth of social media and new technologies.
Every day we get exposed to hundreds and thousands of information on social media.
But we rarely pay attention to that information.
These days it’s almost impossible to hold someone’s attention for a long period of time.
That’s why if you want your video ad to stand out in this distracted world, you have to grab the attention of your audience within the first 8 seconds of your video.
In short:
The first 8 seconds of your video will decide whether your ad will be successful or a complete disaster.
Just like headlines are the most important part of a written ad, similarly, the first 8 seconds time frame is the most important part of a video or video ad.
You don’t have to implement phycological tricks all the time to get someone’s attention.
Sometimes a few bold WORDS can also work as a wonder for you.
In my 12 years of video marketing experience, I found out that few techniques work really well to grab someone’s attention right off the bat.
And out of those techniques, one technique that I want to highlight is the “Question Trap technique”.
This technique is a really simple yet very powerful technique.
The technique is – You have to ask a relevant question right at the beginning of the video.
Remember that the question you’ll ask should resonate with your targeted audience and it should have a pain point.
Once you’ll ask a question right after starting the video, it will create an open loop in the viewer’s mind and their mind will look for the answer to close that loop.
It’s a basic human tendency.
So in short:
Asking a question at the starting of a video ad is a really good technique to attract someone’s attention.
#2 Show Them The Benefits of Using Your Product, Not The Features.
One mistake that we often make in our ads is we highlight the features of our product rather than highlighting the benefits of using our products.
You have to understand that people are not going to buy your product because of its features.
People are actually going to buy your product and pay you money because of the benefits your product will provide them.
If you couldn’t show your targeted audience the benefits of using your product then they are never going to buy anything from you.
Because after all, no one is going to spend their hard-earned money on your product features.
That’s why while creating your video ad you have to make sure that your targeted audience can clearly understand the benefits of using your product.
For example, let’s say you want to sell social media marketing services.
So instead of showing your potential clients, how many posts you’ll publish or how many hashtags you’ll use on their posts, show them how social media marketing can benefit their business and bring them more customers.
Using this simple trick you can literally double your video ad conversion in a very short period of time.
#3 Hit The Emotional Point of Your Customer
If you see, most of the high converting and greatest ads of all time have one thing in common.
Each ad was targeting the emotional part of the viewer.
And the reason for this is emotional ads work like crazy.
See, we are humans because we have emotions.
No one can say that they don’t have any emotions (Unless they’re evil).
And believe it or not, most of our decisions are based on our emotions.
That’s why most of the ads you’ll see today have some kind of emotional touch on them.
Take Coca-Cola as an example.
Most of the ads that Coca-Cola runs always has some kind of emotional touch on them that attracts eye-balls and helps their audience to connect with their brand.
Here’s a perfect example of that.
The motive of this ad is to encourage customers to share happy memories.
And because the ad was targeting a core human emotion (Happiness) it turns out to be one of the massively successful ads for Coca-Cola.
On top of that, these kinds of emotional ads also have the power to go viral as well.
#4 Choose The Right Video Type
There are plenty of video ad formats and types to choose from.
Some of the video ad types are:
-
- Commercial video
- Explainer video
- Animated video
- Live-action video
- Motion graphic video
If you’re just about to start your first video ad campaign then choosing between these video formats and types can be a real headache for you.
In case, if you choose the wrong video type for your business then the results of your video ad campaign can be worse.
That’s why I also recommend everyone to take some time while choosing the video type for the ad because it’s actually the game decider for any video ad campaign.
For example, if you want to run a TV commercial, Live-action video can give you great ROI.
On the other hand, if you are creating a landing page video explaining your business concept then the benefits of using an explainer video can be huge. They will work much better than live-action videos. I personally prefer these videos over the other video types because it has a lot of benefits and it’s also one of the most converting types of video.
Overall, I would suggest you select your video type based on the context of your ad.
#5 Don’t Be Afraid to Be Creative With Your Advertisement
Stephan Vogel (Chief Creative Director at Ogilvy & Mather Germany) has once said: “Nothing is more efficient than creative advertising”.
That’s true.
Advertisement without creativity is just a dead piece of crap.
If you want your video ad to be successful in this noisy world then no matter what you have to be creative with your advertisements.
Numerous studies have found that creative advertisement messages get more eyeballs and attention than a boring ordinary advertisement.
Even one study found out that a euro invested in a highly creative ad campaign had nearly double the sales impact of a euro spent on a non-creative campaign.
In short:
Creative advertisement works like a charm.
However, it also comes with many risks as well.
Sometimes your creative advertisements might not work as well.
But at the end of the day, you have to accept that advertisement is all about trial and error.
So don’t get bothered about whether your ad will succeed or not. Just keep trying and never ever be afraid to be creative with your video ads.
To finish it off, here are my top 3 examples of highly creative and impactful video ads to get inspiration from.
#6 Don’t Forget to Add Call-To-Action
Let me ask you a question:
Why do you want to run ads?
Maybe for increasing sales, improving brand awareness, or generating leads.
Right?
But are you guiding your consumers to take action after watching your video ad?
If you’re not doing it then most probably you’re wasting your money on ads.
An ad without a call-to-action is nothing.
If you want to achieve your desired goal through your ad then you have to guide your consumers through the buying journey.
For example, If you want to build your email list through your video ad then at the end of the video you can say “Sign up below to get this free course” or “Download the eBook now”.
On the other hand, if you’re selling your product through your video ad then you can say “Go grab it now before it sold out” or “Get 50% OFF when you order today”.
Rather than using these kinds of generic call-to-actions, try to be more creative with the call-to-actions you use.
#7 Test, Test, And Test
David Ogilvy once said: “Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.”
The secret sauce for being a great advertiser is – Testing.
Without testing you can’t succeed in the advertising world. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a beginner or an advanced marketer, you have to test a lot to get that high converting ad for your business.
The truth is, most businesses stop running ads if they fail on their first few attempts.
But that’s a big mistake.
I would suggest, even if you don’t pull out much profit from your ads still don’t stop it completely. Instead try different ad copy, video style, change script, or different targeting, and keep tweaking your ads.
That’s how you’ll understand what kind of video ads really work for your business and it will also help you to squeeze out more profit from your ads.
Conclusion
So these are the 7 most powerful tips for creating winning video ads for your business.
If you follow these tips then I’m sure you’ll definitely see a huge spike of growth in your ad returns.
Now let me ask you a question:
Are you investing in video ads? If not, when are you going to start investing in video ads?
Share in the comments below.