Videos are Magic for Social Media Advertising

I recently read a stat that says video ads on social media have a 23x higher view rate than standard ads. I’m not sure if that’s true, but I do know that videos on social media…

• Increase Traffic
• Increase Dwell Time
• Convey A Clearer Picture Of Your Products And Services
• Generate Leads
• Reduce Customer Support Calls

What’s not to love about video advertising on social media? Okay, I admit there is still plenty of room for image ads on social media because image ads are…

• Easier To Make
• Cheaper To Produce Than Videos
• More Concise And Get To The Point Faster

I think a healthy mix of image ads and videos ads is the way to go because they both have their strong points.

And frankly if you’re not using video yet on social media, then maybe you’re missing out on a lot of really awesome benefits including more customers and more sales.

The Three Main Advantages of Video Ads Over Image Ads

Engagement

Video content is far better at engaging your audience than an image ad. Think of a photo of a person next to written copy compared to a 15 second video of that person talking. Which one will give you a warmer feel and a better idea of what that person is like?

Video allows you to connect with your audience in a way that image ads cannot.

On Instagram, sponsored video posts generate three times as much user engagement as image posts (3 times!). And on Facebook video ads reach 10-30% more people than the other ad formats.

Building Consumer Trust

People are more likely to purchase from companies they like and trust. You can show your product in action, demonstrate the benefits, use emotion and highlight how you’re solving people’s problems.

People come to feel they know, like and trust your products and your brand much faster through video than through image ads.

Clearer Message

You can convey far more information in a video than in an image. In fact, you can convey even a detailed message in a video as long as you keep it interesting. Try to convey detailed info in an image ad and most of your audience will move on before they finish reading.

7 Methods For Using Video Advertising To Grow Your Business On Social Media

1. Use Video to Tell Your Story

One of the best ways to use video advertising on social media is to tell your story. Use video to share who you are as a business, what you stand for and what makes you unique. This will help viewers connect with your brand on a personal level and understand what you’re all about.

2. Highlight Your Products or Services

Another great way to use video advertising on social media is to highlight your products or services. Showcase your products in action and demonstrate their features and benefits. This will give viewers a better understanding of what you have to offer and why they should consider using your products or services.

3. Customer Reviews

Super quick case studies and enthusiastic customer reviews can do amazing things for your business. Ask your best customers to answer a few questions on video, and then edit it down to their best answer. Or do a few super short case studies of how your product dramatically helped customers achieve their goals.

4. How-to Videos

You can show the entire process done by hand of what your product does automatically. Or you can show how easy it is to use your product to achieve the desired result.

5. Sneak Peeks of New Products

Sneak peek video ads tend to be super popular and effective. You can start running these ads prior to product launch and create a waiting list of people who want first dibs on your product. It’s a great way to have a stellar first day of sales when you launch your product.

6. Announce Major Company News

Do you have a fantastic annual sale coming up? Or are you expanding your services? Anytime you have major news, consider running video ads to spread the word.

7. Announce Contests

If you’re running a contest to increase awareness and build your email list, you might announce the contest via video. Show the prizes and let them know they get multiple entries for sharing the contest with others.

9 Tips for Creating Effective Video Content

Creating effective video content is essential if you want your video advertising to be successful. Here are some tips to help you create engaging and compelling videos:

1. Keep It Short and Sweet

When it comes to creating effective video content, less is more. Viewers have short attention spans and are likely to click away from a video that is too long or feels like it’s dragging on. For this reason, it’s important to keep your videos short and sweet – around two-thirds of video ads are under 30 seconds in length.

2. Hook Them In From the Start

You only have a few seconds to capture viewers’ attention when they begin watching your video. Make sure your opening scene is intriguing, exciting, or humorous enough to hook them in and make them want to continue watching. If not, there’s a good chance they’ll click away before the end of your video.

3. Open with a strong statement

Your opening scene should immediately grab attention while also introducing viewers to the topic of your video. A great way to do this is by starting with a strong statement or controversial question that will intrigue viewers and make them want to know more about what you have to say.

For example, if you’re discussing the importance of social media for businesses, you could start off by asking “are businesses really missing out if they don’t have a social media presence?” This type of opening will instantly engage viewers and key them into the rest of your video.

4. Use visuals

Another important element of an engaging and compelling video is strong visuals. After all, people are more likely to watch a video that looks interesting than one that doesn’t. Make sure your videos include visually appealing elements such as graphics, animation, text overlay, and stimulating footage.

5. Use narration sparingly

While adding narration can be helpful in some cases, too much can actually detract from the overall quality of your video. Only use narration when absolutely necessary – otherwise, let the visuals for an on screen person speak for themselves.

6. Provide value to viewers

Don’t just focus on selling the product. Tell your audience why they need your product and how it can make their life better. If you can do this in story form, that’s even better.

7. Be memorable

If possible be funny, be dramatic or do whatever it takes to be memorable. Conversely you’ll never, ever want be boring.

8. Include a Call to Action

Ask your viewer to take the action you seek, whether it’s to click a link, call customer service or go to your URL.

9. Keep it Consistent

Extra points if you maintain a consistent look to all of your videos that makes them instantly recognizable as yours. This branded aesthetic doesn’t have to mean the content all looks alike, since you can do this through color choices and fonts on the thumbnail and the first second or two of the ad.

Video ads are the hottest method to promote your content and increase traffic to your website and to your offers. Try it out for yourself and be sure to analyze the results with metrics. Agorapulse makes it super easy to track what’s working and what needs improvement.

Have fun with this and like anything else, practice, practice, practice to get good at it and you’ll be building your business with video ads in no time at all.