A write up & interpretation of Akvile DeFazio’s talk at PPC Hero Conference: ‘Set Your Metrics in Motion with Facebook & Instagram Video Ads’
Facebook and Instagram video ads are still heavily underutilised for B2C and even more so for, B2B brands. Video is not only effective in capturing the attention of your potential customers, but also convert at a higher rate than their static creative counterparts.
Why should you use Facebook and Instagram video ads?
- Get your brand to stand out among the stillness of the news feed. Did you know the typical user has an attention span of just 8 seconds?!
- Gain higher engagement & awareness (the first step in hitting your sales/conversion goals). Users who viewed a video are 85% more likely to purchase than user who did not.
- Video presents a smaller attention commitment for over-stimulated users. Studies have shown that 95% of information is retained from video, as opposed to 10% of the information presented in text format.
Creating Video Content for Ads
Brevity
Keep it short. Put your best foot forward in the first 10 seconds and let your user know what your product/service is and why they need it without delay.
Remember, that short attention span does not give you long to sell your brand, product or service before your potential customer has moved on to the next item in their feed.
Captions
85% of video content in the Facebook and Instagram news feed is watched without sound. So think like a silent-film artist and create your video for sound-off. Facebook can transcribe and create captions for you when you upload your video (with the ability to check and correct, which we recommend you do!), or you can upload a text file directly to Facebook at the time of uploading your video.
Design
You don’t need big budgets or a video production team to create video content. Overlay effects, slow motion, time lapse, stop motion, cinemagraphs, and many more techniques can help brands create direct and eye-catching video content. For starters, check out the below apps and tools;
- Boomerang
- Hyperlapse
- Stop Motion
- Flixl
- VidLab
- Legend
- Quick (GoPro)
Other Campaign Considerations
In addition to the above points, when making video content (or launching your video campaign), also consider;
Which channels will your video be used on?
Users will be in different mindsets or wanting to take different actions when using different channels. For example, LinkedIn video may be watched during work hours, Instagram story videos while commuting, or Facebook video on a tablet at home.
At the time of building your video strategy (before you even start creating your content), consider what action you want your audience to take and which stage of the sales funnel you are targeting, then ensure you are creating your campaign on the appropriate channel.
Video Length
In addition to the above point, your creative will need to suit the platform, both in length (for example, a 15-second version for Instagram, 30 seconds for YouTube, and a 2-minute version for your remarketing lists further down the funnel) and the screen/size format.
Split test your audience and creative
There is no point in creating a great piece of video content, only to serve it to one audience, who may not give you the best response or results.
Equally, if your brand appeals to a number of different ‘types’ of user with different motives, or has different target markets for different products, create variations of your video that appeals to their individual needs.
What is the next step?
Your audience should experience a seamless transition from your video to the landing page. Make your landing page intuitive, relevant to the video content (you may need to split test here too, or create multiple PPC landing pages to suit each of your audiences or video creatives), and then guide users through the sign-up or purchase process.
52% of consumers said watching product videos made them more confident in their purchasing decisions
If you would like to find out more about how to leverage the power of video content in your paid social advertising, get in touch with our PPC team.
