Facebook has been skyrocketing in the marketing department when it comes to their on-site advertisements. On the whole, the domain receives more than 4 billion video views per day, which not only crushes YouTube’s desktop video viewing numbers, but also the monthly number of YouTube’s mobile video views.
Luckily for marketers, video ads are again and again proven to be one of the most successful Facebook ad campaigns a business can have. According to Adobe, consumers who view videos are 1.8 times more likely to purchase a product/service than non-viewers.
In 2014, Facebook conducted a study with Refinery29 comparing traditional direct response campaigns focused on driving subscriptions to a sequenced story-based approach where the direct response campaign was preceded by a “brand video.” Webinars can also drive traffic, especially with the help of webinar software.
Refinery29 had an 87% increase in traffic to the landing page and a 56%increase in subscription rate for readers who saw the branding video first.
Nielsen also ran a study that showed cumulative brand impact on ad recall increased 74% after just 15 seconds of a video ad, and purchase intent increased 72% after 10 seconds of viewing.
Facebook Video Ad Updates
Facebook has recently updated the way users can interact with video ads – both from a business owner’s and consumer’s perspective.
The updates include:
- Business owners can now choose to create up to six different “video engagement custom audiences” based on the length of time users watch the ad.
- Ad managers can create “lookalike audiences” based off of the interested and behaviors of engaged viewers
- The “video views” objective is no longer needed to create custom audiences. Now, you can use other objectives, such as clicks to website, website conversions, and brand awareness.
- Facebook removed the 1,000-views-per-day limitation, so creating a custom audience is easier.
Using video ads to reach your audience is a quick and easy way to build your brand, with the average cost per video view usually ranging between $0.01 to $0.06 per view.
For some, creating video ads has been a challenge.
Common difficulties include:
- Lack of video/tech skills
- Failure to express brand message via video
- Unsuitable recording equipment
- Misunderstanding of Facebook video ads interface
Fortunately, today’s technology has made it extremely easy to create and run high-quality Facebook video ad campaigns with little to no prior video experience.
Three Things To Keep In Mind
While video quality is important, your video’s content will determine whether or not you’ll make the sale. You could make a low-quality video, but if your content makes a connection to the viewer, then you’ve won.
If you’re still worried about making a less-than-attractive video, just remember people are on Facebook scrolling through their newsfeed in search of fun, natural videos that their friends or relatives shared – not a perfectly polished commercial.
The First 10 Seconds are Crucial
Facebook video ads are usually displayed on users’ newsfeeds (desktop and mobile) on auto-play, muted. This means you’ll have to grab their attention for them to hear what’s going on in your video. The best Facebook videos can tell a meaningful story with or without sound, though your goal is to get viewers to click on your ad.
A great way to highlight important parts in your video is to add a text overlay that gives the viewer a call-to-action i.e. “Click to hear important message,” or “Click to learn more.” Thanks to Facebook’s “add captions” button, you won’t need fancy video editing software to add an overlay.
Educate, Demonstrate, and Entertain
The more you educate, demonstrate, and hopefully entertain your audience, the more people will trust your company or brand. Higher value equals more shares.
When viewers share your video, you’re receiving free views and impressions. Bonus, Facebook will realize that your video is doing well and reward you with cheaper views, cheaper clicks, and ultimately more impressions.
The Call-to-Action Must Appear Natural
The key to creating a successful ad is to make your CTA not only seamless, but as natural-sounding as possible. A “soft” CTA, for example, is a great way to hook your viewers.
“Soft” CTAs ask your viewers to perform an action that isn’t your main goal, but a step towards it. For example, “Learn More” is a soft CTA that brings people to your website or landing page, instead of a direct-to-purchase page. “Hard” CTAs, however, are up front about your product, i.e. “Purchase Our Product!”
Steps To A Successful Video Campaign
In order for your video to be successful, it should be engaging. Your video, whether it’s short (15 to 30 seconds) or a traditional commercial style video (30 seconds to two minutes), should grab your viewers’ attention, build their interest, show your brand’s credibility (without sounding arrogant), and end with a natural CTA.
Once you’ve figured out what kind of video you’re going to create, choose an objective that aligns with your ultimate goal – whether it’s likes, conversions, clicks, views, etc. Then, create an ad set based on your target audience.
Your ad should feature tight and compelling copy. There are three different categories of ad copy that work with video ads: short copy (copy where the reader doesn’t have to click “read more”), long copy, where the viewer needs to click “see more” to read the entire post, and LAC (long-ass copy) – thank you, Ralph Burns – which is copy long enough to be a blog post.
Once your ad is live, you can start to monitor its performance by using the “customize columns” dropdown menu in the Ads Manager to filter out the unnecessary metrics. You can also use the “search” feature to quickly select the metrics you want to analyze.
When you do this, you’ll see a list of options on the right side of the window. Here, you can remove undesirable metrics that can clog up your report.
Important metrics to think about are:
- Cost per conversion (lead, registration, purchase, etc.)
- Cost per video view (10 seconds and three seconds)
- Duration of video viewed
You should also pay attention to the placement of your ad – desktop vs mobile, newsfeed vs right column.
