Spotlight on Video Ads: The Up-And-Coming Hero Product

By 2020, Facebook estimates that 75% of all mobile data will be video. Video is becoming an increasingly crucial aspect of the social marketing mix. After all, nearly all Facebook ad types can be coupled with video, making this creative a nearly universal — and more impactful — tool.

Let’s take a look at the stats:

• 24% of video ads can be understood without sound
• 80% of users expect sound to be off, and then opt into sound
• 47% of campaign impact can be measured in the first 3 seconds of a video; an astounding 74% in the first 10 seconds

And, we’re rolling!

When it comes to building video ads, follow these best practices to ensure you get the best performance out of your creative:

1.Tell a story 

Your creative should be built with sequential messaging. Why? Because Facebook favors new, refreshing creative.

And once your creative has run its course, be it a few days, weeks or months, you’ll want to have a backup creative to run.

So how does one create sequential messaging? The process sounds daunting, but it’s really quite simple once you break it down and think of it as a funnel. Which leads us to…

2. Ensure your creative captures attention quickly 

You want to ensure your video ad has “stop” appeal so that your audience “slows their scroll” and stops to watch your video ad. Think of it like a television ad, in this era of binge watching and DVRs, commercials need to be really catchy to grab your attention. So do Facebook video ads, especially considering the multitude of distractions mobile users have.

Design with the intention of no sound, meaning, assume your viewers will not turn on the sound functionality (remember, only 24% of videos can be understood without sound, though 80% expect sound to be off). Be unique and let sound enhance your ad rather than be dependent on it.

Frame your story with on-brand design (stay horizontal only, or vertical only) and make sure you’re designing with mobile in mind.

3. Test different creative

Too many advertisers are afraid to create multivariable creatives. Even if you only have one video per step in the story, test the following variables:

• Copy: Post text, link caption, description
• Sound
• Closed captions
• Calls to action
• Thumbnails
• Length
• Incorporating brand elements like logo, tagline, music, and brand ambassadors

4. Target strategically

The trick is starting out broad to gain your video audience. Look at variables like interests, lookalikes from your CRM, custom audiences, and geo-targeting.

Next, employ your different video audiences (add CRM and lookalikes of your CRM and video audience lists as you go down the funnel).

Finally, retarget your video audiences once more with a call to action.

Remember, these video audiences are custom audiences that can be used on video ads, as well as image and canvas ads. As always, be sure to segment Mobile, Desktop and Instagram separately.

Insider Tip: When segmenting your daytime campaign, plan it in 4-hour blocks.

Your 4-hour block should be split like this: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner / Pre-Sleep (i.e. 7:00-10:00pm).

5. Buy strategically

It’s important to test performance in the Auction, Reach & Frequency, or Total Rating Points (TRP).

Start with oCPM bidding to ensure large-scale delivery, and then transition to CPA as you move down the funnel and better understand your audience.

6. Evaluate performance

Gain insights about your video audience that can be applied to future campaigns. One way to go about this is by comparing your video ad’s performance against your other, non-video ads.

And test, test, test!

That’s a wrap!

Now you’re all set to start creating your video ads. Once they are ready to go, build your audiences and begin evaluating your performance. This will give you the insights you need to optimize your video ads and drive the best results possible.

Looking to learn more? Visit Kenshoo.com today or reach out to your Client Success Manager for more details.