What are you planning to spend on video ads this year?
According to PubMatic’s Global Digital Ad Trends report, nearly three-quarters of advertisers plan to increase their digital video ad budgets between 2019 and 2020 and only 1% of advertisers plan to decrease spending:
Traditionally, brands advertised on broadcast and cable TV, but have transitioned more and more to digital ads. So, not only are brands increasing their video ad budgets, but leveraging modern channels instead of traditional methods of delivery.
Digital video ads present advertisers prime opportunities for data collection, brand exposure, enhanced targeting, and personalization – capabilities that traditional TV ads can’t compete with. Digital video ads are the future because they allow advertisers to connect with audiences in a format they prefer.
Video ads have evolved from being one piece of your overall digital advertising plan, to possessing a critical role in engaging potential customers. In fact, HubSpot research states that more than 50% of consumers want to see videos from brands — more than any other type of content:
Moreover, Amazon and eBay, report that adding a video ad to a product description increases the chances of a shopper buying that item by up to 35%.
Owing to their format, eBay promoted listings give advertisers unique opportunities to engage and convert prospects better than standard image ads — making them the future of digital advertising.
Let’s further examine the distinctive capabilities of video ads that make them a must-have for advertisers.
Why video ads are the future of digital advertising
1. Video ads have higher engagement
Video ads merge two things that catch user attention: movement and sound. Both of these play an important role in conveying an efficient message, hence leading to better engagement.
When MediaMind analyzed over three billion ad impressions globally for six months they found that prospects are:
- 27.4 times more likely to click-through online video ads than standard banners
- Almost 12 times more than rich media ads
Where image or text ads rely on the copy, punctuation, and visual cues to convey the desired tone, video ads use movement and sound to capture visitor attention. The ad format is more efficient at delivering your narrative to the target audience with a tailored message that is easy for them to consume.
Video ads that pique the interest of users and follow through with a persuasive final call-to-action are bound to have success with keeping audiences interested.
Research suggests the average user remembers 95% of a message when it is watched, compared to 10% when it is read. This means prospects are more likely to remember your message via a video ad than an image or text ad. Moreover, a user’s positive experience with a video ad increases their purchase intent by 97% and brand association by 139%.
Example
Let’s compare an image and video ad by Asana, both offering prospects the chance to sign up for the service:
The video ad offers more context on how Asana enables customers to keep their projects on track and meet deadlines, hence, increasing their chances of clicking the sign-up CTA button.
2. Video ads are shareable
Users are naturally more inclined to share videos since more than 700 videos are shared by Twitter users every minute.
Video ads are concise, relatable, and have a story to tell – all of which make them shareable. Video ads offer brands a great way for them to express themselves and why many people find them worth distributing.
For example, Poo Pourri’s famous video ad has amassed over 42 million views and helped the company value increase from $10 million $30 million soon after their video ad went viral. Another viral video ad is Purple mattress’ raw egg test ad which currently has over 185 million views:
3. Video ads have higher a click-through rate
The fact that video ads tell a better story than typical banner ads makes the former not only better at engaging audiences but also getting more clicks.
According to a study done by Smaato, the average CTR of video ads in mobile apps is 7.5 times higher than for display ads. Facebook video ads also have higher CTR than image ads. ClearPivot, a digital marketing agency saw video ads exponentially drive more clicks than image ads for their clients –by as much as 20 to 30% more clicks.
When Cardinal Digital Marketing A/B tested a video versus an image ad for a travel and tourism brand, they found that with all other factors being the same, video ads generated a 47% higher CTR, despite Facebook generating higher impressions for the image-based ads.
Though video ads are more time consuming and expensive to create, their ability to effectively narrate your story allows you to engage more prospects and get more ad clicks.
The most common video ads to promote your message
LinkedIn video ads
Video ads on LinkedIn provide advertisers a compelling way to reach a professional audience. The video ads are in the Sponsored Content ad format and appear natively in the newsfeed:
Since their launch, LinkedIn members spend nearly 3x more time watching video ads compared to static Sponsored Content. The video ads allow advertisers to:
- Build brand awareness with engaging, visual stories: You can share your brand’s mission. Try keeping videos short (about 5-30 seconds) to leave the viewer wanting to learn more. A 2018 LinkedIn internal study found that videos under 30 seconds saw a 200% lift in view completion rates.
- Drive qualified traffic to websites or post-click landing pages: Showcase customer successes or case studies through interviews/testimonials, and provide more information with longer videos (about 30-60 seconds).
- Collect leads with a CTA button or lead gen forms: Test different landing pages to learn which web page drives higher conversions.
Facebook video ads
Facebook offers advertisers a wide variety of video ads to choose from. They allow you to reimagine the way you reach your audiences with the following placements: in-stream, stories, and feed.
Here’s a list of Facebook video ads you can create:
- Slideshow video ads: The ad type allows advertisers to incorporate images and sound to create video-like ads to narrate product stories on desktop and mobile devices at every connection speed. You can also use existing videos, instead of using images.
- Stories: Facebook Stories Ads are vertical, visual advertisements placed in the Stories feed on mobile devices. Advertisers can use video on Facebook Story Ads.
- Carousel ads: The Carousel ad format allows you to showcase up to ten images or videos within a single ad, each with its own link. Advertisers have more creative space within an ad, which lets you highlight different products, add specific details about one product, service or promotion, or tell a story about your brand that develops across each carousel card.
- Collection ads: The ad format helps your prospects transition from discovery to purchase in a smooth and immersive way. Each collection ad features a primary video or image with four smaller accompanying images below in a grid-like layout. Customers who tap on your collection ad to browse more are taken to a fast-loading visual post-click page powered by Instant Experience:
- Playable ads: With Facebook playable ads advertisers can give users an interactive preview of apps before they download them. Users can also trial the app or game right within their Facebook feed, before clicking through to install. The ad starts with a lead-in video of the app, and then offers interactivity and/or playability:
- Instant Experiences: Facebook Instant Experiences are mobile-optimized and are designed to capture the complete attention of your audience. Within an Instant Experience, prospects can watch engaging videos and photos, swipe through carousels, tilt to pan, and explore lifestyle images with tagged products — all within a single ad:
YouTube video ads
YouTube video ads enable you to reach potential customers and have them take action when they watch or search for videos on YouTube. You only pay when someone watches at least 30 seconds or clicks on your TrueView ad.
You can create 5 types of YouTube video ads:
- Skippable In-stream ads: These are available when you have video content you’d like to promote before, during, or after other videos on YouTube and across websites and apps running on Google video partners:
- Non-skippable in-stream ads: Non-skippable in-stream ads can be used for video content that you don’t want viewers to skip.
- Video discovery ads: Video discovery ads promote video content in places of discovery, including next to related YouTube videos, as part of a YouTube search result, or on the YouTube mobile homepage. Video discovery ads always invite people to click to watch the video. The video then plays on the YouTube watch or channel page.
- Bumper ads: Bumper ads are 6 seconds (or shorter) and play before, during, or after another video. Viewers don’t have the option to skip the ad. Make use of bumper ads when you want to reach viewers broadly with a short, memorable message:
- Masthead ads: Masthead ads are only available on a reservation basis through a Google sales representative. Advertisers should use this format when they want to drive awareness for a new product or service or reach a massive audience in a short time, such as an event or conference.
Vimeo video ads
Although YouTube is the world’s second most popular search engine, there are a number of reasons advertisers may choose to advertise with Vimeo. The primary reason being that Vimeo’s platform is a niche community largely characterized by artistry, music, and filmmaking, resulting in increased supportive engagement. According to Vimeo Guidelines, only constructive, respectful feedback is allowed in the comments sections below the videos.
Vimeo Create enables advertisers to use custom video templates to find the right story for their business. You can customize colors, fonts, layouts, and more to find the right look that suits your brand. Vimeo’s smart editor turns your edits into a polished, eye-catching video ad.
Transform video ad clicks into conversions with post-click landing pages
Video ads empower advertisers to engage audiences better and get more ad clicks; you can use advertising platforms such as Facebook and YouTube to create a wide variety of video ads.
However, to continue your brand narrative and transform an ad click into a conversion, you should connect all your videos ads with relevant, personalized post-click landing pages.
Find out how you can start creating personalized post-click landing pages for your ads at scale by signing up for an Instapage Enterprise demo.