Everybody seems to be jumping into video marketing and video advertising at the moment. Most of my friends seem to have launched a YouTube channel. Many businesses I know invest in video ads.

That does make sense. Until VR properly arrives, video marketing will remain the most effective medium for advertising products and services. It’s certainly more effective than traditional ads, generating three times more leads on average.

Yet, just because you create a video ad doesn’t mean you’re going to be overwhelmed with leads. You need to make a great video ad that captures people’s attention and makes them interested in your product or service. This guide will walk you through some critical things you need to get right when creating video ads.

1. Successful video ads grab attention in the first few seconds.

Just like any form of advertising, successful video ads engage the viewer straight away.

Headlines in newspapers are designed to grab attention, and quality video ads follow the same principle through their content. That is arguably even more important for digital marketing. That’s because many video hosting platforms, such as YouTube, offer the viewer a skip button after the first five seconds of a video.

Therefore, your video needs to be highly engaging to survive that skip function from potentially millions of impatient viewers!
To achieve an attention-grabbing video, you need a few key ingredients—a strong concept and a strong script. That often requires a lot of creativity.

Once you have a strong concept, you have your foundation for an engaging video ad. Don’t be afraid to keep trying new concepts to create a video that’s so engaging that it’s practically unskippable! Your goal is to build an audience with fresh and engaging content and keep your current customers readily engaged.

Taking a broad-minded approach to marketing concepts is often the key to success, especially in video marketing. Have a clear plan and act on it to the best of your ability.

If you’re unsure whether your concept will be effective, try comparing it with the one you have already established via a split A/B test. That way, you can track the statistics and test whether your new concept is worth exploring.

2. Successful video ads explain your products by focusing on user benefits.

Great video ads confer the benefits of the product or service that they’re selling and fast. Consumers need to be incentivized to buy, and the best way of addressing this is by showing them what your product can do for them. In other words, you need to use explainer videos to show your product in action.

However, you shouldn’t focus too much on your product’s features. Google ads experts say that you need to emphasize how those features can help your audience. You can start an explainer video by asking a question or stating common user pain points and addressing them in the context of your product. This format lends itself very well to video ads that you can edit using a simple tool like simpleshow video maker.

In other words, you should answer all the critical questions that an average consumer would ask about your brand within seconds. Even if viewers skip your video, at least they’ll be aware of the benefits of your product. This will attract your target group that’s looking for a solution to their problems. That’s quite a powerful position to enjoy within the video marketing world. Now that’s effective video advertising.

3. They bring influencers to generate interest.

We touched on this earlier. Never underestimate the power of the influencer. Bringing in an influencer or a content creator who already has a massive following to make your video ads is one way to generate interest in your content.

What are the other benefits of using an influencer in your videos? Well, with the right influencer, you can gain:

• Wider reach
• Stronger credibility
• A drive-in sales
• Great creative insights

YouTube is generally regarded as the best place for video influencers and content creators. With over two billion monthly active users, this is a platform that your business should be taking advantage of.Contacting influencers, especially those who match your young at heart customer persona, is not so hard. Use an email finder to search for their email addresses and send your proposal. I suggest you don’t send them your message on their social media platform. They’re influencers, which means they’re probably receiving millions of messages every day. They might end up missing your message.

4. Successful video ads have a strong CTA.

A call to action is a vital ingredient to any form of effective marketing, not just to videos. It incentivizes the viewer, reader, or listener to choose your brand and, ultimately, part with their cash.
In video marketing terms, a call to action is usually added at the end of a video. The idea is that the content engages the viewer and they are then encouraged to buy or sign up.

For example, YouTube allows you to add CTA overlays to video ads. These interactive overlays collapse into a thumbnail 15 seconds into the video and expand when hovered over by the browser.

If your viewer has made it past the 5-second skip timer, chances are, they will watch long enough to see the CTA overlay. That increases your chances for a sale or conversion.

There is proven value to overlaying your CTA in your video. KISSMetrics discovered that a CTA embedded within a video generates around 380% more clicks.

5. They test their ads

Marketing and content creation require trial and error to succeed. This is why it’s essential to constantly test your video ads to see how effectively they perform.

As well as optimizing your SEO practices to get your ads performing well online, it would help if you also considered other aspects.

Tools such as YouTube Analytics and Instagram analytical tools allow you to have a good idea of how your ads perform and indicate which areas need work. The main takeaway is to keep testing – it will help you stay ahead of the competition.

In Closing

Creating online video ads can be an intimidating process for any business, especially if it’s the first time doing so. Creating a successful video ad is even more challenging.

But with plenty of determination and a little help from these tips, you can do just that. Follow our five-step plan here to echo the techniques used by successful video ad campaigns. You’ll be well on your way to crafting effective video marketing.

Good luck with your future video ads and the growth of your business!

Bio

Allie Decker is the Head of Content at Omniscient, a marketing agency that works with SaaS brands. Before working with Omniscient, she spent 5 years as a freelance writer and then joined the content team at HubSpot where she worked for nearly 3 years. She has contributed to more than 100 high-converting articles for HubSpot and collaborated with the folks at Entrepreneur, Hotjar, and Foundr. Her words are bookmarked by entrepreneurs, small business owners, and digital marketers worldwide.