Social Media Video Ads Crush the Competition. Here’s Why!

Regardless of what type of business you’re in, you’ve probably dabbled in social media advertising or are thinking about it. According to data collected in 2017, people worldwide are on social media for an average of 135 minutes per day, up from 126 minutes per day in the year before. It’s also been reported that small business advertising on sites like Facebook has doubled to 50 million over the last few months.

If you’re in business, you risk losing out on much potential revenue if you don’t put some of your advertising dollars into social media advertising. So, if you’re now convinced that social media advertising is a necessity, you’re probably wondering what approach is most effective. Well, video ads rule the roost and this article will show you why and how they work.

What Makes A Social Media Ad Effective

Advertising on social media is tricky because your ad competes with tens of thousands of user posts. While people spend a lot of time on social media, they don’t spend a lot of time with each post they see. If something doesn’t grab their eye immediately, they scroll past onto the next post, so your ad has to be something that makes them smash that like and share button. It’s no longer effective for you to make an ad and throw it up on social media sites and wait for the sales to roll in.

When using video production to sell your brand, product or service, you don’t want to focus on making something that will go viral. Too many marketers fall into that trap and lose the forest for the trees. Instead, focus your efforts on making the story enticing. A successful video ad on social media tells a story that people connect with2. A successful video ad is much like a successful print ad; it identifies a problem people have and then provides the solution.

Another aspect of successful social media video ads is the length. Most experts say you’re better off making your video short and to the point. Studies show that 1/5 of your viewers will click away within 10 seconds, so you have only a short amount of time to hook them. Get right to the point by piquing their curiosity and answer the question of why they should continue watching.

Once you can break your message down to the basics and create a hook that will engage viewers, it’s time to create your ad, and with social media, video is the go-to format right now.

Why Video Is Effective

Social media users have low attention spans, which has been has proven repeatedly with how most of them will scroll past text in favor of photos and videos. So, kinetic and visual advertising is the way to reach people on social media.

Thanks to advances in smartphone and wireless technology, video is more accessible than ever. 15 years ago, no one could have predicted video would have come this far. The reason for the progression can be credited to the fact that almost everyone has a mobile device along with access to internet connection.

While there are still plenty of websites that use written content, social media sites like Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, and Instagram are almost entirely photo and video-based. And since that’s where most users are spending their time, it’s easy to see why video advertising is so effective right now.

The Secret To Social Media Ads

So, now that we know what it takes for a social media ad to be successful, as well as what format is the best, it’s time to talk a little about what your strategy should be for making your ad campaign.

As mentioned, your goal should never be to make a video go viral because you can never engineer that into a post while being assured it will work.

The best approach to reaching people on social media is to know your target audience. Gather all the data you can on the people you’re trying to reach and tailor advertising to them.

Also, there are so many social media platforms, all of which have different audiences, so it’s wise to pick one or two platforms instead of trying to saturate all of them with the same content.

Setting a goal is important. Figure out what you want these ads to accomplish. Do you want to increase sales? Do you want to make people feel good about your brand?

Last, it’s essential you measure and track your ads to see what’s working and what isn’t and then incorporate that data into your next marketing strategy.

There’s no denying the ubiquity of social media, and if you want to reach people with your marketing, you have to develop a strategy to get them where they are.