Video advertising

Video advertising is a marketing strategy that involves creating a short and informative video that promotes a product and is played before, during, or after the main video. It helps tell a story, improve sales volume, create buzz, convey information concisely and captivatingly, and reach a wider audience.

In this article, we’ll unveil the reasons to use video advertising, its benefits, types, and examples. We’ll also cover how to create a compelling video ad for your business.

11 Reasons Why You Should Use Video Advertising

Video advertising is an effective marketing approach that helps brands improve their business performance. Marketers admit that promotional videos help increase awareness, communicate with their target audience, and build trust with prospective customers.

69% of users prefer video over other content formats when learning about a new product. That’s why, according to Biteable, 60% of companies create promotional videos since they believe them to be effective. Multiple reasons explain why such a large percentage of businesses consider videos their promotional material.

These reasons include:

• increased number of social media shares;
• high level of visibility;
• wide international audience;
• boosted conversions and sales volume;
• enhanced ROI;
• improved trust and credibility;
• better ranking in Google search results;
• excellent organic traffic;
• better mobile user engagement;
• great click-through rate.

Now that you know the reasons to consider video advertising for your business, let’s proceed to the next section to explore its benefits.

Benefits of Video Advertising

It’s always critical for marketers to find new, effective, and unique tactics and techniques that help a product or service stand out in a market overwhelmed by competitors. Video advertising is not a new kid on the block. It’s an established way of communication with consumers that brings visible results to businesses. With its help, entrepreneurs create quality and unique content that boosts their outreach, sales, and brand recognition.

It’s not a secret that people who lead a hectic lifestyle would rather watch a short video and obtain all the necessary information about a product rather than read long articles. Although this one is the key pro, there are even more for you to consider.

Video advertising also helps:

• obtain great sales volumes;
• tell a story;
• communicate the necessary information fast;
• receive high organic traffic;
• educate people on a topic in an interactive and engaging way;
• gain more social shares;
• go viral;
• attain wider customer reach;
• establish brand awareness.

There are many benefits you can reap after implementing video advertising. However, to reach your goals, you should identify the most suitable video ad formats for your company. In the next section, we’ll help you find out the key types of video ads and decide which ones can help you attain your business objectives.

Types of Video Advertising

Outstanding video ads can help brands reach out to customers and grab their attention. You can run your videos on YouTube or other video-sharing platforms to gain more exposure. To choose the right video ad format for your brand, you need to know more about the available options and their features, so let’s start exploring.

• In-stream ads. You can see this ad type when video content is played before, during, or after the main video on YouTube or other platforms. In-stream ads can be both skippable and non-skippable. In the first scenario, a viewer can skip the video. These ads help establish brand awareness, reach leads and customers, and drive organic traffic to a website.
• Out-stream video ads. These are mobile-only ads users can find outside of YouTube. Out-stream video ads appear in apps and partner websites. You can easily recognize out-stream ads since they play with a sound off. If a viewer is interested in the promoted product, this person can tap the video to unmute it and receive all the necessary information. This video ad type is perfect for companies that need to increase their reach at an affordable price and boost brand awareness.
• Bumper ads. These are unskippable 6-second ads that can appear before, during, or after the main video. People can encounter this type of video ad on YouTube, sites, and apps. Brands that use bumper ads pay for them based on the number of ad impressions. If a company strives to reach out to its target audience with a clear and short message, this type is a perfect choice.
• Video discovery ads. These ads can be found in related YouTube videos, YouTube search results, or on the YouTube homepage for mobile devices. The ad includes a thumbnail (a snapshot of a video) and short text. The length of this promotional video can vary depending on the placement, but this ad type always contains an invitation to watch the video.
• Masthead ads. The format is perfect for promoting a new product and boosting awareness. It will help reach a wide audience and create a buzz within a short timeframe. Viewers can see an advertising video playing automatically with the sound off for around 30 seconds at the top of the YouTube Home feed.

Now that you know all the ad formats, it’s time to delve into the topic deeper and figure out how to create a great video ad for your company.

How to Create an Effective Video Ad for Your Business

We’ve prepared five effective tips that will help you create a video ad that converts, so let’s figure out how to do it.

1. Make sure to include the most compelling part at the beginning. According to Stone’s Throw Media, you have only 15 seconds to grab your potential customers’ attention and spark their interest, which is why you need to include the most important and eye-catching information at the beginning of your video. If you succeed in producing a high-quality video that captivates its viewers from the first seconds, you’ll be able to prevent them from skipping your ad. To do it, start your video with a statement that will instantly intrigue your target market. Strive to hook your potential clients from the first seconds by discussing a widespread problem, asking a question, or sharing a new fact.
2. Tell about your company’s competitive advantage. Every customer wants to know the reasons to choose your brand — the things that make you special and help you stand out in a competitive market. Make sure to include the answers to these questions in your video. Share your strengths, unique features, benefits, and achievements. You can also include some social proof of your success: reviews, testimonials, and feedback.
3. Choose the optimal length of your video. Remember that you are making a video not to lay out the whole history of your brand but to promote and sell your product. Your advertisement should be short enough to keep customers’ attention and communicate your message. In general, the length of online video ads is around 30 seconds or less. So when you write a script, make sure that you can convey everything you want within your given time frame. In case you produce video ads for mobile users and social networks like Facebook and Instagram, creating a 15-second video to ensure that people will watch it until the end is an excellent idea.
4. Provide convincing arguments that your brand is worth customers’ trust. Your viewers should be able to understand why your company is a good choice for them from your video. To make it happen, you need to provide customers with enough arguments that your product really solves their problems. Visible value, unlimited warranty, new technology, or innovative features — mention the things that are crucial to your potential clients and can convince them to buy from you.
5. Consider using a CTA. Your goals can be different: brand awareness, a wider customer base, or boosted sales. Include a call to action button to encourage people to take the desired action. The best option is to place it at the end of your video so that customers can hit it after getting acquainted with your product. At this moment, prospects might want to visit your website to learn more about the company, check the event details, or explore promotions.

The process of creating video ads is clear, so let’s move on to the examples. They will help you generate some fresh ideas and create a perfect video ad for your viewers.

Examples of Video Advertising

A creative approach to creating a promotional video increases your chances of enhancing brand recognition and customer engagement. If you don’t have any ideas for your video ad yet, we hope our examples will guide and hook you with their originality.

Reebok and 25,915 Days

The famous footwear manufacturer proves that a powerful video ad message can reach out to people and push them towards action without words. The campaign was created to show people that they have so many opportunities to reach their goals, become better versions of themselves, and explore the world during their life (the average human life expectancy is 25,915 days). The primary message behind the video is that people should live their life to the max every day.

Google Android and Friends Furever

Android, with the help of a bright, friendly, and nice-to-watch video, managed to win viewers’ attention fast. Its simplicity and originality made it the most shared video in 2015. It went viral on Twitter and Facebook, and the number of shares reached 6,432,921. In the ad, people can see the friendship between different animals. The video succeeded in grabbing viewers’ attention and became very popular on social networks.

Congrats, you know the reasons to consider video advertising and its benefits and types. Get inspired by our examples to create a video that grabs viewers’ attention and boosts sales.