The digital landscape is constantly changing, with video advertising growing over the years and new platforms and technologies emerging all the time. It can be difficult to keep up with the trends and create a video advertisement that is successful but it can be done if some crucial steps are followed. So, what makes an effective advertising video these days? What should you consider when planning your next campaign?
In this blog post, we’ll take a look at what an advertising video is and some of the key components that make an impactful video ad. Stay tuned!
What are Advertising Videos?
Advertising videos are videos created to inform an audience about a product or service with the aim of building brand awareness and generating sales, like any medium of advertising. More and more people create video ads because of the increasing demand for short, motion films with information that is easy to grasp within a few seconds. This demand for video is the effect of social media and Internet usage growth in the last decade, with statistics showing that video marketing is the most powerful ad type in comparison to a static image and other ad formats.
Instead of reading a long article about the specifications of a product or service, whether it’s a kitchen gadget, a therapeutic massage, or a hotel in Thailand, an effective video will quickly take you through everything the product or service has to offer.
There’s a catch though. Just like any advertising effort, you need to create video ads that resonate with your audience while also considering many other vital aspects. Only then, you can make a good video ad that is successful and helps achieve campaign and brand objectives. Before we dive into which factors make a compelling video, let’s look at some of the video advertisement types out there.
The Different Types of Advertising Videos
There is a diverse range of advertising videos because of the various platforms they could be shared on, the different types of viewers out there, and the best video ads according to varying industries. While there are varying formats like banner ads, pre-roll ads, etc this section deals with the different ways one can advertise their product or service.
Some of the most successful advertising video categories are mentioned below.
- Explainer Videos
- Product Demonstration
- 360° and Virtual Reality Videos
- Augmented Reality Videos
- Company-Culture Videos
- Social Media Ads
- Behind-The-Scenes Videos
- Customer Testimonials
- How-To Videos
- Employee Portrait Videos
- Documentaries
- Branded Short Films
- Animated Videos
What Can Exceptional Video Advertisements Do For a Brand?
People aren’t focusing on advertising videos without a solid reason. Studies show that the average number of online videos seen by a person in a week has almost doubled since 2018. Given this large reach, it is only natural that the best video ads will raise brand awareness, while also encouraging potential customers to go further down the conversion funnel to become paying customers.
The Wyzowl state of video marketing survey conducted towards the end of 2021 found that 86% of video marketing professionals found that their video ads impacted lead generation positively.
The Important Components of a Successful Advertising Video
For an advertising video to reap the benefits of successful video advertising campaigns, the video must have certain features. These aspects can impact the overall success of the video, from brand awareness to conversions, and other important metrics that video advertising affects.
Below we’ve outlined the processes and elements in video production that make an effective advertisement video.
Planned Production of Quality Video Content
The first and foremost step towards setting the video ad up for success is planning. There are many processes involved in the video production of quality content, and we’ve explained the impact of planning on the five most important steps for videos that require filming as opposed to creating videos similar to animated videos, etc.
Innovative Ideation Phase
In this step, the plan is in its budding stage with various ideas being considered. Ensuring that the idea is feasible until the very end is a process that must be done at the beginning. Communicating the objective of the brand that wants to advertise the product or service, presenting different ideas to film the video, evaluating the available resources and budget, and creating a storyline are crucial aspects of ideation. It is also important to be innovative and think out of the box to present the brand from a unique perspective. For example, instead of the traditional video of traditional brands, consider virtual reality or drone videography.
This creates a direction and guide towards which the video production team whether its one person or many, can follow to achieve the desired video ad. Having a creative script or storyline aimed at evoking emotions is also a vital part, and contributes to drive conversions.
Preparation
Depending on the type of video filmed, there would be a range of preparation work that goes behind the scenes to triumphantly film the video ad. This includes setting up the right lighting, finding the right cast, finding the perfect location, and other details which when put together ensures that the filmed video shows the product or service in its best light to attract viewers.
Filming
As crucial as the ideation phase, here’s where recording skills and great equipment can come together to capture the video according to the script developed. Planning how to capture the materials to make customers feel the need to purchase is important to lead viewers to click on your site, social media or other platforms. Trying to implement creative video production services can enhance the final results as opposed to conventional filming methods.
Editing
Once the video clips have been filmed, they must be put together to create a seamless video ad that is attractive, informative, and functional. There are also other aspects involved like increasing or reducing the exposure, brightness, and other elements that can make the video more appealing.
Having a plan to understand what kind of editing is required for the entire ad, and ensuring the tools and personnel needed to do this efficiently helps you save money and time, which increases the effectiveness of the video by the returns it brings in.
Publishing
The final step is sharing the video on the right platforms for each respective brand. Short portrait videos are all the rage now with TikTok ads and Instagram reels keeping users hooked. YouTube also has “shorts” to keep up with this new trend. Strategizing to find out which type of ad is appropriate for the brand and the platform is vital to completely leverage the video ad. Planning your publishing process helps to create video ads that are optimized for the platform, so whether its YouTube ads or video on the brand’s site, it fits the platform and is appealing to the type of users that use those specific platforms.
Personalized and Target Audience-Oriented
A common theme you would have understood from the previous section on why planning is important, is that the video has to be focused on the target audience. Creating a video ad that is personalized to the pain points of the target audience by showing them your product or service is going to be a solution is an excellent way to promote what you’re selling and motivate them to purchase it.
Consider a resort that wants to promote a wellness retreat for couples looking for a quiet time to unwind. Imagine if the video ad was full of families with little kids running around boisterously or even a simple background music that’s too loud and musical-festival like. The desired audience is not going to feel the atmosphere and vibe from the video and will not spend more than a few seconds watching it. Personalizing the video would mean taking slow shots of the hotel’s facilities with a calm mood carried out throughout the video, and soft music binding it all together.
Another important video tip of personalized videos, is using the brand’s own footage instead of stock videos which would defeat the purpose of an advertising video for a particular brand. It would also be dishonest and you don’t want your brand to be associated with that reputation.
Connected to a Larger Advertising and Marketing Strategy
To assume that once you create the video ad and share it on social platforms and your website, the video will go viral and bring in new customers is willful thinking. While a great ad might definitely reach people, you cannot maximize its benefits by a simple plan like that.
Knowing how to use your videos as part of a detailed advertising plan strategized across a few months, while also working in par with other advertising and marketing tools is the better way to leverage it. For example, snippets of the video can be used as images or the video can be filmed to other social media platforms in mind for future use-cases. This way, no resources are wasted and you can reach a wider audience.
Optimized for Search Engines and Social Media Platforms
This section was added on purpose, just to reiterate that video content must be optimized for search engines and social media. Looking at the specifications and best-forming video types according to the platform will easily help the platforms recognize the video as worth-sharing and automatically help reach the desired audience. This will increase visibility on search results and also increase social media engagement.
Includes Call-to-Actions
If you’re not using call-to-actions (CTAs) in your videos, you’re missing out on a powerful way to engage with your viewers and drive them to take action. A CTA is a directive that you give to a potential customer, telling them what their next move should be. This could range from “purchase now” to “subscribe to our newsletter for more informative video”, and so on, depending on what action you want your audience to take.
Without a call to action, your viewers will be left wondering what they should do next. Providing them with a clear message is a great way to prompt the viewer to take immediate action and stay engaged with your videos. A call to action will ultimately help your brand take clients through the sales funnel, improve key performance indicators, and raise user-engagement rates with your video and consequently the platforms its shared on.
So, if you’re not using CTAs in your videos, now is the time to start!
Produced by a Creative Videographer or Videography Agency
Not all businesses have an exceptional videography team that can pull off high-quality videos that stand out from the crowd, grab attention, and keep users hooked till the end. While you might think video ad templates or a video advertisement maker application can help create transformational videos, its not that easy.
Choosing a specialized professional or agency can ensure that your video content is top-notch, tailored to your audiences, optimized for all platforms and devices, while saving you time and resources, and bring in profits too. Looking for a professional agency with a strong portfolio can help your advertisement videos gain traction without sacrificing quality.
How to Choose the Right Video Producer or Video Production Agency
It might seem difficult to choose a video production company with the abundance of options. However, when you niche down and look for companies with admirable portfolios in your industry, the number will drastically reduce.
If you find a video production agency’s portfolio resonates with your brand, then communicate with the team to see if they’re the right for your business. This would include communicating brand objectives, advertising budgets, duration for production, the expertise of the team, and other concerns you may have. Depending on the effectiveness of the agency’s response, you can go one step further and request a final quote. Thereafter, you can choose if the agency is the right fit for your business.
Transform Your Advertising Efforts with Video Ads
With so many people watching online videos, it’s no wonder that video ads are becoming an increasingly important part of any successful advertising strategy. By following the tips we’ve outlined in this blog post, you can create high-quality video content that will raise brand awareness and guide potential customers down the sales and conversion funnels. So what are you waiting for? Transform your advertising efforts with video ads today!
FAQs
Video advertising is video content created and/or captured to promote or market a brand’s products or services. The video generally plays prior to, during, or after streaming content. However, times have changed where advertising videos can now be shared directly on various platfroms without having to be part of a paid campaign running within a video stream on the Internet. Video advertising is more impactful than writing a thousand words on a detailed blog, or even an exceptionally designed informative static infographic.
A video ad maker is an application or tool that helps capture and put together video clips in a seamless transition. You can also add in music, text, voice overs, and other effects on most video ad makers available online now.
