Facebook is a powerful marketing asset that increases brand awareness, site traffic, leads, and conversions. Businesses large and small leverage Facebook video ads to maximize reach and optimize social media marketing campaigns.
As consumers demand more visual social content, combining Facebook ads with video is becoming a must for business growth and success.
Over 500 million social media users are consuming videos daily, according to TubularInsights. This trend is going to continue, making video ads essential to your business’ social media marketing strategy.
“Every part of a video view—from the initial impression to a complete video view and everything in between—drives value,” Facebook Business explained. “Understanding this helps advertisers build content and evaluate success.”
How do you leverage Facebook video ads to drive increased business profit? From B2B to B2C, the following serves as your roadmap to video ad success.
Tighten Up Target Audience Preferences
One of the most valuable features Facebook ads serve up is “Audience Preference.” It is a feature that allows you to reach your intended target audience. Too generic of a reach and your ad may fall short of your social media marketing goals.
For example, if your running a video ad on women-centric yoga mats, your audience preference should be highly focused on yoga, yoga topics, fitness, women’s health, etc. to net the right ad engagement.
You can also personalize your Facebook ads using location and age. This is a powerful strategy if you know that most of your website traffic is derived from women in New York between the ages of 25 to 35.
Grab Attention with a Compelling First 5 Seconds
You have a very short period of time to entice your target audience to keep watching your Facebook video ad. In fact, you have about five seconds to capture the attention of a viewer. There are a few video tactics to get your target audience to keep watching.
One is to create a fun and engaging first few seconds. Think of your video as a movie trailer. What will grab attention and still be relevant to the video topic? Going back to the yoga mat product example, you could have a yogi doing an amazing, difficult pose in an exotic setting.
Next, deliver your value proposition(s) quickly. What makes your business, product, or service valuable to the viewer? Lastly, give the viewer an idea about what the video is about. This can be a catchy video thumbnail description.
Remember, most Facebook video ads are auto-muted, so talking and music won’t have much effect in those first few seconds. It is all about the visuals.
Make Your Facebook Video Ads Less About Advertising
Social media users avoid watching ads when they can. It’s important to entertain your audience, because they’ll just keep scrolling past traditional, boring advertisements. This might seem challenging, but with a little clever brainstorming, it can be done. Having a social media management service in place can help you fine-tune this tactic as well.
“Facebook’s video ads are a branding machine on steroids. Branding done right will lead to sales. The challenge is creating content that says buy now, without actually saying buy now. Our Facebook video ads generate more sales when we blend emotion and laughter,” Jason Valasek of CloudLGS explained.
If your goal is to sell yoga mats, don’t make the video about yoga mats, but use them as a product placement.
How many times have you heard the familiar Apple iPhone notification ding on a movie or TV show and instantly thought of an iPhone? Or how about seeing the home screen of a mobile device on television and automatically knowing the type of phone it is?
This product placement format can be used in your Facebook video ads. You can highlight design with close up shots, or have your video actors holding products in a way that can be clearly visible. Make it natural and net far more video views, traffic, and conversions.
Brief, Impactful Facebook Ads Win
Posting 10-minute videos on Facebook may not be the best way to connect with your target audience. Many social media marketing pros recommend a runtime of 30 to 60 seconds.
Research in eMarketer found that this video length had the highest video viewing completion at 44 percent. However, if your Facebook video ad has a lot of value for your target audience, going over the 60-second recommendation is not going to be an issue – just keep the important stuff towards the beginning to ensure your audience sees it.
The most important aspect to keep in mind is your audience. A few questions to ask are:
- Who is this video for (gender, age, interest, etc.)?
- What is the value proposition?
- Where is your product available for purchase (online, locally, Amazon, etc.)?
- How can you build a sense of urgency (coupon codes, giveaways, discount, etc.)?
- What problem does your product solve, or what is the benefit?
Engage and Convert with Facebook Video Ads
Implementing video ads in your social media marketing strategy has a number of business benefits. Your business will meet the consumer demand for more visual content, increase followers and engagement, and ultimately improve profits. What video ad strategy works the best for you?
