There is no medium more engaging than video. It integrates sight, sound and motion and can transport virtual viewers anywhere in the world and educate them on any topic. Video advertising advancements continue to show more promise, targeted reach, and the usage is increasing by triple digit percentages year-over-year with significant growth expected to come in 2021.
Yet, whenever video ads are in the picture, they often live in the shadow of three big myths that suggest their inefficiencies, which I want to debunk.
Myth #1: Video Advertising Is Only for Branding
Organizations creating 50 or more videos increased their overall results by 254% in the last year.
Video advertising is great for branding, but the benefits span far beyond that and can bolster the entire funnel from top to bottom. Top agencies use video for tactics such as lead generation and/or consumer education.
While some data analysts and marketers frown at the rate of direct conversion, it is abundantly clear that there is a halo-effect on conversions.
According to an Animoto survey from 2018, 73% of consumers say they were influenced by a brand’s video posts on social media. That being said, Magna Global found 84% of consumers will disengage if a video ad interrupts their content.
Engagement improves when the ad is contextualized with the video and there is a call and response relationship between the video content and the promoted product or service. A great success story example is mobile screen protector company Zagg. The company saw their conversion increase over a stunning 65% by advertising on product specific YouTube channels.
Myth #2: Impressions Are the Most Important Video Ad Metric
On average, 99.87% of impressions on a pre-roll video ad do not result in a click.
The amount of views on your video ad does not always directly relate to success in lead generation, brand familiarity or conversions. Actually, virility and total impressions have very little impact on whether a video advertisement will do well, because broad isn’t always better.
Success should be gauged on the way marketers target and interact with their specific audience. A home improvement professional in New York would never be focused on reaching recent homebuyers in Los Angeles. Those would not be tangible leads. The less time you have to spend on filtering relevant leads, the more time you have to move targeted leads through the funnel.
A recent Hubspot study found 42% of users said that they almost never click on in-stream ads and 15% of those surveyed said they don’t even watch online videos. Instead of worrying about your video being seen by the most eyeballs, the key is to create video advertising that is engaging. That is what increases the probability of interaction.
Myth #3: You Can’t Afford Video Advertising
On average, video production costs on average $50K, however, there are formats that can cost close to $0.
Typically, companies will use less than 10% of their advertising budget on video advertising, no matter the size of the company. With the myriad of free tools available and the accessibility to affordable high quality tech, any organization can produce engaging content without skipping the avocado toast.
However, if production is a sore spot, certain forms of video ads can be created with simply a logo, links and some call-to-action (CTA) copy. In addition to selecting more affordable new video ad formats, you can also use a programmatic buying strategy. That way the company only pays for the cost per conversion you set.
How to Implement Conversion Strategy for Video Ads
The first step to implementing a conversion strategy for video is to confirm that video DOES drive conversions using research and attribution. There are years of data that show that video is not just an awareness tool, but each organization needs to give more weight to video as a driver of conversions.
The second step is to prepare a mix of video ad units and creative to match the platform and the audience. For example, your TV ad will be different than your social media ad, which will also be different than your on-stream ad unit.
The third step is recognizing that video is crucial to reaching your target audience. The video market is 5X larger than the print and radio markets combined.
YouTube alone has a massive population of 2 billion users that are increasing the video content they view by 50% year over year. There is no better time to start diving into the ocean of video advertising than now.
Zack Rosenberg is the founding CEO of CatapultX, an “on-stream” video company that is empowering brands and publishers to harness the power of AI to connect with consumers in-the-moment across all digital channels.
