Facebook Video Ads – How To Do It Right

Video ad consumption is absolutely on the rise!  A recent study aimed at learning more about consumers’ sentiments regarding video advertising found some interesting tidbits.

• 26% of people surveyed responded that they are watching at least one video per day.
•  55% of the frequent video viewers prefer watching them on their smartphone.
• As for the most popular social platform to watch videos, Facebook is a clear winner, as 54% of them picked it as their first social destination for video consumption,

Advertisers who are concerned about their videos actually being viewed should know that according to Facebook, 65% of the people that watch the first three seconds of a video end up watching at least 10 seconds of it.

Even more interesting? 85% of Facebook videos are viewed without sound.  If we are watching without sound, how are we receiving the actual message?  Captions. “Captions are a way to tell someone who’s in a sound-off environment what the video is about quickly. What we’ve seen in some of our internal tests is adding captions actually increased view time by an average of 12%,” said Matt Idema, of Facebook.

And now, Facebook offers automatic captioning of video ads, making it easier than ever.

Don’t have the budget to create a Facebook video ad?

Keep in mind, this is an extremely different format from running TV commercials. Meaning, no lengthy expensive production process required. In fact, videos can also be a “slideshow” if an advertiser doesn’t have the time or budget to create a video ad. Using Slideshow ads makes is easy for advertisers to create video ads from still images.  We simply upload three to seven still images – they can be from an existing video, a photo shoot or even stock imagery – and choose the length of your slideshow, from 5 – 15 seconds.

This new Facebook option is huge for advertisers and marketers catering to small and medium sized business owners. Research show that 44% of professional marketers and SMB owners plan to spend money to promote video content on Facebook in the next 12 months.

To do video ads right remember these key points:

• Relevance is key. Video consumers expect highly targeted advertising that fits their interests and their browsing habits. This increases the chances of them continuing to watch a video to completion.
• Silent ads can increase the engagement.  You can still send your message effectively without any disruptive sound.
• Focus on mobile. Video consumers on mobile devices have increased significantly, which means that you should make sure that your content is optimized for mobile, making the viewing experience pleasant.
• Keep it short. Even if you create a longer video, make sure that the first seconds are appealing to help users stay engaged.