What are ways to leverage video advertisements

 

“Videos manage to create three times more customer engagement than written content.”

Maybe you are reading this phrase for the 50th time in the last few months and have been completely overwhelmed by it.

But it’s the truth!

Videos seem to have weaved some magical spell among today’s online audience. As always, every other person is jumping into this trend wagon and, as always, only a few are able to make the most out of it.

Videos are not your regular TV ads.

They mandatorily require an “Inherent Engagement Factor” throughout their duration, or they are immediately rejected.

So how do you create and maintain this engagement factor?

Let’s find out.

Relevance

You are watching an interesting Instagram video and after a minute…

That dreaded message shows up on your screen, “Video ad starting soon.”

In my opinion, promoting your video ads between other videos is the most ineffective way one can promote his content. Majority of times, the viewer is so engrossed in the actual video he is watching that he barely pays any attention to yours.

Sometimes, he gets so frustrated that he quits watching the original video, the moment he gets notified that your ad is going to play.

So what’s the solution?

Also Read: Here are 3 types of kick-ass marketing videos you can create for your service or product

Well, for a start, you should drop the idea of promoting your content in between videos and focus on video ads that play, before a particular video begins.

Secondly, lay significant emphasis on the various platforms that you are promoting your content on, and ensure that there is a robust connection in terms of relevance, between the content you are promoting and the platform you are promoting it on.

Now let’s talk about the trump card –

 Something that can create strong customer engagement, and remove any form of disinterest that customers generally have with video ads:

These are “one-liners at the beginning of the video that focuses on providing immediate value to the customer”.

 If your introductory one-liner manages to woo your customer, then there is a high chance that he might go through the entirety of your video, to know more about your product or service.

Keeping viewers hooked

 As mentioned succinctly, in the previous part, hopefully, it has become apparent to you that the “instant wow factor” is crucial for creating engagement through video ads.

So what are some foolproof measures you can undertake to maintain this wow factor throughout the length of your video?

Featuring known personalities or a testimonial from them is something that always works.

However, random celebrities are a big no and can immediately raise eyebrows regarding the credibility of your content.

What works is if you can rope in online marketers like Neil Patel or Gary Vee in your next video regarding social media lead generation.

But, hiring such influencers is not a child’s play.

You need to produce some exclusive content and should have modest brand equity in the market, before even thinking of soliciting these guys.

How about something that is relatively more feasible for small and medium-sized businesses as well?

Have you ever thought of telling a story through your videos, and make your viewers part of that storyline?

Also Read: Video publisher platform iVideoSmart raises Series A+ funding

A story that has a hero, who faces a lot of hardships at first, but after following the guidelines given out by your video, is able to achieve his goal.

Let’s say…

Mike is a small online business owner who is not able to create sufficient lead generation to support his business.

He is facing stiff competition from his competitors who are much better off and established than him and can hire professional agencies to reach their lead generation goals.

One day he stumbles upon a retired ace marketer, who decides to help him with his lead generation.

The marketer tells him about certain sure-shot strategies that can help him generate quality leads.

Mike diligently follows the tips and is slowly able to increase his lead generation numbers.

Finally, after five years, he is a successful online entrepreneur.

The contribution a storyline brings to your Video marketing game is that a customer gets hooked to your story and its characters and watches the video in entirety to know about the outcome.

Leveraging the power of experiential marketing

 What else can effectively appeal your customer other than making them visually experience, how is it to use your product in real life?

Heard about surprise customer trials?

Yes, these should be your go-to thing while incorporating experience marketing in your video ads.

Check out how virgin airlines nailed their Surprise Customer Trial.

The USP of surprise trials is that they can capture, completely raw and natural reactions from your target audience.

 Something that has the ability to immediately excite your customer, who is watching it in a video, and encourage him to have a similar sort of experience.

So what’s the best way to include such surprise trials in your video ads?

Also Read: How do I create a memorable promotional brand or product video?

You can always create small video snippets of the actual surprise trial video that you have recorded and add these snippets in your video ads.

Adding a good introductory line before playing the snippet would always be a bonus.

A video editing software might come in quite handy in this scenario.

Emotions always work

 Are you explicitly communicating the value offerings of your product/service through your video ads?

That’s great, but so is your competitor.

So how can you create the much-needed exclusivity in your videos?

Associating the implicit benefit attached to your product, in your videos is an effective way to do this.

Your video should help the customer realize what he/she is missing out by not consuming your product/service.

For example

A video ad for an on-demand house cleaning app may portray a notion that

By booking their services a customer is gifted with the much needed free time to binge-watch his favourite TV show, during the weekend, as he doesn’t have to bear the responsibility of cleaning his house anymore.

In this manner, the customer is highly likely to develop an emotional connection with the added benefit that your product is offering.

Wrapping up…

 Before you start following these guidelines, there’s one crucial thing that you should do first.

Try to know your target customer in and out; their likes dislikes preferences, expectations, beliefs, etc.

It’s only then that you can do perfect justice to these guidelines and create highly engaging videos.

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Image Credit: KAL VISUALS

 

 

 

 

 

 

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