Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Don’t brush this saying off like a dusty old piece of advice from your grandpa. This sentiment might be an oldie, but it’s a goodie — especially in the marketing world. Have you seen headlines lately about organic traffic making a comeback? Pretty exciting stuff, right? Many marketers thought organic traffic was long gone after content was crowned king. Brands started pushing out so much content; words jammed Google search engines. Quality content got shoved aside for quantity. And Google developers knew if they didn’t find a way to weed out black-hat marketing tactics, they’d lose their users. Who wants to ask questions on a search engine full of irrelevant answers?
For a long time, paid advertising was the only way to reach the first page. That is, until video exploded all over the marketing scene. It’s no secret that Google loves video. They own YouTube and collectively, the two platforms make up the largest search engines in the world! They also adjusted their algorithms to favor video. It’s total nepotism! But hey, that doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from it.
Those who saw the value in video early on have been capitalizing on organic traffic ever since. But if the saying above is correct — the days are numbered for organic traffic with video. Eventually, and probably not very far from now, organic traffic will taper off as video saturation increases. And once again, your paid ad performance will be a vital determinant of your online rank. Learn from history; be ready for it. How can you improve your video ad performance? Start by checking these video ad optimization tactics off your list:
Know Your Audience and Measure the Right Metrics
Marketing isn’t about creating for your brand; it’s about creating for your audiences. Are you paying attention to the right data? Are you using that data to inform your messaging and distribution strategy? Your metrics will tell you exactly how well you know your customers.
Pro Tip: DO NOT depend entirely on demographics to get your ad in front of the right people. Marketing has moved far beyond this basic information. Demographics is still relevant, but it’s only the beginning of a much larger understanding that you’ll need to maximize ad performance.
As you examine the performance of your video ads, care less about the classic metrics like “click-through rate”. Just because someone clicks doesn’t mean they’re interested. Instead, pay attention to:
Completion Rate: The percentage of viewers who watched your ad from start to finish.
Relevance Score: A numerical ranking given by social media platforms like Facebook to grade how relevant your ad was to the audiences you targeted. The higher the score, the more relevant your ad was perceived to be, and the more likely Facebook will be to serve it again.
Conversions: The number of viewers who followed through with the ad’s call-to-action and took a desired next step.
Engagements: The overall number of viewers who interacted with your video (clicks, likes, comments, shares, conversions).
Add Interactive Elements
Engagement is the penultimate metric you want to inflate (right behind conversions). When viewers interact with your video — they’re showing interest, paying attention, and connecting with your brand on a deeper level. By default, engagement is also going to boost your completion rate and relevance score. Here are a few ways you can add interactivity to your video ads:
Cards: boxes overlaid in the video that can include a URL, title, text, image, and CTA. E.g., A card that promotes a specific product or line with a link to that product.
End Screen: Clickable calls-to-action that appear on the last screen of the video.
E.g., Thumbnails to other relevant videos in your library, or a URL.
Call-to-Action Overlays: Any type of CTA that will appear throughout the video in various places. E.g., Link viewers to a specific landing page like an opt-in page, social media page, or product/services page.
Don’t Do Obnoxious Video Ads
The Nielsen Norman Group, which specializes in evidence-based user experience research, published a study in 2017 that reveals the most hated online advertising techniques. Here are some of the top video ad types to avoid or monitor carefully.
Autoplay Video ads: This is the No. 1 most hated type of video ad — ads that start playing automatically when a visitor arrives at a website. The ad is followed by a brand’s intended video content.
Intra-content: Video ads that show up while content is loading on a page. The video ad shifts the intended content down on the page to make room for itself.
Modal Video Ads: Video ads that appear as an overlay on top of the intended content. Visitors must “X” out of the video before they can access the intended content.
Non-Modal Video Ads: Similar to the above, except the video appears as a floating box in the lower right-hand corner.
Pre-Video Ads (with no skip option): Video ads that require mandatory play before a visitor can access the intended content.
To keep with the theme of dusty old adages, anything in life worth having is worth working for. I won’t sugar coat this — video advertising involves a lot of moving parts. It’s not something that can be learned over night. If paid advertising isn’t your bag, partner with a video marketing agency. Not only will they help you create an incredible video ad that perfectly aligns with your target audiences, but they will also help lead your distribution strategy with paid advertising.Video ads aren’t the only way to earn attention and build out that lead list. Check out this blog:5 Ways To Generate Leads With Video.
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