Video Advertising 101

The use of video has been a growing global trend, solidifying itself as an essential tool for businesses looking to increase their brand awareness. But just as the world around us continues to evolve, so does video advertising, making it hard to keep up with changing consumer habits and the newest innovations.

From varying formats, to ways to measure and transact, to implementing the latest and greatest best practices – the world of video advertising can be an intimidating space.

Have no fear! We are here to help you navigate through this seemingly boundless terrain to understand everything you need to know to take on video advertising.

What is Video Advertising?

The past few years have been significant for video advertising, with year-over-year growth far exceeding industry experts' expectations. Why is video seeing such an epic boom? People just like watching it! Around the world, people watch an average of 16 hours of online videos per week and are looking to your brand to create content. In fact, 54% of consumers want to see more videos from brands they are loyal to, creating a massive opportunity for marketers looking to connect with potential and returning customers alike.

With 92% of marketers stating that video ads will continue to be an integral part of their marketing strategy, the number of new video-focused apps and products that have hit the market in the past few years should come as no surprise. Leading the charge is TikTok, a short-form video hosting service and everyone's new favorite social media app, where users create a myriad of content to delight (and disturb) the masses. Similarly, Instagram, once known primarily as a photo-sharing app, in a bid to stay relevant in a TikTok world, recently debuted Reels, a "new way to create and discover short, entertaining videos.”

Social media video innovations are being embraced by eCommerce brands that are using video to attract and convert viewers. Shoppable videos are perfect for launching a new product and driving awareness and traffic. On Facebook and Instagram, brands can create shops that are tied to interactive video ads prompting users to buy while they scroll through their social feeds.

Video advertising is also becoming increasingly automated, and advertisers are turning to programmatic for efficiency and scale. Programmatic video works similarly to programmatic display advertising, allowing marketers to buy video ad inventory instead of real-time buying and selling. Mobile currently represents two-thirds of the programmatic video market; however, there is a rapid rise in Connected TV (CTV) ad spend.

So, users love video and are looking to watch more of it – what else do you need to know? Let’s take a deeper look at how video advertising boosts your business.

Video advertising isn’t new; in fact, it’s been an established tool to communicate with consumers since 1941, when the world's first TV commercial aired. There are plenty of advantages to using video content, the main factor being that consumers prefer it! But if you need a few more reasons on how video can benefit your brand, let’s review them.

Mobile opportunity: Americans spend almost 3 hours a day on their phones, and each year, more people are turning to mobile devices to watch their favorite content, creating a big opportunity for brands to reach their target audiences on mobile.
Good for ROAS: Creating memorable experiences doesn’t have to come with a big budget these days. Not only can these videos be produced in-house with (relative) ease, marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users.
Viralness: Simply put, video content hooks people in, and generally, users want to share those impactful videos with friends, family, and colleagues.
Condensed storytelling: Not all digital media is created equal. It can be incredibly challenging to create an engaging and informative ad given size and creative limitations. However, through the use of video, brands can tell stories quickly and garner a more significant emotional response from users.
Search engine darling: Creating video content is excellent for SEO and awareness! Embedding videos into blogs and product pages and distributing them via social media is a great way to help boost your rankings, allowing your target audience to find your brand organically.

So now that we know why to use video let's dive into the different types of video advertising available to best broadcast your brand’s messaging.

Types of Video Ads

Video ads come in a variety of shapes and sizes, each serving a different purpose depending on the campaign objective.

Let’s review a few of the most popular ad formats:

In-stream video ads are the most common form of video advertising that can be found on YouTube and other media platforms. Also known as linear ads, these adverts occur before, during, or after the user’s chosen video content. Pre-roll ads (we’ll talk more about that later) are well-loved by marketers as a majority of users consider them to be more engaging, informative, and less disruptive.
Out-stream video ads are mobile-specific ads that appear within non-video-based editorial content. Brands looking to expand their campaign beyond the video player could utilize this format to extend their reach. While these ads are meant to be non-obtrusive, many users find these videos to be jarring and distracting when trying to consume their chosen content.
Native video ads command the user’s attention by appearing naturally within their chosen content, typically found in-feed on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Due to their natural-seeming appearance, native video ads perform better than their disruptive counterparts (such as the aforementioned out-stream).
Interactive video ads, such as rewarded video ads, offer an immersive full-screen experience prompting users to watch a video in exchange for a variety of rewards. Although most frequently encountered in games, rewarded ads are not exclusive to mobile gaming and can be used in other mobile apps as well.

While there are many forms of video advertising to choose from - not all are created equal! Simply dropping the same video into different formats does not work and will end in wasted marketing dollars. Be sure to follow best practices and customize your brand's video assets to garner the strongest results.

Everything You Need to Know about

Pre-Roll Advertising

Marketers are drawn to pre-roll advertising thanks to its many benefits. Pre-roll ads are a valuable tool for marketing to a specified audience and showcasing your brand to new consumers. A pre-roll ad is a short video advertisement (typically 15, 30, or 60 seconds long) that automatically plays directly before a video. In some cases, the viewer must watch the ad in its entirety (also known as a non-skippable ad) to get to their desired content.

Pre-roll ads are flexible as they can target users based on their viewing habits, the featured video’s topic, age demographic, and interests. They are also considered less invasive when compared to mid and post-roll.

In a matter of seconds, pre-roll ads can create an impactful impression and be a crucial tool for building brand awareness.

There are three types of pre-roll ads:

Skippable ads: These ads allow the user to skip after five seconds. These ads work on a pay-per-view model, which means you pay when the viewer watches the entire ad or when they reach 30 seconds. Research shows that these ads are rarely viewed in its entirety and have only a slightly higher brand lift than its non-skippable counterpart.

Non-skippable ads: As the name suggests, this form of advertisement does not give the user a choice to skip it. These ads are typically 15 seconds long but are best when kept short and impactful. Non-skippable ads can increase conversions, brand lift, and drive brand awareness.
Bumper ads: These bite-sized ads are six seconds long and cannot be skipped. Its short, powerful nature makes it a perfect fit for mobile advertising when targeting the busy user on the go. Due to its brief time with the user, these ads can pack a punch in driving early engagement and awareness when appropriately used.

You’ll find these ads are most commonly run on YouTube, considering that it is the second most popular website in the world, drawing in over two billion monthly users. Pre-roll advertising is the perfect opportunity for brands to engage with potential new customers and drive value to their campaigns.

Video Advertising Best Practices: Make Your Brand Shine

While video is a great tool for generating awareness and persuading the consumer to fulfill an action or purchase, it’s not a guaranteed win.

There are crucial guidelines to consider when creating your next (or first) video ad. Keep these rules in mind to optimize your ROI.

Get to the point: It’s crucial to convey your message and include your call to action (CTA) early on so that interested viewers can be redirected to your landing page or app as quickly as possible. Try to capture the user’s attention within the first three seconds to ensure that they’ll finish the video, this could be done by intriguing, delighting, or mystifying the audience with quick-witted copy and striking visuals. Be sure to come out of the gates swinging!
Size does matter: Not only do shorter video ads ensure faster load times, but they also make it more likely your viewers will watch the entire ad. We’ve talked about attention spans before, but it bears repeating that most consumers only have an attention span of about 8 seconds. Try to keep the video short; anywhere from fifteen to thirty seconds would be optimal, especially for those watching on a mobile device.
Showcase the brand: It should be clear (and quickly) who or what the ad is about. That means you need strong branding throughout the ad. In other words, the same logos, fonts, colors, and voice should be used consistently throughout your video ads and other types of promotional content.
Enjoyable on mute: How often are you sitting on a bus or train scrolling through your phone? Perhaps an interesting video comes on, but you forgot your headphones, so you have to watch it on mute. If you’re like me, this may happen more often than you’d like to admit. As a marketer, be sure that the ad you’re creating can be enjoyed (and is just as effective) without sound. Adding text, graphics, or captions to the ad can help encourage engagement even when on mute.
Clear CTA: It may go without saying, but your ad should have a clear and concise call to action. Whether you’re offering a free trial or looking for the user to make a direct purchase, it's crucial to spur action from the user. To make sure it’s easy for them to do the specific activity by the end of the video, give them clear instructions in the form of an appealing CTA. Remember, time is of the essence; there’s no certainty the user will even make it to the end of the video, so make it easy for them to complete your chosen objective.
Optimized for mobile: In 2022, the number of global smartphone users is estimated at 6.6 billion, that’s almost 80% of the global population! What does that mean for marketers? Having a mobile-optimized ad increases your chances of having it seen by the right people. Prioritize vertical (9:16) or square videos (1:1) over landscape (16:9) whenever possible. People generally hold their phones vertically, and vertical or square video covers more of the mobile screen, creating a better overall user experience. Don’t forget your font size, it should be easy to read on mobile devices as well!

Alright, you made a great video, and you’re ready to launch — smooth sailing from here, right? Maybe not. Should you be monitoring clicks? Does it matter if people aren’t watching the video in its entirety?

Video marketing can be an effective tool for businesses of any size. But you won’t know whether your efforts are paying off if you're not tracking the right metrics. That’s why it’s essential for marketers to understand what metrics to track and how to interpret them.

While the most important key performance indicators (KPIs) can vary from video to video, we’ll do a quick overview of some of the most important metrics to gauge the video’s overall success.

View Count is the total number of people who have viewed your video. Be mindful that different platforms have alternate requirements as to what is considered a view. For example, Youtube considers that a video has been “viewed” after 30 seconds; however, Facebook and Instagram count a view if the user watched 3 seconds of the video. Ultimately, views may not impact your bottom line if no action is taken.
Play Rate is a fundamental metric if you’re measuring the success of an embedded video. This tracks if someone actually hit play to watch your video instead of scrolling past an autoplay video - this metric requires an action from the user. Consider your approach to the thumbnail design, as it will need to entice someone to click.
Watch Time is the total amount of time people have watched your video, including replays. This KPI can help you understand whether your video content resonates with your audience. As one can expect, if users are watching the video in full (or watching most of it), you are probably on the right track in terms of the messaging and imagery.
Clickthrough Rate and the number of clicks on a video is an important KPI (for most marketing campaigns), and that doesn’t change when it comes to video advertising! Ultimately, videos should spur action from the user. In this case, it's learning more about your brand or product by clicking through to a designated landing page. To optimize this metric, try testing different call-to-actions and compare engagement. Make sure that your video tells a story to drive that click!
Conversions measure how well your video convinces viewers to convert into a lead or a customer. This is a very important metric to monitor and should be a part of every marketing strategy your team deploys. When time and resources are spent on a campaign, it’s important to measure how it affects the bottom line and whether it was profitable.

Now that you know how to calculate some important metrics and how to improve your video content, you should nail that next campaign!

End Scene!

Video ads can only improve your marketing strategy, regardless of the size of your business or the industry you’re in. It’s only a matter of you deciding whether you want to give them a chance. Interested in kicking off your own video advertising campaigns? We’ll make it easy.