Video dominates ad platforms for good reason: Video ad effectiveness cannot be beat by any other type of ad on any platform.
Why? Because video content is extremely engaging, users have a very short attention span and they spend a lot of time on their phones. Short-form videos like those on TikTok, Meta’s reels and YouTube have changed the ad landscape. With 92% of people on their phones all day, people watching videos for an average of 62 minutes per day and 55% of all internet traffic coming from mobile devices, it’s no wonder that video is what slows the scroll – and that includes video ads.
Video Ads as Silent Movies
Video ad creators and media buyers are like silent movie producers. They want to tell a short but engaging story with video but no sound.
Let’s break that down:
- How short? In our experience, a 15-second video ad receives higher engagement than a 2-minute ad, and much higher engagement than a static ad, which users just scroll by.
- How engaging? If you only have 15 seconds to pique a user’s interest in your brand, your video must be compelling.
- Why silent? Most people have their phones on mute, so a video needs to work without sound. Although Meta offers free music backgrounds for video ads, a lot of ad creators skip it because the music goes unnoticed if the phone is muted, and the music may even turn off users that an advertiser is trying to reach.
Have you ever watched a silent movie? Although most of the emotion and action was communicated through body language and facial expressions, some words were used on cards between scenes or in subtitles to move the story along. Video ads also can make effective use of written words – with succinct and compelling post copy, a caption or a video overlay.
What’s the Goal of Video Ads?
Just like any other ad, video ads are built with clear objectives in mind. Video ads work great in awareness and consideration campaigns because they can capture users’ attention and hold their attention. Media buyers measure just how much attention a video ad commands through play-through, or view-through, rates. They tell the media buyer how long the user watches a video ad. For an awareness or remarketing ad, they want to see a play-through rate of better than 50%.
In an awareness campaign, video ads can make a user curious to learn more about a brand, so another way to measure effectiveness is to monitor traffic to the advertiser’s website.
In consideration campaigns, users are looking for more information on a product or service before they commit. Testimonial video ads – like user-generated content (UGC) – work well in this stage of the buyer’s funnel, because users feel like they are getting firsthand information on the brand they are researching.
What’s Next for Video Ads?
The trend for video ads is to be shorter. UGC videos are more popular than ever, and with the uncertainty surrounding TikTok, YouTube Shorts are on the rise. Interactive videos – such as those that allow viewers to purchase products directly through the video – are also gaining in popularity.
If you’re preparing to launch or test video ads, be sure they are short, filmed vertically to be mobile-friendly, optimize them using the correct keywords and don’t bother with a music track.
