Facebook Video Ads: an attention-grabbing ad format

The future of Facebook video ads is redefining today’s brands

The innovation generated by video ads is inevitably affecting the way businesses tell their stories online. Today, more than ever, businesses can pull people to their brands through engaging and memorable video experiences.

Not surprisingly, video content consumption is set to reach 82% of all internet user traffic by 2022 (source: Cisco), and this is exactly why marketing campaigns need to push video ads.

In a previous post, we outlined how video ads on social media are a formidable tool for reaching users with relevant communications that are capable of engaging them. This time, we want to go deeper into the role of video ads on Facebook.

Why Facebook? It is undeniable that today, Facebook is one of the most popular video sharing platforms on the web. This makes Facebook video ads not only a critical tool for any digital marketer, but most importantly, it’s the place that helps users and advertisers build strong and meaningful connections.

Moreover, there is a factor that works to companies’ advantage: Facebook Ads is suitable for both B2C and B2B marketing. Although in the collective imagination Facebook is mainly intended for end users, statistics show its value also for B2B, recording an average conversion rate between 9 and 10% (Source: AdEspresso).

So, whether you want to start off with your first video ad or enhance your next campaign, let’s take a look at the key components of Facebook video ads that will let professionals build a valuable online presence and the benefits that you won’t want to miss.

Let’s start from the basics: What are Facebook Video Ads?

Users constantly discover and watch videos in diverse formats, each offering distinct viewer and ad experiences: from short-form videos in environments like Feed and Stories, to long-form videos in sections like Watch and Live.

Facebook video ads are paid ads that feature a video and can appear in several predetermined locations on a visitor’s Facebook screen. The platform offers a variety of resources that can be implemented for targeted purposes. If you want to communicate effectively through Facebook video ads, you must be familiar with the following formats:

• In-feed ads: appear as someone scrolls through their News Feed, like an organic post.
• In-Stream Video Ads: mini ads that play in the middle of another video. They only appear on mobile devices after 60 seconds of playing the main video content. The first 15 seconds of an in-stream ad will play, then the viewer is given the choice to watch the rest of the ad or return to the original video.
• Marketplace video ads: as the name implies, they appear while a user is scrolling and shopping on Facebook Marketplace.
• Stories ads full-screen: vertical ads that play between organic Facebook stories. Longer than 15 seconds, they are divided into multiple story cards that play in sequence.
• Video Feed ads: are shown between organic videos on Facebook Video Feed. The scrolling Video Feed pops up whenever someone clicks to watch a video from their News Feed.

A golden opportunity: what are the main advantages of Facebook Video Ads?

After defining the basic toolkit that every digital marketer and creator should own, it’s now time to focus on the possibilities offered by Facebook video ads. Facebook video ads open a whole new world to explore, so let’s discover the main advantages and how to get the most out of them.

1. Drive brand awareness to the top

Again this year, Facebook was confirmed to have one of the largest user bases: there are over 2.7 billion active users, representing a huge potential audience, and if that’s not enough, nearly two-thirds are active on a regular basis. Don’t be intimidated! With the right attention, creating a strong online presence for your brand can be a breeze.

The main objective is to be able to intercept the right people: those who are genuinely interested in the type of product or service you offer. And since driving awareness is a common goal for video ad campaigns, Facebook helps professionals define specific and relatable objectives to maximize results.

In particular, Facebook’s algorithm optimizes ads based on pre-defined metrics to understand who is most likely to recall your ad. And what is the recommended format for Brand Awareness campaigns if not video ads?

2. Gain user attention instantly

Another advantage to consider is the possibility to gain the user’s attention in a very short time. Facebook video ads are the most effective method to catch customers’ attention, since video content shows products in motion, emphasizing their features into dynamic and original stories.

What is the optimal length of these videos? Shorter ads work better on Facebook in terms of effectiveness: Facebook suggests running in-stream ads between 5 and 15 seconds long. After all, attention spans are shrinking and, as we’ve already said, to create a successful video ad on Facebook, it’s important to keep it short and sharp.

Mind you though, Facebook users often scroll quickly through their news feeds – 3 to 5 seconds – so the primary goal should be to capture the user’s attention in these first few moments, focusing the core message of the ad in this range of time.

Among all formats, In-Stream ads is the most effective for catching the user’s attention.

In-Stream ads are particularly apt since they display within other Facebook videos, therefore, it can be assured that the viewer wants to keep watching and will keep their attention on your ad all the way through. This will improve ad recall, brand awareness, and increased intent.

3. Getting more conversions is a reality

Not only do people love spending time watching video content on Facebook, video is also the best medium for finding a new product, according to almost a third of shippers (AdEspresso).

One rule to follow: keep users’ interest at a high level. By doing so, you can manage more conversions and maximize results.

In fact, ad conversion rates on Facebook are much higher than on most other platforms, resulting in a greater average CTR than other ad formats (almost 10 times higher than image ads). What does this mean in practical terms? It’s a great opportunity for businesses to generate higher ROIs.

4. Expertise is the key

Video ads allow you to share much more information compared to other content, and they can steer the viewer to take the desired action.

In this step, take care to provide information that will help the brand connect with different audiences. Why?

Because, unlike static content (such as images and texts), video ads allow you to speak to your audience and demonstrate your expertise to sell your product or service and let the public know more about you and your success.

This makes it perfect for a wide variety of purposes: from selling products, to providing e-learning courses, to professional consulting and many other services. I’s also perfect for selling B2B solutions because your potential customers may not always have enough time to read long texts.

5. Emerge from the crowd of competitors

We know, the world of Facebook ads is vast and competitive. In the third quarter of 2020, there were 10 million active advertisers on the platform (source: Statista). This is a clear sign that, to differentiate yourself from the competition, you need to provide something unique and special.

Creating a high-quality video ad may require a lot of time and effort, but if we want to see the glass half full, that means that most of your competitors might not spend adequate time and resources on this activity.

So, don’t waste this chance: build high-impact video ads to reach new customers, engage audiences, and make your brand stand out from the competition.

Launch Facebook video ads to tell your potential customers what makes you different from others through engaging and emotional content, from industry-specific issues, to something yourcustomer has experienced. How? A great way is to leverage customer testimonials to outline your ability to solve problems and talk about how you have helped them!

6. Facebook video ads enhance retargeting

Last but not least, creating video ads on Facebook represents a very effective strategy to implement retargeting campaigns.

Facebook’s detailed retargeting options are great for retargeting journeys, and video ads are an integral part of that. This valuable activity allows you to qualify those who are interested in a particular product or service, and are therefore more likely to convert.

Retargeting ads are automatically displayed to users who have already interacted with you by taking some action, such as visiting your website or seeing your other ads.

Video ad retargeting really works because when a user takes the time to watch your ad, they are signaling an interest in what you’re posting. As a result, you can show them future ads that are based on that expressed interest.

One thing in conclusion: while the tips above can help guide you in the right direction to an ad objective that will help reach your goals, the best way to determine what works for your business is to test and then optimize your campaign based on data. The best practice is to set up multiple ad sets with different optimizations to see which one drives the best results for your business.

Babelee

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