Video advertising is a way of promoting products or services through videos that can be played before, during, or after streaming content. This type of advertising is becoming more popular, with marketing professionals now including display ads with video content as part of video advertising. Examples of these ads include those that start playing when a user hovers over them and native video ads promoted on digital ad networks.
However, it’s important to make sure the video ads are relevant and compelling to the viewer. Otherwise, they may annoy or frustrate the viewer instead of capturing their interest. Like with TV ads, it’s also crucial to get the video ads in front of the target audience.
Even if the video ads are appealing, they won’t be useful if the right people don’t see them.
Therefore, it’s essential to be aware of the right video advertising techniques and future trends to reach the right audience effectively.
What are the Different Types of Video Advertisements?
Marketers have a variety of video ad options to choose from based on their customer’s needs and their marketing goals. Video advertising offers different options for marketers to choose from. These include –
- In-stream ads
- Non-linear ads
- Rewarded ads
- Native autoplay ads
- Shoppable video ads
- Native videos.
In-stream ads are the most popular and appear before, during, or after video content. Rewarded ads target gamers by providing incentives for watching the video. Shoppable video ads encourage viewers to buy a specific product.
What is Online Video Advertising?
Online advertising is a powerful and effective way to advertise on digital platforms. It involves presenting video advertisements on various online platforms. As video advertising is gaining popularity, it has become an essential marketing strategy for every marketer.
This medium of storytelling is engaging and has a promising success rate, making it a worthwhile investment. Marketers can choose from different platforms such as Google ads, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, depending on their product and target audience.
To create a successful video ad, the marketer must first determine its purpose, such as explaining a product, sharing a brand story, or showcasing a product. They must also choose a unique angle, such as authentic, emotional, or humorous, to appeal to viewers.
Display vs. Video Advertising
A display ad is a form of paid advertisement that appears online, on websites, social media networks, or apps. These ads were first introduced as rectangular-shaped banner ads that appeared at the top of a website’s main content. The primary goal of display ads is to increase brand awareness and encourage purchase intent.
However, their click-through rate is generally low, at 0.05% across all formats. Some users even exhibit “banner blindness,” where they become desensitized to online ads and no longer notice them.
Given these limitations, marketers have started exploring other options for advertising. One popular alternative is video ads, which are highly effective in driving awareness, engagement, and conversions.
69% of people prefer watching videos over reading text when learning about a product or service. Additionally, using videos on landing pages can increase conversion rates by up to 86%.
Advantages of Video Ads
Marketers can enjoy a plethora of benefits when it comes to video advertising.
Firstly, video content is incredibly engaging. When people watch a video, it increases brand awareness and can be used for much more than just creating awareness. Video ads can include CTA buttons that direct users to product pages or landing pages, ultimately leading to conversions.
Secondly, producing video ads is not a challenging task anymore. With a wide range of online video tools available, even for free, creating short in-house video ads and promoting them on native or social networks is a fast and cost-effective way to get your brand message out to your target audience.
Thirdly, video ads are shareable. People tend to share videos they love, and most streaming platforms have built-in sharing buttons, which is a powerful way to increase reach and build audiences and brand awareness.
Fourthly, videos are great for storytelling. Experimenting with background music, camera angles, and dialogue to connect with your audience can help them remember your brand.
Fifthly, videos convey a lot of information in a short time. By combining visuals, narration, music, and/or on-screen captions, videos can pack in a lot of stories. A short 10-second clip can be just as powerful as an informative 10-minute product demo video.
Finally, video is popular on mobile. It’s essential to optimize video for mobile devices. Your marketing team should ensure the video plays smoothly on mobile devices and looks great on small screens. It’s also crucial to take the video’s orientation into account.
What are the Latest Trends?
As the popularity of video advertising increases, new features, and trends are emerging to keep up with changing viewer behavior. Here are some of the popular features that have proven to be highly effective and will continue to prevail –
Shorter video ads
Short video ads are a perfect way to capture viewers’ attention within a short period. Marketers and creative teams must now tell their brand story in under 15 seconds while eliciting a proper response from viewers and capturing their interest.
Mobile-first advertising
Viewers are relying more and more on their mobile phones every day. As a result, video ads are being made more mobile-friendly to reach a wider audience and appeal to them.
User-generated content
Using content generated by users helps to build a more trusted relationship with the audience. It presents authenticity and forges an emotional connection with the user.
OTT advertising
Over-the-top (OTT) advertising involves streaming media over the internet. Advertising through these platforms allows marketers to utilize targeting, ad insertion, and advanced analytics to create shorter, more personalized ads for users.
Cinemagraphs
Cinemagraphs are a combination of photos and videos that provide an interesting visual effect on the viewer. It captures the interest of the user and thus proves to be a useful tool for video advertising.
Targeted Video Advertisement Vs Programmatic Video Advertising
Targeted advertisements are ads that are tailored to a user’s specific interests based on their search and browsing history. While targeted ads can be beneficial for both users and advertisers, there are also concerns about user privacy and transparency.
Programmatic video advertising involves using bots to buy ad space based on specific audience profiles and budgets. While this can be effective, it raises questions about privacy and transparency in advertising. Additionally, targeted ads have been associated with the spread of fake news and clickbait.
As a marketer, it is important to consider the potential drawbacks of targeted advertising and prioritize the best interests of the customer. By doing so, we can create more effective and ethical marketing practices.
How will video ads continue to evolve?
Personalized ads, which adjust based on a user’s location, demographic, or interests, are becoming more prevalent and will continue to do so as technology improves. Social media sites like Facebook are already experimenting with personal ads, and connected TV platforms like Roku or Apple TV are making a big impact on the industry as people move away from traditional TV.
As virtual and augmented reality become more commonplace, companies will have yet another new space to place ads, such as running ads on virtual billboards in virtual worlds. These emerging technologies are shaping the future of video ads and providing new opportunities for brands to reach their target audience in innovative ways.
Conclusion
Video advertising is an effective way of promoting products or services through videos, which can be played before, during, or after streaming content. Marketers have a variety of options to choose from, such as in-stream ads, rewarded ads, shoppable video ads, and native videos.
Compared to display ads, video ads offer higher engagement and conversion rates. The advantages of video ads include their engaging nature, ease of production, shareability, storytelling capability, ability to convey a lot of information in a short time, and popularity on mobile devices.
Some of the latest trends in video advertising include shorter video ads, mobile-first advertising, user-generated content, OTT advertising, and cinematography. In the ever-changing world of digital marketing, it is crucial for marketers to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and techniques to reach their target audience effectively.