Top 3 Video Ad Insights From Social Media Marketing World ’19

The VideoBoost team had the opportunity to attend the Social Media Marketing World conference in San Diego last month — we came back buzzing with ideas and insights! Video marketing was a hot topic at the event, and we put together a few important points that came up throughout the week.  Enjoy!

  1. Video ads are a non-negotiable part of your paid advertising strategy.

This is something that marketers hear over and over again; we know that within the next few years, the major social media platforms will be dominated by video even more extensively than they are now.  But at SMMW, the speakers really honed in on what we have to gain beyond vague notions of ‘not getting left behind.’

In a particularly helpful session about creating successful video ad campaigns, Andrew Hubbard, who runs his own social media advertising agency with a wide range of clients, shared that according to his agency’s own internal data, a video ad will lead to an average of around 18% higher purchase rates than other types of media.

In other words, any brand that incorporates video into their paid advertising strategy is likely to see an uptick in new customers and overall purchases.

  1. Useful, valuable content helps video ad conversions. 

Most marketers and business owners know that they have to catch the attention of their audience, who are all scrolling through a ton of content and need a reason to choose theirs.  But a variety of experts at SMMW argued that nowadays, even our clever headlines and super cool visual effects just aren’t enough when it comes to social media ads.  Giving over valuable content — even in a short ad — is a hugely effective way to develop brand trust and ultimately, to get more customers.

One approach that we heard a few times was to create longer form video content with really useful information in your space and then serve some of your more ‘salesy’ ad content to the people who watched at least 10% of the video.  Useful information can be anything from a tutorial to a collection of tips and hacks — as long as you’ve tailored it to the interests and needs of your potential customers.

The idea here is that once someone associates your brand with genuinely great content, you’ve built up your credibility and increased your chances of making the sale.

  1. Your ‘hook’ and your CTA have to come faster than you think.

We already know that people don’t watch videos for very long and that our videos have to get interesting quickly — but do we know how quickly?  Hubbard gave over two stats that paint the picture pretty well:  people spend an average of 1.7 seconds looking at any given piece of content.

Let that sink in.  And then wash it down with this: even when people do watch videos, they’re watching for an average of 10 seconds.

What does all of this mean for marketers? It means that we have to convince people to watch within the first second or two of our videos.  Not only that, but we can’t afford to wait until the end of the video to give our call to action. Even if you have an awesome video, waiting until the end to serve your CTA means that even the people who loved your hook and kept watching probably won’t see it.


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