Video advertising is one of the most popular advertising media today, and it’s no wonder why. Video ads are not only a great way to tell your story, they also leave a lasting impression on your audience. Creating video assets for advertising an be a time-consuming process, but as you’ll see in this post, the cost of video advertising is often lower than the cost of more traditional digital marketing channels, like search or display. What’s more, in these days of high-volume remote work, making professional, cost-effective videos from the comfort of your own home is easier than ever. When video advertising is done well, it’s worth the investment.
If you’re launching a video advertising campaign, this post will walk you through how to get started and make the most of your efforts.
Table of Contents
- Digital video is platform and channel agnostic
- Video ads can take many different forms
- How to use video ads to connect with your audience at each stage of their buyer’s journey
- Get the most from your video advertising budget
- Use video ads to drive action
Digital video is platform and channel agnostic
If you’d like to use video advertising but are struggling to get buy-in on the cost, remember that video assets are extremely versatile. The same video content can be repurposed across different channels—YouTube, social media, email, advertising networks, and owned properties are all ripe for video content. This doesn’t mean you should take a spray-and-pray approach to promoting your video content, but instead the same video asset can have an impressive shelf life if it’s part of a comprehensive strategy. When considering this versatility, the commitment doesn’t seem as significant.
However, the same video won’t necessarily do as well on Facebook as on YouTube, or as well in a remarketing campaign as an email nurturing effort. Different styles and lengths of videos perform differently based upon the network they’re served on. Ask your video team to edit or segment your video creatives in different ways so you can find one with the best results.
Networks are continuing to develop new ways to augment video marketing. While no channel has come up with anything as impactful as YouTube’s video cards yet, suggested videos and Discover Feeds are quickly becoming bigger players in the video discovery space, and social channels have introduced video lead ads as well.
Video ads can take many different forms
From animated explainers to product demos, brand videos to testimonials, there’s a video for every stage of your audience’s buyer journey (more on that in a minute). Videos themselves fall into one of three main categories:
Animated — used to explain a topic or concept related to your brand’s service or to showcase a feature of your product. This can include:
- Animated explainers
- How-to videos
- Brand animations
Brand — used to highlight the company, either by showcasing company achievements, community relations, or employee accolades.
- Company culture
- Behind the scenes
- Employee spotlight
- Brand commercial
Interviews/Testimonials — often in the form of customer testimonials or thought leadership pieces with your industry experts.
Product demos — this one is pretty self-explanatory.
Depending on who you’re trying to attract, certain types of videos have proven more effective at different stages of the buyer’s journey. For example:
- Animated videos are better at appealing to users who are earlier in their customer journey.
- Brand videos or demos are best at engaging users who are a bit further along.
- Interview and testimonial videos are often used to help close a sale or convert a prospect to a lead.
Video is a creative medium, so don’t feel tied down by these rules. In a world where conversion behavior is more muddled than ever, these video types may be used at any stage of the conversion funnel if executed creatively and with a clear call-to-action. Keep in mind that video is a form of display advertising, so you may not be creating content for specific audiences like you might with search ads. Consider a broader target audience, which again will help your company get more use out of the investment.
How to use video ads to connect with your audience at each stage of their buyer’s journey
Now that you know what types of videos can influence and win business at different stages of the conversion funnel, let’s talk about how to use them.
It’d be possible to run an entire campaign using just video ads and retargeting. You could use an explainer video in YouTube search to introduce yourself to a prospect, a brand video to engage them on social media, and a testimonial video to close their business via remarketing or email nurturing. Video provides additional remarketing opportunities because you can target users who have watched 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% of your videos in different ways. This is a great way to pre-qualify and nurture your more engaged audiences.
But it’s possible that prospects won’t convert so readily. Some might require a nudge from a brand influencer on Instagram, a reminder from one of TikTok’s burgeoning entrepreneurs, or need to see a product demo or review on YouTube. The point is, there are options out there for you to attract, engage, and delight your audience using just video. If you’re already using search, social, and email to meet your audience where they are and nurture them along their buyer paths, adding video to the mix can be an easy way to boost your results.
When determining how to use video advertising to connect with your audiences at different stages of your journey, it’s important to trust your gut. If you think that your audience on YouTube or LinkedIn is more likely to take action after seeing a video ad, serve them lower-funnel content. If you think your audience on TikTok or SnapChat is more likely to develop an affinity for your brand if you serve them entertaining content, go the extra mile to create something humorous or outlandish that will resonate with them.
Get the most from your video advertising budget
When working video advertising into your digital marketing budget, there’s plenty of opportunity to stretch your dollar while also telling a compelling story. Let’s look closer at two popular video marketing metrics: cost per view and cost per click.
Video advertising costs per view
It costs less than five cents to earn a video view in YouTube Ads—the typical YouTube cost per view (CPV) is between $0.01 and $0.03, meaning that it would cost approximately $200 to earn 10,000 views. Considering that most YouTube advertisers have a daily budget of $10, those 10,000 views could be earned in less than three weeks with just an average budget.
Video advertising costs per click
Costs per click (CPCs) on video are among the best among digital advertising media:
- YouTube CPCs come in around $2
- Facebook video costs per click are significantly lower, often $0.25-$0.50.
For comparison, Google search ads have an average CPC of between $1 and $2, meaning that clicks from YouTube ads cost just about as much as clicks from Google Ads, with the added benefit of much stronger storytelling. Of course, clicks from Facebook video ads are significantly less expensive than clicks from Google Ads, which is its own benefit as well.
Use video ads to drive action
Video ads help to increase your audience’s recollection of your brand, there’s proof that video ads impact action. A survey from Twitter and some of their partners last year showed that 89% of users who had made a purchase recalled seeing a video ad for the product they bought.
Even if you’re not a retailer, promoting video content can help increase your brand’s reach and expand your marketing audience. Social Media Today points out that 66% of qualified leads come from video, so if you’re not using video to impact your lead generation, chances are you’re behind your competition, 88% of whom plan to spend more on video campaigns this year than last.
The arguments for getting involved with video advertising are virtually limitless, but the crux of the matter is this: a little spend can go a long way, and the more video marketing you do, the more likely you are to generate quality leads. Learn more about how to get started with video marketing and get to work adding this dynamic tool to your marketing portfolio today.
