Customize Engaging Video Advertisements for YouTube
Different platforms need different marketing videos. Just like you would customize material for different audiences, demographics, and broadcasting channels, every video advertisement needs to be built according to guidelines of where you're posting it online. Facebook videos, for example, should be short, graphically exciting, and translate well without sound. On the other hand, YouTube videos on your channel need to be informative, instantly recognizable, and easy to follow. However, YouTube advertisements are something else entirely. Here's how to get the most mileage out of YouTube advertisements specifically.
Set a hook by the five-second mark.
YouTube allows for several advertisement options, but signing up for unskippable ads can actually severely limit the data you can aggregate and, therefore, the reach of your marketing budget. Instead, test out new campaigns with ads that viewers can skip. This helps you get better statistics about the viability of new material since you can measure skips and the duration of views, not simply how often viewers click on the screen.
Skippable ads have a clickable "Skip Ad" button five seconds into a video, so take that button into consideration. If you have a talking head in the middle of an entertaining sentence or you have an exciting action shot, your viewers might stick around to see what happens next. However, avoid operating purely off shock value: it gets old and tedious quickly. Targeted viewers might see the same ad several times and you don't want it to become aggravating or for your message to wear off in effectiveness.
Use music that sounds like a contemporary song.
If your advertisements can be placed before music videos, then using music yourself is a great way to get your advertisement noticed in a positive way. People listening to a playlist of music videos are probably working on other tasks and using music as background noise. If you use quality, catchy music for the beginning of your video, viewers may flip over to the YouTube tab to discover the song but stick around for the rest of your ad. Interrupting their background noise with your dialogue-heavy ad will lead to an immediate skip.
Every type of media style and platform has its own formatting rules and style tactics, even if you use the same raw footage. For more tips for each video platform and optimizing your video ad campaigns, contact us today.
