One of the clearest trends for 2024 in digital marketing is that video content continues to rise as an engaging content format, bringing conversion rates unmatched by visual or text ads.
Successful Facebook video ads campaigns are based on a good understanding on how paid ads work, how to create relevant video content and how to reach targeted audiences through social media.
We will go through video ad best practices for 2024 using Facebook as your channel.
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Why Is Video Content So Effective in Ad Campaigns?
As you may already know, video content is the king right now. Facebook users, and generally Internet users, don’t have a long attention span. It’s not because they intrinsically lack the patience for it, but they are bombarded with content that flows on their news feed, making any Facebook session a chase for relevant content that would make their time worth.
If your content does not grab their attention right away, it’s very easy for your post to get lost just through a quick mouse scroll. This is why it’s crucial to create content that will be seen by the right people, and that is offering them a solution to a problem, an interesting point of view or just pure entertainment.
Do you want to learn how to create videos that people will actually watch? Here’s how:
How to Create Facebook Video Ads
1. Choose the Right Objective When You’re Setting Your Video Ad Campaign
First, you will have to choose an objective for your campaign from the 11 different options featured in the Facebook Ad Manager. Choosing the right one will allow Facebook to optimise your ads for that specific purpose, so make sure you have a clear goal in mind before starting.
The main three categories of objectives are: Awareness, Consideration and Conversion. You should go with the goal that fits your campaign the most, depending on the stage you’re at in the relationship with your customers:
- Do they know your brand? (Awareness)
- Have they checked your content before? (Consideration)
- Are they buying your products or services? (Conversion)
The 11 objectives proposed by Facebook are very helpful and well-structured, making it relatively simple to start your campaign on the right foot.
2. Tell Them What They’re Going to Get in the First Seconds of the Video
As mentioned before, Facebook users have a short attention span. It’s not enough to get them to start watching your video, you will also have to keep them watching until the end. Tell your viewers from the very beginning what they are going to get from watching your video. The story or the benefit should come across in the first few seconds of the video, even if you think adding it in the title is enough.
3. Keep It Short
Long blog post articles are proven to be most engaging, but this principle doesn’t apply to videos on Facebook as well. Keep it short and concise, allowing your viewers to keep their interest high throughout your video. People who watched your video and quickly found out an interesting piece of information like an attractive offer, interesting trivia on the subject or a very funny piece of content will be willing to share, comment and like your video.
4. Choose the Right Aspect Ratio: Square or Vertical Work Best
Another great way to make the most out of your video ad on Facebook is to choose an aspect ratio that will take up a big portion of the screen. Square videos and vertical videos are the best for Facebook advertising: 9:16 and 1:1 perform significantly better than 16:1.
5. Mention Your Brand Right Away
People watching videos on Facebook want concise information that allows them to know what’s going on immediately. Mention your brand in the first seconds of the video to make it clear that the content is coming from you, and more information can be found by contacting you. Increasing your brand awareness can be done with every video ad you post.
6. Write Good Ad Copy in the Video Title and Description
Video content doesn’t eliminate the need for good ad copy. You can add a video description to help it attract more viewers, and give them additional details, provide a summary of the video and include a call to action. You can use the text description in many ways, from just adding a short, impactful description to providing outside links, additional details and other info.
Besides the attached text description that will appear in your Facebook video post, you also have to choose a good title and meta description. Use strong words and inspire yourself from the good practices of posting text content: numbers, call to action phrases and answers to basic questions are generally very effective.
7. Share the Best Performing Videos from Your Portfolio for Your Facebook Ads
If you regularly create and post video content for your Facebook page, you have the great advantage of having lots of videos to choose from. Check the stats of your existing videos, and also their primary objective, and share them in an ad campaign that fits your immediate marketing objectives. It’s important to mention that a native video will be better than one shared from an outside platform like Vimeo or YouTube.
Content that got a lot of video views, likes and comments are good for your future ad campaigns. When deciding on what your Facebook content will be about, take future possibilities into account and choose topics that won’t be outdated shortly after.
8. Choose a Compelling Thumbnail Image
Facebook gives its users the possibility to turn off autoplay for the videos in the news feed. This doesn’t mean that you can’t attract these users as well. While scrolling through their news feed, they will see video thumbnails instead of moving images. As a content creator, you can choose the thumbnail of your video.
Pick an image that is relevant, attractive and that contains some information about the topic. You can have this element in mind even when creating your video, and include a screenshot with text overlay at the beginning or ending of the video for exactly this purpose. Use a high-quality image and don’t overwhelm it with text.
9. Optimise Your Content for People Who Watch on Mute
A lot of people turn off the volume while browsing Facebook, either because they are at work, or browsing it at night or in a public place. Many of them just don’t like being interrupted by sounds when Facebook auto-plays the videos in their newsfeed. Take them into consideration.
Your content should be understandable even if the sound is off. For that, use relevant visuals and a clear scenario for your video, overlay text elements in your video and add captions to the video if there is a lot of talking. Fortunately, video content helps a lot by combining moving images and sound, so you already have a multi-levelled communication channel you can use in your marketing campaigns.
10. Perform Split Tests Before Fully Launching a Campaign
As with any online ad campaign, A/B testing and split testing are vital to keep your investment in the right place. Choose the best performing ad for your campaign, based on the level of engagement and number of views your variations got.
Test the different types of video content Facebook enables you to post: from carousel ads to Facebook Stories, canvas ads or 360 videos.
We Can Help
If you have more questions about Facebook video advertising, contact our advertising AIA experts and ask any questions you may have.
