Humans were introduced to video entertainment many decades ago. Since then, human entertainment has been gradually powered by motion pictures, going hand-in-hand with years of technological progress. Thanks to the tenacity of vision-memory, the contribution of videos in our daily lives has only gone up and so have video ads. It’s human nature to find it easier to watch and understand something than to read plain text and understand it.
There has been gradual progress on the internet, starting from broadband on computer connectivity to unlimited daily internet access on mobile devices. Consequently, the current generation is surrounded by easy access to on-the-go entertainment. The entertainment span has now changed from a two hour movie time to being fragmented throughout the day through various channels of accessibility like over-the-top video platforms and online video streaming services. Thus, connecting with your audience through Video Advertising is the most direct way to build a relationship with them. If given a choice to choose between a text-based ad and a video ad, most will prefer the latter one, because it is less of a hassle and assures quick understanding.
Length of Video Ads
As the entertainment span today has spread out, it also has lowered the patience in people. Thus, the key to catching the attention of your audience is to keep it short and precise. If you are making a 30 seconds Video Ad, it is important to make sure that the core message is delivered in the first 10 seconds of the video, as the audiences have the option to skip mid-way or quit watching the ad entirely. Thus, if the message is conveyed in the first 10 seconds, then you will still have delivered your content even though the audience might have skipped the ad.
Long-Form & Short-Form Video Ads
The debate between long-form vs. short-form video ads has been doing the rounds since quite some time. Both have their value depending upon the goals advertisers want to achieve. Long-form videos are touted to generate better engagement with the costumers by offering more entertainment and telling a story, while short-form videos are used to achieve better click-through rates. Thus, a calculated combination of creativity, precision and length of the video is essential in creating and delivering ads. The right weightage to each element along with the right channelling of the audience is what will reward you with increasing engagement.
Placement of Video Ads & Types
Along with the right mix, it is also necessary to have the right placement of the ads. Advertisers can choose from a variety of placement options like in-between of a video, or within text-based content. Out-stream video ads, on the other hand, can be served in a non-video environment like social media feeds and text articles. These ads appear within the main body of text-based content and play without an existing video.
On the other hand, out-stream video ads run only within a video stream environment, such as pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll. These are also called as linear video ads, as they play before, in-between or after the video. Non-linear video ads can appear alongside the video. They do not disturb the video content. Advertisers can also choose to place their ads within different types of inventories depending upon their requirements. For instance, they can place the ads within a webpage through in-page video ads or within an application through in-app video ads, depending upon the inventory their audiences frequent the most.
Importance of Content in Video Ads
In spite of all these factors, one cannot underestimate the power of the content itself. A study done by Lab42, a research firm, found that 71% of consumers like funny ads, as they make them more likely to remember a product. Below funny ads came educational ads (12%), sexy (8%), serious (4%), and finally patriotic (3%). This brings us back to what is easy to remember for the human brains. Brands need to build content that will increase brand engagement, give a lasting brand recall or fulfil the brands’ goals. With such a huge variety of options available out there, video advertising has something to fit everyone’s needs. Moreover, with the audiences’ increasing demand for video content, it won’t be wrong to say that video advertising is here to stay, and it certainly has a promising future!
