While digital marketing experts are convinced that video advertising is an efficient way of communicating with your current and potential customers, small and mid-sized businesses are still hesitant about it. This is mostly because of the lack of credible information about this great platform of advertising.

This guide is aimed to providing this vital information, which can help you reach the digital marketing goals of your business effectively and beat your competitors with video ads.

Why Video Advertising?

Statistics show that millennials and Generation Z are no longer dependent on newspapers for learning about what’s going on around them. Instead, they depend on social media websites for this purpose. And social media websites are delivering the bulk of this information through videos which are shared and viewed by the millions. Companies that were quick to adapt to this change realized the advertising potential of these videos and started creating their own digital content.

This way, they were able to reach millions of viewers and deliver their message in a more effective way than articles or blogs. Videos have been found to be more engaging in nature because of their multi-sensory appeal. Advertising experts have also observed that it is easier to deliver the “tone” of your brand better through videos than simply words.

Some Mistakes to Avoid

Many businesses see no ROI even after spending large amounts of sums on video ads. The reason could be one or many, but some of the most common mistakes have been listed below.

• Making ‘hollow’ video ads is one of the biggest errors businesses make. The ads must be totally content-driven that offer some unique value to the viewer. Building a video solely around a marketing pitch will leave the viewer uninterested and even annoyed.
• Make sure that your video ads are mobile compatible. The digital audience is slowly shifting away from desktops and laptops to their mobile devices. Currently, many videos still get distorted when viewed from smart phones and tabs. To reach the maximum number of people, it is necessary to make your videos device-responsive.
• Ignoring the length of the video is a strict no-no. Very few long-form ads are successful in keeping the viewers hooked till the end. Research suggests that the most shared videos are about two and a half minutes long.
• Many businesses don’t follow up on their campaigns and never know if their video ads are effective in finding new customers. Without this data, it becomes impossible to learn from previous mistakes and make better future campaigns.

Is YouTube the Best Option for You?

YouTube’s unique views are growing by millions every year. There is 60% year-on-year rise in the total viewing hours. The number of websites (including online news) that are embedding YouTube videos in their articles to support their content is also on a rise. This strongly suggests that the new age digital consumer depends heavily on YouTube for all kinds of video content.

An effective way to reach this consumer is to identify channels relevant to your product or service and run your campaigns on the videos of such channels. The advertising infrastructure is also quiet easy to use and the whole process is quite transparent. So, yes, for most businesses YouTube is a great way to begin video advertising.

Exploit the Mobile Avenues

While it has already been established that your video ads must be mobile compatible, it is also important to identify how to maximize your presence across mobile devices.

• If your business requires people to download your app, you can make use of the highly effective monetization platform to promote your app. Produce a small video with valuable content that will be promoted through other apps in exchange for in-app rewards to users of that app. This way people are more likely to view the complete ad, understand your message and act on it.
• With Virtual Reality (VR) video now being popularized by the new generation of smart phones, it may make sense for tech savvy businesses to use this to their advantage. The depths of creativity in this field are largely unexplored, and thus the scope for original content is huge.

Start today and plan your next video ad campaign to attract millions of new customers. Beat your competitors with video ads and watch your business take off digitally.