The following video is dedicated to all marketers and agencies that spend a ton of money on video production and video editing for paid Facebook advertising or paid Instagram advertising. In the video, I will actually explain how to create ads that really work for effective paid advertising on social networks. First of all—stop everything! There is no need to go overboard with effects and the amount of editing you do on every video. After so many A/B tests and so many ads, we discovered that the ads that work best are the authentic ones, with 0 editing.
I will also explain the logic behind this—there is an app we market that sells online English lessons,
we ran over 100 different A/B tests with it, testing various ads, and the winner among them was always the authentic ad. You’re probably asking why, exactly? What is behind this?
The Importance of Creating Authentic Content
When a user visits Facebook and Instagram, they are looking to see their friends, see what people close to them did yesterday, and are interested in their lives—where they went, what they did, etc. When we upload an ad that looks highly produced and designed, users recognize it, smell it from miles away, and simply keep scrolling down Facebook; they skip it. Users do not want to see ads; they came to see their friends.
However, when we upload an authentic photo or an authentic video that looks like something one of their friends could have posted, users will stop for a second. It grabs them, and by the time they realize this isn’t their friend, we have already managed to capture their attention and try to convey our message. The chance of successfully intriguing the users then depends on what we say in the video, how we speak, how quickly we get to the message, and what the call to action is. What’s certain is that we managed to capture their attention in the best possible way.
We test this with more and more businesses and constantly achieve the same results. So yes, there might be (in a certain percentage) a very well-made ad that we invested heavily in that will also work, but as a rule of thumb—it’s a waste of money and a waste of effort. After all, the lifespan of a Facebook ad is short anyway, the audience gets fatigued, and ads need to be replaced. So the more we invest heavily in ads—the less breathing room we will have to produce more, meaning we will produce slower, replace slower, and our campaign results will decline. If we work in a more authentic way, the process of creating relevant content will be economical, simple, and fast—the process looks like this:
Creating the video >> Launching the ad >> Results >> Conclusions
Key Points for Creating the Video
- Create a video with a single message – The best approach when shooting a video for Facebook and Instagram ads is to focus on a single message. Video attracts a lot of attention, so you might be tempted to use the platform to share other things related to the brand. Focusing on a single message will have a much greater impact.
- Keep the video length relatively short – Video ad types on Facebook and Instagram allow you to use videos up to 4 hours long. While this offers flexibility, the primary preference is to use short videos (under 15 seconds), in order to deliver your message without losing the user’s attention.
- Present the product or brand message as quickly as possible – It is not recommended to wait until the end of the video to present the product or the message you want to convey. You should present it at the beginning of the video (preferably within the first 10 seconds) because a large portion of viewers drop off after a few seconds, making it crucial for the message to be presented right at the start.
- Shoot vertically for mobile devices – Not surprisingly, usage percentages on Facebook and Instagram are almost entirely from mobile devices. To get the most out of your video ads, it is advisable to adapt the videos for the platform and create square videos (1:1) or vertical videos (4:5 to 9:16) that take up the largest part of the smartphone screen and prevent further distractions for users.
- Create content suitable for soundless viewing – Most marketing videos on Facebook are watched without sound, and this makes total sense. Usually, people watch videos during the workday or next to children, so it is recommended to avoid loud and extreme sounds in the videos you prepare. The information presented in the video should be clear through visual observation, which can be achieved by adding text to the video, adding clear media throughout the video, or adding full captions to the video.
- Highlight the Call to Action – The video in the ad is supposed to prompt your viewer to proceed to the next stage of the funnel through a Call to Action (CTA). No matter which call to action you choose, you must make this action easy to perform. Use all possible elements so that viewers do not miss what they need to do after watching the video.
Summary
When creating media for paid ads on Facebook and Instagram, we will want to generate a large volume of visual media, with a preference for videos (media that drives high conversion rates). Instead of editing every video professionally, we will try to produce content that is as authentic as possible, and if the ad creative stops performing, we will swap it for a new one. It is recommended to use the rule of thumb I presented in the article: creating videos with minimal investment and budget. Folks, this might sound like an odd rule of thumb, but give it a try and I promise you it will make the work easier and also bring you better results—killing 2 birds with one stone.
About the Author
Yoni Cohen, 30 years old, owner of a small digital agency (team of 6). Loves technology, marketing, and is crazy about new technological tools.
