Video is getting priority placement in the Facebook newsfeed these days. If done well, videos posted natively to Facebook can generate a lot of engagement, drive traffic to your website, and generate sales, making video a must inclusion in your Facebook marketing strategy.
But if you are only relying on organic methods for getting your video content seen by your ideal customers, then you are missing out!
You also need to be investing in Facebook video ads to further leverage your video content so that you get a better return on investment for all the time, effort, and resources you put into creating your video content.
Here are the top 8 reasons for creating and running a Facebook Video Ad.
1. Movement Rules
Your Facebook video ad will auto-play in the newsfeed, allowing you to stand out and catch the attention of your audience more than what you can achieve by creating a static image ad. But with so much noise on Facebook these days, it’s important to make sure that your ads stand out.
The movement in your video, particularly within the first few seconds, is going assist you with this. Watch how this nonprofit organization gets right to the point.
2. Do you know anyone who doesn’t like video?
OK I will admit, not EVERYONE likes to watch videos, but most human beings do. There is a significant subset of your audience who would prefer to watch you talk about or demonstrate things rather than read a blog post about that thing, so why not give those people what they want rather than another boring static link to a blog post. Yawn.
3. Versatility of the video format
No matter where people are in your sales funnel or what your objective is, you can create a video ad for that!
Video ads are great for the attracting attention of cold audiences. They can be used effectively to generate leads and opt-ins AND they can also be used for direct sales.
But remember, just because you are running a video ad, doesn’t mean you have to choose the video ad objective. Instead, you can choose video as the format within another campaign objective, such as traffic if you are using the video to attract attention but your ultimate objective is to get people to visit your website or conversions if you would like the delivery of your video ad to be optimized for people who are more likely to opt-in or purchase.
4. Affordable to develop a retargeting audience
Video ads are a great way to develop retargeting audiences on the cheap that you can retarget later with further Facebook Ads as you attract, nurture, and convert your ideal customers using Facebook Ads.
5. Speeds up the “know, like and trust” process
People do business with people they “know, like and trust.” Using videos in your ads is arguably one of the best ways to achieve this and speed up the sales cycle as a result, particularly when you put the people behind your business front-and-center in your video ads.
6. Increasing ease of making videos
There are loads of free or low cost ways that you can create engaging videos armed with little more than a smart phone and a healthy dose of creativity.
Facebook even makes it easy for you by giving you the ability to create a slideshow video right within the Ads Manager. It only takes a few clicks to upload some images and put some music behind it and BAM — you have a video!
Facebook also makes it easy to add subtitles to your videos, by allowing you to auto-generate subtitles so that those people (approximately 80% of your audience) that don’t turn the sound on still gain value from your video content.
7. Puts you in the forefront
Not many businesses are setting up video ads because they think they are too hard to create (see point above). So by doing what few others are doing, you will stand out further, rising your profile above that of your competitors (who probably aren’t doing it).
8. The beauty of the CTA button
You can’t add a call-to-action button with organic video posts, but you can when you create a video ad!
When you post a video organically, the link to click-through can often be buried below the “read more” hyperlink or non-existent if the viewer clicks through to watch the video full-screem.
However, with a video ad that is created within the Ads Manager, you have the opportunity to include a call-to-action button that sits prominently below your video ad when it is auto-playing in the newsfeed, allowing your call-to-action stand out, which assists with people taking your desired action.
Pro Tip: Responding to comments on your Facebook video ads
Warning! If you create a good video ad, you will get loads of people engaging with it. Don’t forget to respond to any engagement that occurs with your video ad in a timely manner. It is difficult to find where to respond to ad engagement within Facebook, but you can do that easily within Agorapulse.
Just navigate to the your Facebook Account within Agorapulse, go to your Inbox, and then choose “Ads Comments” from the filter.
Videos can take more time, effort and resources to create than other forms of content. Don’t limit the results you are able to achieve off the back of your videos by relying on organic reach alone.
Have I convinced you to start using Facebook video ads? Let me know in the comments!
