Video Ads: What to Do?
People's media habits are trending from traditional TV toward multiple, fragmented digital devices. Some say that TV – and its monopoly on audience reach – is dead.
But the issue for organizations and businesses trying to reach people on those multiple, fragmented digital devices is this: if you are a small business, you can't possibly afford the cost of vertical video, interactive ads, micro-commercials and native advertising. Too much extra production required, that costs too much, for too small an audience.
But there is something you can do that is both compelling to your target viewer AND cost effective.
The :15 and :30 Second Video
The various brand-new ad formats confuse advertisers - especially smaller businesses who don't have in-house advertising and marketing department. What's worse, the data proving they perform any better than the models they to replace is inconclusive. However, there is a format that generally works well for all formats . . . both traditional and emerging. :15-second and :30-second videos are both cost effective and effective across all formats.
Who has enough time in the day or large enough budgets to create videos for every new format on the horizon? The goal must always be to achieve reach and frequency with quality and scale. You want your content in front of people on different devices, but unless you are a Fortune 500 company controlling a multi-million dollar annual advertising budget, you just can't do it.
The key: video is important. Period. Facebook says that over 100 million hours of video are watched on their platform every day—more video than you could watch in 11,000 years.
The best solution: everything old is new again. The :15-second and :30-second video commercial date back to the 1940s, but it is supremely transportable to multiple video formats both traditional and online. They are the building block of the future of media.
Even Facebook agrees. Recently, it introduced Premium Video Ads. These ads come in 15- and 30-second flavors, promise a “large audience” and “high quality” and even use TV-style gross rating points and Nielsen for measurement.
Bottom line: Running a business is hard enough. The last thing you need to do is get bogged down in emerging technology details. You need to engage customers online - that is where you reach them. In order to survive in today's business world, you need to be online, with at least a website and a social media presence. :15-second and :30-second videos are the most effective and important component to your online outreach.
NEXT: In our next blog, we will discuss how video is the key element to connecting to your customers, audience, and potential new customer on mobile devices.