Posted by Once upon a time, Facebook was just another social media platform to connect with old friends and share pictures with your virtual pals. Today, its uses are so varied that the site has something to offer to almost every type of audience: microblogging, live streaming, content consumption, and entertainment…
But one of the most relevant features Facebook provides nowadays is the possibility of selling and advertising products and services. And since it’s no secret that videos are the most engaging type of content out there, creating a video marketing strategy for Facebook is a smart move that tends to pay off.
However, as Facebook is such a massive platform and video content is so popular, the competition is stiff. Small and big brands from all over the world are actively crafting ads and tailoring video campaigns to stand out and attract more customers, and you are lucky if your competition isn’t already ahead of the game in that sense!
No worries, though. We are here to help!
In this piece, we’ve prepared a solid primer guide to help you make a powerful Facebook video advertising campaign that can help you get the most out of the popular site’s eCommerce features.
First Step: Get to Know Your Target Audience
It’s a fact that truly understanding the audience you want to target is crucial in any marketing campaign. And the good news here is that Facebook offers a fantastic tool called Audience Insights within the Facebook Ad Manager, which can help you do just that.
This tool does not only give you valuable demographic information, like age, gender, and location, about your current audience but also about your potential one. Cool, right?
That said, its more far-reaching feature is probably that it allows you to narrow down the scope to create customized ads for specific groups of people. Suppose that you sell sports clothing, a product that has a very straightforward type of audience. Well, Audience Insights lets filter by people interested in fitness, ages, for example, 18-60, and located near your storefronts.
A filter like this will tell you the number of people matching these criteria, along with percentages of men, women, location, ages, and other interests.
Better understanding your audience will allow you to create and serve the precise advertising content your audience is craving. Remember, not all types of video ads work for everyone, so make sure to know who your targets are and what will engage them the most.
Second Step: Define Your Video Ads Campaign Goals
Now that you have a broader perspective of your audience, it’s time to start designing your campaign. As a rule of thumb, outlining the objectives is a necessary step in any marketing strategy, and Facebook Ad Manager will also lend you a hand on that matter.
The power of this section lies in the fact that it breaks down several goals into three types; Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion – yes, just like those famous stages of the buyer’s journey!
For instance, if you want your campaign to expand your audience, you can pick the Reach objective (Awareness). Or, you can choose the Traffic one (Consideration) if you want to lead your target audience to a destination outside of Facebook instead.
Choosing the wrong objective can be a recipe for disaster; Facebook won’t show your video ads to the people you want to target, and your efforts and inversions won’t pay off. So take the time to think your campaign goals over and set it up accordingly.
Third Step: Choose the Perfect Video Type
Once your audience and goal are defined, it’s the perfect moment to decide what type of video you’ll be using to advertise your offerings. As you may be guessing, this step isn’t small potatoes! You see, not all video styles translate coherently into all stages. Thus, it’s essential to understand the best types for each of them and how they’ll work to achieve your objectives.
Videos for the awareness stage
Here your goal is to captivate your target audience and hook them speaking to their concerns and values. These two types can help you achieve that:
Brand films
The key to this style is to make your potential customers recognize your brand and create an emotional connection with them using compelling storytelling. Moreover, it’s perfect to showcase your values, beliefs, and what makes you different from the rest of the companies.
Pro tip: Leave the sales pitch or product details for another video type and objective. Remember, it’s the moment to motivate your audience to learn more about your brand, so make sure to include elements like your brand’s logo and key value propositions, but do it subtly and unobtrusively.
Culture videos
When it comes to generating awareness, culture videos do the trick. You see, this video type tells your target audience who you are, and the core values and mission your company strives to represent. People like doing business with brands whose values sync with their own, so this style will put your company on their radar.
Videos for the consideration stage
At this stage, your prospects know their pain points and are familiar with your offerings. Therefore, showing them how you can provide the solution to their problems is imperative. These styles do wonders at this stage:
Explainer videos
They can transform complex ideas into clear and straightforward messages, allowing you to present a product or solution using storytelling. Short, educational, usually animated, and highly entertaining explainers provide the ideal mix to engage viewers in an ads campaign environment.
Product or service videos
The golden rule of this type is to exhibit a product or service’s features as well as its ability to solve a problem. So, think about the unique qualities of your offerings and the way they can make people’s lives better.
Videos for the conversion stage
People at this stage are closer to making a purchase. They know your brand, your product or service, but are still a bit hesitant, so it’s time to convince them into taking action. Case study and culture videos are perfect to accomplish this goal.
Testimonial videos
Since at this point prospects are still researching and in doubt, knowing the experiences of your current customers is vital to close the gap. This style does not only help you to do that but also boosts trust and humanizes your brand by showing the success of your offerings with a specific client.
Pro tip: Don’t use actors! Interview real customers and make sure they speak freely about their experience with your product or service.
Case study videos
In short, this type of video provides a detailed summary of a problem that customers faced and how your business was able to help them address it, told from your company’s perspective. This data supports the benefit your offerings have provided to your clients in the past.
Get the Ball Rolling
Great, your Facebook video ads campaign is taking shape! Now it’s time to go through other relevant aspects to take into account.
Placement
Some of the options are newsfeed (both desktop and mobile), stories, Marketplace, or in-stream video. They will depend mainly on your objective. For instance, if your goal is to improve brand awareness, then you should use in-stream videos because they are placed within Facebook videos and can’t be skipped. This way, people will watch it to the end and, hopefully, engage with it.
Format
There’re three format types you can use: vertical, square, and landscape. We recommend using vertical or square since people don’t engage that much with videos if they have to turn their phones sideways.
File type, size, and resolution
Facebook supports several file types, but MP4 and MOV are recommended. The max file size for all placements is 4 GB. As for resolution, the minimum is 1080 x 1080 for all placements.
Call to action button
Effective CTAs aim to instruct viewers on the next step, e.g., “Buy Now” or “Learn More”. Never underestimate the power of a clear and targeted CTA, and don’t assume people know what’s the next step. Make sure you include a visible and compelling CTA button in your video ad.
The Takeaway
Facebook is a fully equipped social media platform, and it turns out to be quite useful to sell offerings using video content. Moreover, it offers companies a complete and handy tool to reach a specific target audience and create customized campaigns.
Knowing your audience, determining your goal, and choosing the right video type allows you to tailor Facebook video ads campaigns that can be profitable and effective.
We hope all the information we’ve compiled here for you can guide you in your next video ads campaign. Good luck!