Video ads and Image ads are both popular mediums when it comes to advertising on Facebook. As a marketer, you probably know that it costs less to create an image, while video require more time for planning and direction, consuming more of your business resources.
The real question is, which one is actually more effective? Do image ads work just as well as video ads? The answer is no, they don’t.
Recent studies done by Facebook found that video ads actually drive more engagement compared to image ads. This makes a lot of sense considering that 45% of people spend more than an hour watching Facebook or YouTube videos per week.
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Advantages of Video Ads over Image Ads
Let’s dig a little deeper into other perks of choosing video ads compared to image ads:
You have a very extensive reach with Video ads
Facebook Videos receive more than 4 billion views each day. Nearly 500 million viewers watch 100 million hours worth of video content on Facebook on a daily basis.
This indicates that you will most likely be able to reach your target audience, despite their characteristics, through the platform.
Video ads offers you a competitive advantage
Going back to our initial discussion about video ads being more costly, only 9% of businesses are using videos to promote. Creating a high-quality video ad might be the way that helps your brand stand out in the competitive market.
Video ads allow you to deliver more value to your target audience
As we know, an image ad is entirely made of a still image, while video ads can contain multiple still images, moving animations, etc.
That said, a video ad will most likely contain more information compared to a still-image ad.
This gives your business more opportunity to showcase your expertise and knowledge in the industry, helping you establish a thought leadership position and possibly gaining trust from your potential customers.
Video ads generate more traffic and sales
Video contents get around 1200% more shares than text and image contents combined, especially on Facebook (G2 Crowd).
High Conversion Rate
According to our friends at Hubspot, more than 90% of video viewers say that product videos have contributed to their buying decisions. With this in consideration, video ads are definitely worth the investment!
Some more eye-opening statistics:
Best practices to Optimize your Video Ads
96% of users access Facebook on a mobile device.
Your videos should then be optimized for a smaller screen. If possible, make sure that your video is square as square videos get 35% more videos than landscape ones.
Facebook Users tend to watch video without sound.
You should consider adding captions for your videos, or leveraging on texts to convey your deliverables. Even better, adding captions can increase your videos’ view times by 12%!
You should also be careful about your choice of audio!
Up to 80% of Facebook users react negatively when videos play with loud, unexpected sound. They will most likely stop watching your advertisement before getting to the end.
That said, you should re-consider before choosing blaring audio for your videos, even if your purpose was to gain your audiences’ attention.
Optimize by establishing the most value at the start.
65% of people that watch the first 3 seconds of your video on Facebook will watch it for at least 10 seconds. 45% will watch a video for 30 seconds (Facebook).
Don’t forget live streams!
On top of releasing pre-recorded videos, give your audience additional content by recording live videos. It’s because Facebook users are actually 4 times more likely to watch live streams compared to pre-recorded videos.
Live streams also boost your interaction with your target audiences. If your content is extremely interesting, you might even be able to engage with potential clients who initially did not even know the existence of your brand.
On top of that, live streams will also create a sense of content urgency, possibly creating a stir on the web and helping your brand stand out from the crowd.
Showcase your brand or products first!
Consumers are more likely to remember your brand or your products if they are shown within the first 3 seconds of your video. For optimal results, try to show it within the first 1.7 seconds!
Place your CTAs in the middle of your video!
Why? Because in the beginning, you probably haven’t convinced viewers just yet about how great your product is. And if you choose to place it in the end, some of your viewers might’ve stopped viewing your video already.
Hence, tell your viewers what to do while you still have their attention and piqued their curiosity.
Choose your thumbnails carefully.
Following Facebook’s Ads Guidelines, those thumbnails consisting of more than 20% text by area might experience reduced delivery. Hence, make sure that your thumbnails do not contain too many texts!
Key Takeaways
Of course, these findings are only derived by past researches and might not be entirely applicable to your business setting.
That said, we encourage you to keep experimenting with A/B testing and also consider the target audience you are dealing with.
Younger generations’ attention span for video ads are actually 75% less than those who are 65 or older. If your business mainly targets millennials, you might want to choose another medium of advertising or work even harder to ensure that the first few seconds of your video is enough to grab your viewers’ attention.
Image Ads aren’t dead either! You should also take your product and service, as well as your advertising budget in mind when making decisions. Just because research findings suggest video ads to be more effective doesn’t indicate that you should completely abandon image ads.
Are you still having doubts on which ad format to choose? Why don’t you contact our Digital Marketing Specialist with experience of working with more than 50 companies? Who knows, with our end-to-end assistance, you might be able to achieve more return from your investments on video ads.
Have fun exploring!
