SM Marketing – Video adverts
SM Marketing – Video Adverts – Testing what works for the mobile feed
Each day, an average of 100 million hours of video are watched on Facebook, and it’s estimated that mobile video will account for 75% of total mobile data traffic by 2020. As people watch more video on mobile devices, advertisers have a huge opportunity to use video to connect with their audience where they are spending their time: on mobile and in their feed. But whilst advertisers consider investing more of their video advertising spend into mobile, many are curious about the right way to build video creative for the small screen.
What makes a video advert work in the mobile feed?
With more demand than ever for people’s attention across screens, the opportunity for short-form creative is growing, and not just on mobile. Between 2010 and 2015, 15-second television adverts grew 3.4% year after year, whilst 60 and 120-second spots declined. So advertisers want to understand the right way to build short-form stories that resonate.
The best way to ensure that video creative works in the mobile-feed environment is to build with mobile in mind from the start. When you don’t have the opportunity to start from scratch on mobile video assets, cutting, editing and reworking long-form video adverts can be a fast and effective way to create video adverts for the mobile feed.
Research carried out by Facebook earlier this year identified the following key points for video advertising:
- Capture attention quickly. Using colours, themes and imagery that evoke your brand at the start of your video can help people connect the advert to your brand quickly. Consider starting your video with lifestyle and product shots, recognisable spokespeople, action scenes or a vivid background to spark interest.
- Design for no sound. As most video adverts in the mobile feed are viewed without sound, it’s important to convey your message visually. Showing captions, logos and products can help communicate your message, even in silence.
- Frame your visual story. Producing videos for a small screen requires consideration of dimension and scale. Play with zoom, crop and overall visual composition to make sure that your story is told well on a small screen.
- Play more. There’s no universal solution to building brands or driving actions with mobile video, so keep experimenting, testing and iterating to learn what works for your brand and audience.
