Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Video killed (is killing) the static ad star

Video advertisement on social media is becoming more and more the norm, and it makes total sense as to why. Video advertisements outperform static marketing due to the dynamism and interactivity. They are also more relatable to customers, as they do not hit the viewer with clunky and short messages with "Buy Now," for example. The video platform is growing faster than any other on social media, and often critics will comment that Facebook might move to a video only site. A 2014 Facebook study found there was an 87% increase in visitors to a product landing page in a video ad. This creates enjoyable barriers to entry for larger companies, as smaller ones cannot afford/do not see the value in creating video content as a means of engaging their customer. It also requires a lot of effort to create compelling content that changes often and sends a clear message. Also, sequencing ads (changing the order and content) can be costly and require a lot of resources only larger companies can afford. The challenge of video advertisement is that it is difficult to optimize and measure accurate view counts. As the majority of Facebook video ads autoplay, often, the numbers provided can be misleading. However, all this being said, video advertising is growing on social media platforms as companies continue to play with content and optimize the compelling variables of the ad, such as volume, size, length, and cover image.

No comments: