Facebook introduced lead ads last October with the aim of giving businesses the opportunity to streamline the process of having customers, or potential customers, complete the process of signing up for things, like newsletters, events, offers or information. The social media giant has recently added video to its lead-generation advertising offering.
Today, online videos account for 50 percent of total mobile traffic. In 2015 in fact, experts predicted that video will take up 57 percent of consumer Internet traffic by the end of this year, which again will increase to 69 percent by 2017 and 79 percent by 2018. The same trend is evident on Facebook, where videos have increased drastically in users’ timelines. The Social Network has taken into account this trend, and decided to allow advertisers to use videos in lead generation campaigns.
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Since video marketing is taking center stage when it comes to B2C lead generation, this new feature should attract bigger businesses such as financial brands, automakers, insurance companies and real estate players. Video has been stated as one of the most engaging and immersive ways to tell your story, and has seen phenomenal success, especially across mobile. In fact, video was built to be on mobile first, and has been highlighted as integral part of any mobile strategy. Videos in lead generation can certainly be the most effective way of improving lead generation.
Video lead ads function the same way as lead ads with photos do. The ad includes a call-to-action button within the video unit, that when clicked, will direct consumers to fill out contact forms.
Facebook has recently released a new feature to make it easier for businesses to create videos from photos: Slideshow ads. By giving advertisers the ability to create, edit and promote video ads in seconds, slideshow extends the power of Facebook video to more businesses, like those without existing video creative. Slideshows are lighter than the average video file, which means they’re ideal to reach people on slow connections.
Videos are also a great tool for engagement campaigns. A promoted post showing a video rather than a picture is more likely to get page likes, post likes and comments. Video also serves the purpose of branding: create engaging video adverts that help people experience and remember your brand. Also, Facebook’s news feed algorithm tends to organise videos over other content sorts.
How to optimise video campaigns
- Your video will play automatically without sound until people decide to turn the sound on, so design your ad to have the sound off and express your message visually.
- Facebook Advertising Policies apply to videos as well. The text penalty applies to the thumbnail of your video ad.
- Use colours, themes and imagery that reflect your business from the start of your video. This can help people make the connection with your business quickly.
- 65% of people who watch the first three seconds of a video will watch for ten seconds. 45% of the people who watched up to ten seconds will watch 30 seconds. It’s vital to capture users’ attention quickly.
- Promote videos that show behind-the-scenes footage, product launches or customer stories to raise awareness about your brand.
