If you want to quickly reach a new, focused audience, social media advertising is a must. Like it or not, obtaining organic reach is becoming more and more difficult. Perhaps never again will something go viral without a little help. Moving from an organic social approach to placing actual money on the table can be frightening, of course. Therefore, it’s crucial to be aware of all your possibilities. In this blog, we’ll show you how to leverage the various social media video ad kinds to maximize your spending and get genuine business results.
Social media advertising is a fairly direct method of reaching your target market. You can either aim for brand-new or recurring customers. All of the major social networks provide opportunities for advertising. That does not imply that you must rely on each one, simultaneously. Knowing which networks are most popular with your target demographic might be useful when deciding where to place your advertisements. Where is your target audience most active, focused, and reachable? Let’s say, enthusiastic youth? You can discover them on TikTok/Instagram reels/YouTube shorts. Our parents, in contrast, adore Facebook. Consider examining the social media platforms that help your brand function best naturally.
In this article, we’d be learning about various social media platforms and the kind of video ads that people watch.So, without any further ado, let’s get into it!
Instagram is a must-have for any business looking to connect with younger, more engaged audiences as it works wonders for highly visual brands. This comprises a good 90% chunk of their audience. Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, attracts many of the same users, yet their browsing habits suggest that they are more receptive to brand advertising. Understand these Instagram video ads thoroughly to succeed with your subsequent Instagram post and pick up some new followers in the process.
Types of Instagram video ads:
Instagram offers a wide range of advertising options, including:
- IGTV Advertisements:
After a user clicks to watch an IGTV video from their feed, IGTV ads—which are videos—start to play. Videos should be made for vertical full screen viewing and can be up to 15 seconds long.
Users with Instagram Creator accounts can currently access IGTV advertisements in the US, UK, and Australia; additional nations will follow soon. Creators who choose to include advertisements in their IGTV videos will be paid 55% of the advertising income from each view.
Over 500 million Instagram users watch Stories every day, making it a popular feature of the programme. Because Stories advertisements fill the entire mobile screen and are far more immersive than in-feed ads, engagement is frequently higher with them.
- Video ads:
Similar to image ads, Instagram’s video ads let companies show consumers a more detailed view of their logo, goods, and services. Although in-feed video advertisements can last up to 60 seconds, shorter films are typically more impactful.
- Reel ads:
Instagram recently announced that Reels would now support advertising following the successful debut of Reels. Commercials are displayed between Reels and can last up to 60 seconds. They have similar specifications to Stories ads (full screen vertical movies). To blend in effectively with organic Reels, they should have sound or melody.
- Carousel ads:
Users can swipe through a collection of pictures or videos in carousel advertisements. With a call-to-action button or a swipe-up link that takes viewers straight to your website, they can show up both in the feed and within Instagram Stories.
Carousel ads are useful for:
- Display a group of related products
- An extended narrative
- Send up to ten pictures or videos
- Explore ads:
The Explore page of the platform, where users find new material and accounts that are customized based on their Instagram usage habits, contains explore adverts. Explore is a terrific location to get exposure because more than 50% of Instagram users access it each month.
Instagram Explore ads are displayed after a user clicks on a photo or video from Explore rather than in the Explore grid or the topic channels. Explore advertising lets companies be displayed with content that is currently hot and relevant to culture since the content in users’ Explore tabs is always changing.Images and videos can also be used to explore advertising.
Facebook Video ads
Facebook is the largest social network for both brands and individuals, whether you’re launching a video organically or running sponsored ads. With more than one billion active users, Facebook is the most popular social networking platform despite its waning appeal. That’s a sizable audience, and with the right Facebook ad specifications, your video is guaranteed to be a smash hit.
Types of Facebook video ads:
You can post the following kinds of video ads on Facebook:
- In-feed videos:
When you natively post a video, that is, upload the file directly to Facebook, it will show up in users’ news feeds as a regular post. These kinds of videos automatically play on Facebook, which helps draw attention to your video postings. The algorithms of the platform prioritize native videos, which often receive more engagement. Here’s a more in-depth insight on Facebook’s in-feed video ads.
- Facebook Ad Stories:
Stories are fleeting films or pictures that remain online for 24 hours after being posted. Videos can last up to 20 seconds, compared to five seconds for stories with images. This type of material is perfect for disseminating news, alerts, polls, previews, and other information. The popularity of the Stories format on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp keeps rising. The popularity of Facebook ad stories are expected to rise in the coming future.
Since people adore the Stories format, it produces powerful advertisements. 31% and 58% of consumers, respectively, claim to have browsed a Facebook Shop and visited a brand’s website after seeing a Story ad. Give the populace their wish. If you haven’t already, start spending money on Stories advertisements.
- Live Broadcast:
When Facebook Live video was introduced in 2015, it immediately established itself as a practical method for businesses to share memorable moments with their audience while also increasing page engagement. In terms of live video user share, Facebook trails YouTube by 42.6%. Live content typically receives more views and comments than normal postings because it is more engaging. By setting up live webinars, intriguing events, Q&A sessions, or company visits, you should take advantage of this.
These are the most popular video formats for Facebook sharing. Although domestically posted movies are preferred by the algorithm, the platform does allow you to embed a video from another video hosting site through a link.
- Facebook’s version of reels:
The newest kind of video that Facebook has added is called a reel. It was introduced on a global scale in February 2022. Reels are accessible through Watch, Groups, and Feed. Remix, sharing to Facebook Stories, video clipping, and other capabilities are among them. Your Reels may be as long as 60 seconds.
The format of Facebook Reels, which was carried over from sister network Instagram, is mostly intact, but it also features interesting new creation capabilities. A bonus programme is in place providing producers up to $35,000 each month dependent on their view counts in an effort to entice them to Facebook Reels. Aside from ad income sharing, the Facebook version of Reels also allows viewers to “tip” producers within the app.
Want to connect with other people in business? The best place to be is LinkedIn! For B2B outreach and brand exposure, use LinkedIn. The LinkedIn audience is one of the best when you’re seeking to attract decision-makers or executives with buying power because of limited targeting possibilities and a work-ready mindset. These LinkedIn ad standards will definitely make a difference in your upcoming significant video campaign if you have the correct ad strategy in place.
Types of LinkedIn video ads:
Similar to other platforms, LinkedIn provides opportunities for advertising in the form of video adverts. A variety of businesses and LinkedIn marketing tactics will benefit from various adverts. Let’s talk about the many LinkedIn advertisements you can run.
- Sponsored messaging:
You can advertise thought leadership, highlight the customer experience, introduce new goods, provide an inside peek at corporate culture, and anything else you can think of by using LinkedIn video advertising. This is a chance to demonstrate your brand’s narrative rather than retelling it.
Here is a handy list of requirements to make your video advertising swiftly:
- Videos range in length from 3 seconds to 30 minutes.
- Videos can be displayed in landscape (16:9), portrait (9:16) or square (1:1) formats.
- File sizes must range from 75 KB to 200 MB.
- Which video format works best for LinkedIn? MP4 it is!
- Carousel ads:
LinkedIn carousel advertisements employ a row of swipeable cards to highlight products, give insights, or tell a story about your brand. Use compelling pictures to keep your audience swiping to discover more.
The details are as follows for your comprehension:
- Ad’s name: 255 maximum characters
- 150 character restriction for the opening paragraph to avoid shortening on some devices (255 total character limit)
- Cards: two to ten playing cards
- Max file size is 10 MB.
- Maximum picture size: 6012 × 6012 pixels
- Formats for rich media: JPG, PNG, and GIF (non-animated only)
- The headline text on each card should not exceed two lines.
- Ads with a Lead Gen Form are limited to 30 characters and ads with a destination URL to 45 characters. CTA
- Conversational ads:
Conversation commercials give audiences a “choose your own adventure” experience (think of those choose your own adventure books, but for advertising). Your audience will be able to choose the response that most resonates with them after the dialogue has begun. This kind of advertisement enables you to promote goods and services while also promoting registration for events or webinars.
Some additional specifications you should keep in mind are:
- 255 character maximum for the ad’s name
- Up to 300 x 250 pixels for the optional and desktop-only banner creative. PNG or JPEG.
- Up to 2,500 characters for the custom footer and terms & conditions (alone)
- Message of introduction: 500 characters maximum
- 250 by 250 pixel image, JPEG or PNG, optional
- CTA text: 25 characters maximum
- CTAs for each message five buttons maximum
- 500 character maximum for the message text
- Video ads:
7.5 times more people click on video ads than on photo ads. This is so that the advertising’ continual movement can draw in more viewers. Make more video commercials as a result. They don’t have to be too lengthy. According to a LinkedIn study, watch completion rates for films under 30 seconds increased by 200%.
LinkedIn claims that for achieving brand awareness and consideration goals, short ads are the most effective. Longer ones, however, are better for creating demand because you can use them to illustrate complex stories. Although creating LinkedIn video advertising can seem like a time-consuming and difficult procedure, it is actually possible to do it in under an hour with the help of an ad creator like InVideo. For it, there are numerous pre-built templates. All you have to do is choose a template and alter the components that are already there. You might also include some of your own videos. It will require more time. However, personalizing the advertisement with some of your own material will increase conversion rates.
Here are some additional specifications:
- Videos range in length from 3 seconds to 30 minutes.
- Videos can be displayed in landscape (16:9), portrait (9:16), or square (1:1) formats.
- File sizes must range from 75 KB to 200 MB.
- Which video format works best for LinkedIn? MP4
Twitter is the ideal channel for interacting with your audience, disseminating business advice, announcing exclusive deals, and more! The short lifespan of the majority of Twitter’s organic content makes the platform’s video ads even more effective. Once you get going, you’ll probably discover the low cost and high return to be a significant advantage. Start experimenting with these Twitter ad specifications right away!
Types of Twitter video ads:
- Promoted videos:
With promoted videos, you may choose the audience for the video you want to show on Twitter. Promoted videos are excellent for raising awareness of and interest in a brand. Given that Twitter is the go-to source for rapid information and that users are 31% more likely to remember anything they saw on Twitter than on any other platform, we advise maintaining these films’ lengths at 15 seconds or less to keep viewers’ attention until the very end.
In addition to that, these promoted videos arrive in several other forms like:
- In-stream video ad:
Videos that play within the user’s current content consumption, along with 280 characters of copy.
- In-stream video sponsorship:
An exclusive Twitter sponsorship with a 6-second video that you purchase directly.
- Promoted live videos:
Live-stream a moment to the Twitter community. At a minimum cost of $500k, this choice is pricey. It can, however, assist amplify a product launching and/or service if you have the funding.
- First views:
A 24-hour period during which mass branding is possible using Twitter ads. You must work with a Twitter representative to get this set up and running. It will be a flat charge model.
YouTube
Without a doubt, YouTube is the king of online video. YouTube is the best place to start if you want to embed a video on your website, advertise it on any social media network, or share it with just about everyone. Using YouTube as a hosting option is most certainly a wise choice, even if you don’t run adverts on the site. You can use these YouTube ad standards as a barometer to assess the general effectiveness and online suitability of your video thanks to the wide range of upload sizing options available.
Types of YouTube video ads:
Since you’ve presumably already spent some time honing your YouTube marketing plan, you’re definitely already familiar with the majority of these forms. But let’s go through and look at the specifics. Let’s start by examining the primary categories of YouTube advertisements, both video and non-video ones:
- In-stream skippable video ads:
Skippable in-stream video commercials, which can be displayed both before and during a video, come first on the list. The spectator has the option to skip these advertisements once they have played for at least 5 seconds. Generally speaking, the length of the video advertisement must be at least 12 seconds, and it is advised to keep it under 3 minutes. One benefit of this kind of YouTube advertisement is that you won’t get charged unless someone clicks on it, sees the entire commercial (for any ad under 30 seconds), or watches at least 30 seconds of it. The screenshot below demonstrates that a banner advertisement appears at the top right of the screen in addition to the skippable in-stream video advertisements.
- In-stream non-skippable video ads:
Some advertisers decide to show pre-roll or mid-roll commercials without any kind of skip button because 76% of users claim to automatically skip advertising. When should this be done? when your goal is to increase brand awareness broadly and you are certain that your creative will be effective in keeping your audience’s attention for the full 15 seconds.
There isn’t much a difference between these adverts and those that play before or during videos other than the absence of a skip button. The non-skippable ad is great when your brand truly wants to generate exposure and doesn’t want to risk having hundreds of thousands of ad skips, as about 76% of consumers do when watching YouTube videos. These advertisements work a little differently in that sponsors are charged per impression, or more precisely, per 1000 views (CPM).
- Discovery ads:
The three ad categories are significantly different from discovery advertisements. They actually show among search results in a manner that resembles that of Google search advertising, seeming quite naturally. This advertising enables us to think of YouTube as a search engine. Similar to Google text advertisements, YouTube’s Discovery Ads have an “Ad” label in a box to inform consumers that they are being compensated for clicks. Three lines of text plus a thumbnail image make up a discovery ad. The fact that these advertisements can appear on the YouTube homepage, video watch page, and search results page makes them highly visible.
- Bumper ads:
Before a video begins, six-second bumper adverts that cannot be skipped will play. These commercials are ideal for anyone who only has to convey a brief idea and doesn’t require the elaborate creation of a lengthy video. Once more, these advertisements are excellent for raising awareness of any cause or extending the reach and frequency of a brand. If a 6-second ad appears too brief to have an impact, Google’s analysis of 300 bumper ads revealed that 90% significantly increased ad recall.
Conclusion
All in all, it is crucial to advise individuals to work diligently in order to stay in course with the ever-changing world of social platforms, algorithms and technology. Why? Because doing so enables you to create content that actually sells!