Video ads have been around for years now, but it is only recently that the concept is really starting to gain traction. Multiple sources are telling us that video is quickly becoming one of the most important aspects of a business’s marketing campaign. It could be that people are just ready to make the move to video, that our brains prefer video or it could be because a lot of the major social media sites are starting to migrate towards the video ad and hoping to push its advertisers with them.
Facebook have recognised an increase in video views across their platform. In November 2015 its users viewed videos more than 8 billion time a day, doubling from 6 months previous. These numbers speak for themselves. We are entering the age of video.
Nielsen performed a study with Facebook, evaluating the benefits of using video marketing. They found that even 47% of people who viewed even less than a second could still recall the brand who had made the video ad. So our brains automatically register a video ad even if we don’t watch the full thing, we will still be aware of the brand. This demonstrates the importance of using video ads for your brand. Even if people aren’t watching the full video they are still registering your brand. This is of even further benefit if your competitors aren’t using video. By utilising video before a competitor yours could be the first brand a person considers when a need arises for your product.
Instagram is making big changes too, and I don’t mean the ones that users are terrified of. Every Instagram user of late would have noticed their feeds being plagued by messages to ‘turn on notifications’. Vicious rumours spread around various social media sites stating that Instagram would be introducing an algorithm that would present content it thinks you would like rather than content that has just been posted. Instagramers feared that they would never be found again and be lost in cyberspace forever, so they begged people to turn notifications on so followers would be alerted when a new post was uploaded. Anyone who actually turned on notifications would quickly realise how bad an idea it was, due to the non-stop alerts plaguing their phones. Instagram have stated that they have listened to user feedback and will alert people to changes, if they come. Really it’s no surprise that Instagramers reacted like this considering the uproar when Instagram deleted hundreds of spam accounts, and people were infuriated that they lost hundreds of followers, despite said followers being fake.
Algorithm changes are a part of being a social media user, people will complain about them at first but will quickly adapt and before they know it they don’t even remember how the old version even worked. Remember when Facebook timeline was implemented in 2011? Do you even remember how Facebook looked before timeline was introduced? A quick Google search reveals the outdated results.
The point is, Instagram has gotten serious about user experience and with better user experience comes better opportunities for monetisation. Instagram have also extended the length of time for a video ad from 30 to 60 seconds.The longer ad format gives advertisers more options with what they want to present to their audience. With brands favouring to spend money on digital over TV, Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, are hoping to take advantage of this shift and gain significant revenue.
It’s being reported that Pinterest are currently testing Video ads. Pinterest introduced cinematic pins last year, so videos ads are another step in the direction of eye catching movement. Very little is being said about it just now but it shows us once again that these social media sites see video as the next big thing and they are refusing to get left behind.
These social media sites have done the research, and watched the numbers grow as people began to watch, share and engage with video more. It is the time to capitalise on this research and produce videos for your brand, whatever medium you choose to promote them on.
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