The Sharp Eye Animation team has produced literally thousands of custom video ads for businesses ranging from retail to technology to the legal industry. Our experience has given us unique insight into what makes ads convert viewers from “just checking it out” all the way to check-out.
We spent the last two quarters studying similarities that our best performing video ads had with hopes that you can use the insights to make your next video ad achieve the business results you need. Below are six powerful tactics we’ve seen across implemented across our highest-performing video ads:
1. Use videos up to 60 seconds
Many advertisers miss their opportunity when it comes to video length. Many businesses, especially retailers, used videos that run less than 30 seconds. On average, these videos perform worse than videos whose length was between 31 and 60 seconds.
This means that length does matter when it comes to making video ads, and that businesses should be optimizing for it. Providing that you manage to hook users and keep them engaged, longer assets (up to 60 seconds) could help drive new business.
2. Focus on one product, not multiple
While a variety of products can appeal to your audience and help your upper funnel metrics, video ads that feature various products (i.e. that didn’t focus on one single product or a few curated products) will likely not perform as well as those that focus on one single product..
One reason why this may be is that a range of products can be too much information for exposed users to make a decision. There is only so much information they need to make up their mind. As such, we suggest you focus one product on your video ad to optimize video ad performance.
Real-life contextualization is a worthwhile strategy to capture viewers’ attention and introduce your products and story.
3. Make viewers feel your product
The best-performing ads not only usually focus on a given product, they also go deep with it. These video ads rely on close-ups highlighting subtle details, have large text reinforcing the main message or provide additional information (like product features) and include actors/characters emulating your consumers’ reactions.
This gives viewers a realistic taste of experiencing your product – what wearing/eating/using your product actually feels like (e.g. how intuitive is the software UI? How soft is this bread?). What if you could present your products as consumers really experience them? That’s what you want when making video ads that convert.
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4. Be relatable
In most high-performing video ads we’ve studied, video ads that start with a real life situation that consumers could easily relate to were consistently associated with better performance. There are typically two types of situations: everyday moments (e.g. family dinner, movie night), and deeper human stories (e.g. high school reunions, winter holidays) – the ladder leaning even more on emotion. Real-life contextualization is a worthwhile strategy to capture viewers’ attention and introduce your products and story.
5. Be tactical with special offers
We also saw that better-performing video ads specifically featuring a special offer didn’t need a high production value. Most were simple animations following standard execution guidelines (fast pacing, tight framing, high-color contrast text with clean voiceovers). Special offers provide you with a unique opportunity to be tactical. Make the most of these offers by building dedicated, simple, scalable, and potentially personalized assets. Reach out to our team here to get started on your own.
6. Use authentic voices
Many businesses work with a wide range of spokespersons, celebrities influencers all the way to employees and customers. These collaborations aren’t equally successful in driving conversion. In the highest-performing video ads we studied, we saw that video ads that leveraged employees and influencers were consistently associated with better performance than those leveraging customers and celebrities.
When consumers get close to purchase they can more easily connect to spokespersons who seem authentically credible
Conclusion
Celebrities can be powerful at driving upper funnel metrics, but when consumers get close to purchase they can more easily connect to spokespersons who seem authentically credible, so make sure you use the right ambassador for your objective.
Questions? Contact us here to get started on your next video ad today.
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