Video ads on Facebook are an awesome way to share your message with your target audience. Without question, people crave videos on social media platforms, and Facebook is no exception. Knowing Facebook video ads best practices will enable you to make the best ad for your brand.
Despite the effectiveness of video ads on Facebook, a lot of people are still intimidated by it. Over 8 billion videos are viewed on the platform daily, so it’s in your best interest to leverage this type of content by expanding your video presence. If you’re ready to take on this opportunity, we’ve compiled the Facebook video ads best practices you should follow.
Here’s What You Need to Know Before Making Your Video
There won’t be a chance for your video ad to become successful on Facebook if it’s not suitable for ad campaigns in the first place. We’ve gathered some things to keep in mind before you develop your Facebook video ad.
Type of video content
The first thing you need to know about making video ads on Facebook is that your ads don’t need to follow a singular type. There are different categories you can try. Later on, you will find out which one performs best based on your results. Here are the different categories of video ads.
User-generated content
Why go through the hassle of creating and producing your own Facebook video ads when your satisfied customers are willing to make it for you? User-generated content is one of the best types of videos brands can use because it will come off as more authentic. A lot of people are willing and even excited to share about a brand they love. As long as you continue to make your customers happy, you can get away with asking them for a simple video or commissioning them to make one.
Aside from being authentic, user-generated content will also show proof to potential customers about how awesome your products are.
Product showcase
This type of video content is very straightforward and is the top way to showcase the product you are selling. Product showcase videos don’t have to follow an infomercial style; it just needs to show relevant information about the product so customers can feel more comfortable to purchase it even without seeing or feeling the product in person.
Behind the scenes
Chances are, your customers would appreciate a look at what’s going on behind the spotlight. This is one of the Facebook video ads best practices you should follow because your current and potential customers want to know what’s going on in making something that interests them. This is the exact reason why movies are releasing behind the scenes content. By granting people a glimpse behind the scenes, they will feel closer to your brand.
Tutorial
Tutorial videos are an amazing fit for people further down your sales funnel, but it can also be beneficial for many companies when used as a Facebook ad. If you have a product that’s quite new or not a lot of people have heard about it before, a tutorial can increase your leads.
For this type of video, show off how your product provides a solution for a problem. How is it going to change the lives of the people who will purchase it? Keep in mind that showing is always better than telling, and this video type proves this philosophy.
Formatting videos
Over 65 percent of video views on Facebook are done on mobile, and mobile users hold their phones vertically 94 percent of the time. Considering these facts, it is recommended for videos to follow portrait orientation. When you’re starting, you can create landscape and portrait videos and customize ad placements to use these orientations properly. You can even allow customers to have a full-screen experience. After some time, you can assess which ad works best for you.
Facebook recommends uploading square videos with a 1:1 aspect ratio and vertical videos with a 2:3, 4:5, or 9:16 aspect ratio. All these will maximize compatibility on mobile and desktop screens. Additionally, it’s better to upload the highest resolution source video. Square videos should have a minimum of 600 by 600 pixels, and landscape videos should be at least 600 by 315 pixels. Also, use MOV or MP4 format, with a maximum 4 GB size, 30 frames per second maximum frame rate, and 240 minutes maximum length.
Facebook Video Ads Best Practices You Should Know
Make sure to follow these tips to ensure your video ad gets a higher chance of success.
Grab people’s attention early
Facebook video ads automatically play in order to interest viewers immediately and motivate them to watch more. As such, your video needs to grab people’s attention in the first few seconds, even without sound. It is important not to waste time capturing people’s attention, so start the video immediately. The first frame should be interesting enough to pique your customer’s interest.
One surefire way of grabbing the attention of people is to have great thumbnails. You can even add one to an existing video by selecting Edit Post and clicking Add Custom Thumbnail. It is recommended to hire a designer to make a custom thumbnail for your video that will grab people’s attention while they are scrolling through their feed.
Add interesting captions
You will be shocked to find out that more than 85 percent of videos on Facebook are watched without sound. Facebook users can disable the sound feature altogether, and videos will automatically play without sound for mobile phones on silent mode. And even though the social media platform automatically plays videos on the news feed, it’s not clear how many people turn on the sound.
If a customer can’t understand your video ad without the sound, you will lose their interest. To prevent this, add text to the video with the help of a transcriptionist. To make sure the script is great, you can get a talented writer to craft it for you. Subtitle files are easy to add since Facebook has finally enabled the upload of SRT files to videos. Alternatively, you may also add text overlays to videos with the help of a video editor.
Suggest viewers turn on the sound
If you really want your viewers to watch your ad with sound, this is one of the Facebook video ads best practices you should follow. Suggest viewers turn on the sound through a pop-up. Make sure the pop-up won’t annoy people by designing and appropriately timing it so it won’t turn out to be disruptive. This tip is important to follow, especially if you are using a voice-over to tell relevant information.
Focus on one message
If you want your Facebook video ad to be shareable, focus on only one point. If your video can be understood easily by your viewers, they will be more likely to share it with their peers. Try to put yourself in your viewer’s shoes and ask yourself what they want to know about your product. This will serve as your anchor point.
Craft a good title
It is recommended to write a good title that’s easily searchable. With more than two billion searches every day on the platform, you might as well optimize your video. You may hire a writer that specializes in SEO for this.
Create a Facebook copy
If you’re an internet-savvy business owner, you may also be active on social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. One of the Facebook video ads best practices we recommend is to have a specific copy that is tailored to Facebook.
There are two major characteristics of Facebook posts. First is the character limit. Facebook gives you an opportunity to experiment with short and long captions depending on your goal. For instance, if you want your video ad to drive clicks, a short copy is better. Long copies do best in generating engagement. Aside from the character limit, Facebook also allows your audience to type up to 8,000 characters on a comment. Therefore, you can invite your audience to share their thoughts.
Have a call to action
Having a call to action on your video is a top video Facebook video ads best practices you shouldn’t miss. This will not only encourage engagement but also convert audiences to become loyal customers by driving traffic to your website.
You may think CTAs are only limited to buttons that redirect to your website, but for a Facebook video, a CTA can be as simple as a sentence saying, “Read our blog entry on our website.” It is recommended to mention your CTA at the end of your video.
Choose your audience
Facebook’s algorithm ranks posts on News Feed through relevance, so you might as well share your video ad to the right audience. Once you’ve published the ad, set your target audience based on the pages they have liked, as well as their interests. You can also add audience restrictions if you want to limit the people who will see your video. For instance, if you are selling a feminine product in Canada, you can set restrictions such that only women aged 18 to 40 years in Canada can see your ad. This will also ensure your budget won’t go to waste.
Facebook Video Ads Will Transform Your Brand
Facebook is a visual medium. What used to be for baby photos and embarrassing high school memories has now become a spot dominated by marketers vying to get the attention of users. But Facebook has become an invaluable tool for marketers and brands. Now that you know the Facebook video ads best practices, you can finally create a strong ad that will capture the interest of your audience.
