Social media is one of the largest ways people interact with others or keep up with people and topics they enjoy. Seeing people post amazing photos and videos of something that they have done or created is fun. In the case of Instagram Stories, we have 500 million people posting every day with one billion people using Instagram a month. That’s a lot of potential consumers. It isn’t any wonder that businesses have decided to find ways to advertise their products.
But like all things on the internet you have to get the people interested in your ad or risk them simply scrolling/skipping past it without them even taking a chance to learn what it is you have to offer. In addition to that, you have to worry about your ad being lost among all the other videos that are posted every day.
Here are some simple tips to get the most out of your Instagram Video Ad.
Don’t let the Ad detract from the users Instagram experience
Nobody likes commercials. They are typically disliked because they take time away from the user’s entertainment. According to a study, Typical social media advertisements are native ads, which are ads that are similar to the editorial content of a site and seamlessly integrate with the consumer’s experience. For example, ads that YouTube plays before, in between and after videos users want to watch. Because this ad format interferes with the users, it creates ad intrusiveness. The study found that “the more intrusive consumers perceived native ads to be, the more negative their attitudes toward native advertising would be.” Thus making the ad less effective.
Instagram video ads need to feel like a typical post, but their content needs to stick out. Remember what your product and service are and create an ad with that in mind. The less intrusive that ad feels the more positive that Instagram users will feel towards the ad.
“Enterprise, a car rental agency, uses Instagram by posting photos of various beautiful scenic locations. They are eye-catching and meant to encourage people to think about traveling. Lenovo posts photos and short advertisements of their products that simply show off the product in a quick and sexy light to entice people to look at their products” says Elijah Carraway, a marketer at PhD Kingdom.
These examples of ads don’t take away from the user’s experience and the people are able to enjoy them like they would a regular post.
Captions are Important
Instagram videos have no audio while people are scrolling through their feeds – it’s no better than a photo because the video is essentially paused. As such, captions are a must to draw people into clicking on the video ad to watch it and see what it’s about. Last month Lenovo posted a video advertising their new Yoga laptop. Its captions were, “Smarter says bye-bye to Wi-Fi.”
For people who travel and want to be connected 24/7, that caption alone draws them into Lenovo’s ad. It’s short and simple, yet still, it grabs people’s attention because it’s the one detail that people would be interested in.
Captions explain what the person is seeing, but in the case of a video ad, it’s meant to act as an additional element to get that user to click on that video to learn what it means. The Lenovo ad mainly used captions to promote their product, while using background music to enhance the video.
Use captions to engage the viewer, help them understand your content, but don’t overwhelm them with an excessive amount of text. Think about what you’re offering and the specific details that will make the viewer curious to see what the video ad is about.
Let creativity take the stage
Like most posts on Instagram, the content has to be unique to the user and stand out amongst its competition. Social media advertising is a huge marketing strategy that everyone takes part in. It can be free to use the site itself, but you can’t just copy what everyone else is doing. The video ads have to be different or stick out better than their competition.
There are various Instagram influencers on Instagram. Most of them may post similar content but they still have the same amount of followers. Advertisements need to be better or on par with their competition if you are using an influencer. Setting yourself apart will make it so that any video ads that you post on Instagram will be able to compete with your competitors.
The video must be professionally edited, with all objects or props used brightly lit and clearly visible, as well as obviously showcasing your product, maybe in the center of the video, if you choose to have your product in the video. There are a lot of free video ad-makers available that you can use to do this, one of our readers recommends using Promo.com video ad maker. Any graphics you use should be equally bright – not so garish that they’d contrast with the usual selfies and dog pics on a user’s feed, likely prompting the user to scroll past, but still bright enough to stand out. Consider using your brand’s or product’s colors in all graphics within your ads, to develop a unique style.
Another challenge is time; Instagram videos can be short as 15 seconds, so you have to consider creative ways to get people hooked into checking out the company site or to look at a specific product. People will not want to watch a 2 minute to 10-minute ad unless there is something entertaining about it.
So, if a typical video will be 15 seconds to a minute long, creativity will be playing a huge role in the ad itself, to cram as much in as you possibly can. Creativity will decide whether people find it interesting enough to check out the company or the product that’s being advertised, or whether they choose to ignore it. Ads need to convey a lot in a short amount of time, so the video has to grab a person’s attention. If the ad is lacking in any way, then there is a strong possibility of people viewing the ad as a waste of time or uninteresting, a sudden nuisance on their feed, creating a lasting negative experience between them and your brand.
Creativity is definitely key to success, but bearing this advice in mind, the rest of the details of your video ad are up to you, to test out what works for you and to have fun with.
Keep track of comments and traction
Just because it’s an ad rather than a normal post doesn’t mean you should ignore the comments that people leave. Social media is a great way to interact with potential clients and to see how effective the ad was. The entire point of an ad is to sell a product and to get consumers to buy what the ad is selling. If the ad isn’t generating the traction that you were expecting, in the form of comments or likes, then you have wasted time and money. You can’t just post a video then say it’s done and move on to the next video – you may as well have just produced a TV video ad or a YouTube ad if you do not encourage discussion and comments.
It’s important to see how well a video did so that you can see where you failed and how to improve your strategy going forward. You can’t expect people to watch your video ads if they are the same thing over and over again. The Instagram video ads have to keep to a certain standard in order to remain effective and get people interested in what they’re selling.
Take the time to read your ad’s comments, see the level of engagement the video ad is getting and respond to any comments or questions that your potential customers might have.
Interacting with customers on ads allows you to further engage your audience and get a dialogue started that will allow the ad to gain more traction. More engagement with followers creates a better experience that can ultimately lead to a better chance at sales. In fact, some retailers have gotten great ideas for improving their next ad in this way, along with other valuable feedback about what users like about their current ad, and what they don’t.
Whether or not you get a lot of engagement on your ads, you could ask your users a question within your ad to tempt them to stop and comment. This is a surefire way of driving and controlling positive valuable engagement and feedback in your ads – precious, in fact, for your entire business.
Conclusion
Instagram video advertisements are another great new marketing strategy to get people to view and purchase a product/service. But creating an Instagram video ad can be challenging for a company. However, implementing these methods in a video can improve the quality of the ad and ensure that people don’t skip over the video. New Instagram Video ads can be created on a daily basis and allow you to reach out to billions of people – just make sure to make the most out of each video.
