3 Common Mistakes to Avoid with Social Media Video Ads

Three Common Mistakes to Avoid with Social Media Video Ads

Publishing a video ad online is a ridiculously easy way of reaching out to new customers. So, why do so many people get it so hideously wrong?

The truth is that there are some common mistakes that will sink your video before it even gets the chance to succeed. This could mean that you end up with pointless videos that only ever get seen by people who get lost looking for the latest Transformers trailer or searching for evidence that the Earth is flat (spoiler alert: it’s not).

On the other hand, by avoiding these errors you can give your ad a fighting chance of weaving its magic on its viewers.

None of the following tips are mind blowing or are going to involve you taking a crash course in becoming an international advertising guru in order to be more successful. However, avoiding these errors can prove to be incredibly useful in running more effective marketing campaigns from now on.

Not Clearly Targeting the Audience

Can you clearly picture the type of person that you are hoping to appeal to? If you can’t then it seems safe to say that you have a much lower chance of getting them interested in what you do.

The language that you use and the benefits you try to get across will vary from one market to another. For example, if you are looking for millionaires who enjoy the finer things in life and wear 24 carat gold socks – yes, apparently they do exist – then you won’t want to focus on thriftiness and saving a little bit of cash.

Related: How to Achieve a 50% Higher Conversion Rate With Video Marketing

On the other hand, if you are actively looking to attract people without too much spare cash to throw about then you might want to focus on some simple financial benefits that are clear to see.

Either way, it makes sense to spend some time looking at your potential audience and then working out how to appeal to them. What type of advert is typically used in this sector and what lessons can you learn from the companies that have failed when looking to sell to this sort of customer in the past?

It would be lovely to appeal to every single person on the face of the Earth but one man’s meat is another man’s poison, as they say in all the most reputable butcher’s shops. Use the right style of English voice over to appeal to your market and tell them things that interest them.

Posting It Where the Right People Won’t See It

Do you know where the people you are looking for hang out online? If you don’t then you aren’t likely to be able to encourage them to buy anything from you, no matter wonderfully creative and clever your video ad is.

Therefore, you need to work out the online habits of your potential customers before going any further. Are they social media beasts who spend every waking minute on Facebook or Twitter, or are they more likely to be found soaking up videos on Vimeo, or are they only interested in content from blog sites?

If they don’t even tend to go online then you need to wonder whether this type of ad is worth it. After all, you need people to see your video and act on it or else you would be as well projecting it onto the dark side of the Moon.

Once you find the right type of site or social media platform that your target market are using then it will make it a lot easier to tailor your content as well. You can do this by seeing the language they use and the type of video that interests them. Is it professional and educated or slang and quirky?

Take note of the type of voice over recording that is used on the sponsored videos that you see as well. Is there a common element that you can learn from?

Not Spending Enough Time Fine-Tuning It

The ease with which you can post a video online means that it can be tempting to rush it out in order to try and see fast results. Yet, a rushed and partially completed job on this task is only going to lead to disappointment.\

Ideally, you will polish and polish the video so much that you can almost see the reflection of your face in it. Does it immediately grab the attention and then clearly explain what you are offering and how it will benefit the life of the viewer?

You may find that removing some unnecessary words and making it shorter gives the ad a far greater impact, while you might also discover ways of adding some more power words to persuade people to take action. Remember that you need to add some sort of call to action that lets the people who like what you say know what they have to do next.

By using a good voice talent you can then give your message a friendly and trustworthy touch. Overall, you need to let the people who see it know who are you and why they can trust you.
By making the effort to follow these steps you can publish a powerful and persuasive ad on social media that convinces people of the benefits you offer.