5 Tips for Creating Effective Facebook Mobile Video Ads
Make your videos stand out in the News Feed using these proven tricks
By eleventy marketing group
With so many digital marketing tools out there today, sometimes it’s just a matter of findings the right combination to deliver results. One recent equation that’s been delivering for brands: Facebook + Video + Mobile.
This power trio makes sense when you consider that each of the variables involved are in peak form:
- Facebook is huge and still growing – In 2016, for the first time ever, over 50% of Americans will be Facebook users
- Video is becoming a preferred form of online content – U.S. digital video ad spending will increase 28.5% in 2016 to reach $9.84 billion
- Mobile is how people are accessing the web – Mobile currently accounts for 65% of all digital media time
- Mobile and video growth are closely tied together – Video will account for 70% of all mobile traffic by 2021
Facebook, video and mobile are all rising and converging, creating a perfect storm in the form of Facebook video mobile ads.
These stats from Facebook make a compelling case for the potential power of video ads that appear in the News Feed for mobile users:
- People return to Facebook’s News Feed on average 14 times a day
- 100 million hours of video are consumed on Facebook every day
- It takes 0.25 seconds of exposure for people to recall mobile feed content at a statistically significant rate
- In Facebook’s News Feed, people spend an average 1.7 seconds with a piece of content on mobile
When done right, Facebook video ads strategically geared toward mobile users can be effective way to get your brand seen by a targeted audience in a way that inspires them to take action. Some tips on how to do that…
How to Create Effective Facebook Video Mobile Ads
A recent Facebook study (detailed here on Facebook Insights) aimed to determine (1) what creative elements help video ads stand out in mobile feed, and (2) what keeps people engaged with video ads in mobile feed.
Here are some of the key findings:
1. Communicate visually versus audibly
Because viewers typically watch at least the first portion of Facebook videos in the News Feed without audio, you want to make sure your message can be received and understood even when the sound is off. Facebook reports that only 24% of the 965 ads included in the study did this.
Ways to communicate your message without audio include using captions (Facebook offers an auto-caption tool), on-screen text, or simply telling your brand story in a purely visual way (hey, they used to do it in silent films).
2. Keep your brand in the forefront
Make sure your brand is present in some form from the first frame of the video on. Even if viewers don’t watch the rest of the video, or act on it, you at least want to make a brand impression.
Put your logo or product on screen early in a clearly identifiable way so that it sinks in immediately. And keep it on screen for the majority of the video.
3. Make your message succinct
Remember, people are scanning through the News Feed and taking in a lot of info in quick bursts. Don’t require them to go deep to grasp your message—because they won’t. They’ll just scroll on.
Keep the information in your video to the bare essentials. What do they need to know and what do you want them to do?
4. Continually test, monitor and tweak
One of the best things about digital advertising is you can test different iterations, see what’s working and what isn’t, and make tweaks to deliver the best results. And you can do this all very quickly.
With your Facebook video mobile ads, testing and tweaking shouldn’t just be part of your strategy—it should be your strategy. You should always be learning and improving based on the results you’re seeing.
5. Develop Your Ads with the Medium in Mind
The final tip for creating effective Facebook video mobile ads is to put yourself in the viewer’s shoes. Scroll through your Facebook News Feed on a mobile device and see what video ads grab you.
Ask yourself: What do the compelling ones do well? What mistakes do some of less interesting ones make? Pull creative inspiration from the actual experience.
As Facebook Insights states: “Creative design with the screen in mind requires understanding how people interact with content—on whatever screen it may be—and the unique creative adjustments that must follow.”