At any given moment, you can pick up your smartphone and start consuming a massive amount of content. And, whether you like it or not, Facebook especially makes it easy for you to get sucked in by videos of cute puppies napping or humans doing crazy things. Hey, whatever helps pass the time throughout your workday, right?
But, when you’re on the advertising side of things trying to push your business out into the social media world, all this content noise can make it easy for your audience to drown you out. Maybe you’ve already built a strong following on Facebook and are working hard to maintain your reach and engagement. Yet, for one reason or another, you’re just not seeing the conversion numbers you’d expected. After all, there’s a ton of competition for News Feed real estate these days.
If there’s one thing you start utilizing today, however, to break free from all that noise and up your conversion game, it’s Facebook video ads. I know what you might be thinking: “I have no idea how to even create a high-quality video. And I sure as heck don’t have any technical skills when it comes to this sort of thing.” Stop getting bogged down with those thoughts right this second. Today, smartphones and webcams help make recording video so easy that any old Joe Schmoe can do it. If you think otherwise, you’ll be missing out on a seriously underutilized method to reel in your ideal customers.
In fact, even though people are watching more than 100 hours of video on Facebook each day, they comprise less than 1% of the content brands post each week. So, to help you harness all that power, I’m here to share a 5-step guide to maximize conversions using Facebook video ads.
And, even with these tips in your back pocket, you still might find you’re struggling with creating an amazing ad and becoming an expert at ad targeting. All while trying to stay ahead of Facebook’s never-ending changes. What is true today might not be true in a few weeks from now, which means you keep hitting the reset button to learn the ropes of the next new thing. I have just the solution that will give you a serious advantage over your competitors and keep you a few steps ahead at all times. Stay tuned below!
Your 5-Step Guide on How to Use Facebook Video Ads to Maximize Conversions
1. Get to the point—convince your audience to watch in the first 3 seconds.
Facebook videos play automatically in users’ News Feeds, so there isn’t much work to be done to conquer this step, right? Wrong. Views are the meat and potatoes of your metrics, helping you calculate the conversion rate so you can get a clearer picture as to what’s working and what’s not. But, Facebook doesn’t count a view until a person watches your video for 3 seconds or more.
So, how can you capture your audience’s attention right off the bat? For starters, use text overlays. Even though videos are on auto-play, they’re muted unless the Facebook user has their device’s sound on or until they click on the video itself. The best videos not only propel the viewer to unmute them, but also communicate the same message visually if they don’t.
When using text overlays, focus on the key points you don’t want your viewers to miss. You can even give them a little nudge and throw in a call-to-action such as, “Turn your sound on to hear this important message.” See how Jenna Kutcher, professional marketing consultant and wedding photographer, best utilizes this method in the warmest of ways.
Makes you want to hear her loud and clear doesn’t it? Ultimately, don’t abuse your first frame to feature your logo or a black transition screen. Also, I recommend you add closed captions. That way, your audience can consume your video sans sound. After all, 85 percent of Facebook video is watched without sound. Here's Facebook's tutorial on how to do it. And take a look at how one entrepreneur makes use of them. *Click the sound button on the video to mute it before watching to see them!*
Get creative and reel your audience in with these tips, propelling them to hear your important message.
2. Keep the momentum going—only share content that’s valuable & engaging.
Don’t let your video fizzle out after the opening scene. After all, your overall goal is to get people to take the next step to convert. To help with this, if there’s one thing your video should offer, it’s valuable content that engages your viewers. Speak to their biggest hurdles and tell them how you can help clear those with ease, whether it’s through educating or demonstrating. Take a look at how Dale Partridge, author/entrepreneur/pro-blogger, tackles this step.
He gets personal and lets his target customers in on the benefits of joining his challenge. Also, he saves the very best for last, keeping the sizzle alive with some social proof—the number of students who’ve completed his program to-date—and a discount. All while keeping it short and straightforward. Not to mention, the most important points of his video are also included in the copy of the ad itself, with a link to take action.
And, if you’re getting stuck on an ideal length for your video, check out the data from Kinetic Social’s quarter 4 2016 social trends report.
Looks like the sweet spot for Facebook video length is between 15-60 seconds long. Less is definitely still more. So, just be sure you’re succinctly telling your story in a matter of seconds all while connecting with your audience to provide invaluable information. Ultimately, the more people who find your video to be beneficial, the more shares and likes you’ll receive, resulting in FREE views and greater conversion numbers.
3. Zoom in on the motive for your ad—set a clear objective.
Before you begin spending your hard-earned dollars on advertising, it’s best to get super specific with your video’s objective. Luckily, Facebook is kind enough to ask you what your campaign objective is when you’re ready to get everything set up in your Ads Manager. Take a look at what you have to choose from.
If you’re looking to increase conversions (absolutely!), go with the obvious Conversions objective. You’ll then most likely be driving them to a sales page on your website to grab hold of your offering. Zooming in on this step to best align with your overall goal plays a big role in increasing the performance of your video ad.
4. Steer clear from the chill—target a warmer crowd.
No matter how good your video might be, if you don’t target the right people, you won’t get all the good results you were hoping for. Of course, your ideal audience depends on what your objective is. And, you can certainly try and pull new people into the funnel. But, it can be freaking hard to sell to cold traffic. Some experts say the most powerful ads, in fact, are directed towards a warmer audience. After all, one warm lead is better than 10 cold ones. Prospects need to trust (and warm up) to you before they even think about taking the bait.
Who’s part of your warm audience? Think of them as your acquaintances—people on your newsletter list, website visitors, and even those who have liked your business page. But, they still may not quite know what it is you do. You’re ultimate goal is to guide them through the conversion funnel to become a customer. Therefore, your offer is probably centered on one of the following: a free trial, software/product demo, flash sale, or a webinar sign-up.
Fortunately, Facebook makes it easy to target these existing connections with its Custom Audience feature. Whether it’s your page followers, website visitors, or even your email list, you can effortlessly reach those who care a little more than that chilly audience to snag what it is you have to offer.
And, yes, it might take some time to land on a winning group that gets you the greatest results. But the key is to keep trying.
5. Maximize your ROI—test, don’t guess.
If you think you have to put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to setting up your video ads, you’re in for a real treat.
Facebook offers you the ability to split test various versions of an ad to evaluate what works best. After all, there’s no magic formula. But, you definitely need to avoid turning the process of setting up your campaigns into a guessing game. So, if you’re feeling unsure about your video ad’s objective, target audience, copy, you name it, I suggest you get to A/B testing right away.
Offer up various versions (ideally, 3 or 4) of the same ad. And, no, I’m not saying to create entirely different videos for each test. Instead, choose just one thing to test across multiple versions, whether it’s your headline, call to action, starter thumbnail, target audience, or even just a link in the ad’s copy.
Let’s say you’re evaluating your headline. When you test various versions, changing only the headline, you’ll then know for sure it was that component alone that caused the difference in the conversion rates of your ads. Avoid making the rookie mistake of skipping this step, and you’ll be on the right track to generating the best results possible for your investment.
Looking to master the art of Facebook Ads and stay ahead of the curve?
It can be overwhelming trying to learn all there is to know about creating a Facebook ad strategy that works, while staying on top of the platform’s never-ending changes. You might think you’ll never be able to get ahead of your competitors when tactics you learn today become outdated tomorrow.
But, you actually can. The solution is AdLab, an ever-evolving course on Facebook ad strategy. Its focused on guiding even the most seasoned pros to success with growing their business using the world’s largest social network.
Here’s how entrepreneurs like you can benefit from becoming a member of AdLab:
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Aren’t you ready to wave goodbye to spending countless hours learning the ropes of Facebook ads? Then, having the rug ripped out from under you once you learn all there is to know, leading you to start back at square one with new tactics to grasp? Yeah, I know I was. Take the first step towards slaying your conversion goals with Facebook video ads—grab hold of these benefits today.
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Facebook videos are all the rage right now, beating out static posts for some serious airtime across our News Feeds. So, it’s time for you to take advantage of this underutilized advertising method, and you don’t have to wait another minute. You now have a 5-step guide to maximize your conversions with video ads and an evergreen course that will help you crush your Facebook ad strategy from here on out.
What’s holding you back? Go ahead and join entrepreneurs like you who are raving about AdLab—helping them harness the power of Facebook advertising.
Have questions or something to share? Let us know in the comments section below.
