Facebook Video Ads: Best Practices for 2021

Facebook Video Ads: Video ads should be one thing: catchy. Think about it, you are walking down the street with a bunch of buskers, they barely seem to be invested in entertaining people, and their presentation is mundane. Would you stop to listen to them? No. Similarly, if a video ad cannot capture its audience, it serves no purpose.

To drive engagement to Facebook video ads, you need to follow the best practices. Have a good copy, engaging visuals, and an idea about your target audience. 

These video ads appear in short intervals between stories and as independent posts on the feed. The purpose is to spread brand awareness. Marketers can flex the brand with more creative freedom and bring the USP to people’s notice.

How do you indulge in the best practices of Facebook video ads? To answer that question, we have gathered the most up-to-date trends and insights. These practices will help in the more prudent use of this facility. Let’s delve into the subject, shall we?

Be the Center of Attention

The social media platforms are brimming with generic content. If you create one more ad about the same concept, it should be unique and quirky.

People desire entertainment, and their attention span is only 8-12 seconds on average. At this time, you need to deliver a hook or offer that they cannot resist.

Studies prove that people click away from an ad if it keeps them in a loop and does not provide value early. The marketer needs to create an ad that has some edge over all the competitors and is persuasive.

Once you have directed the attention towards your brand, people are likely to buy or recommend your brand to others. Facebook is the third-most visited website in the world. Leveraging that statistic is the best move for your business.

Be Concise

People quickly move on from any visual offering. They do not have the patience and time to look at a five-minute video. What should be the length of a Facebook ad, then?

The ideal length for ads that appear before videos is (5-15 seconds), but you can also use up to 31 seconds if you have something extra in the bag.

For ads in the post, the ideal length is 15 seconds. These usually have a higher conversion rate and allow viewers to know your whole message without scrolling past. Our advice? Start with a hook that includes the name of your product.

According to an experiment on Facebook, ads that were only 6-seconds in length had a 271% completion rate. 11% ad recall, and 21% increase in return from ads. See the magic of 6 seconds? Try it for your brand and find out if it’s true!

Without Sound, it Makes Sense

People are wary of the cacophony in the surroundings, and after hearing so much, they want to enjoy social media in peace. Since people watch 100 million hours of Facebook videos every day, you should learn to leverage the glorious feature of muted ads.

Desktop users have the ads on unmute by default, but for mobile viewers with silent or vibrating mode, the ads will also be on mute by default.

If you turn off the sound of any video, other videos will also play without sound until you turn it on. Most viewers prefer the former option. 

Hence, your videos should be so thoughtful that it makes sense with or without sound. Facebook recommends adding captions and graphics to relay your message without sound.

A statement made by Facebook says that “Internal tests show that captioned video ads increase video view time by an average of 12%.”

Hence, the value you add should not be dependent on sound.

Optimization is the Key

Titles and descriptions are underrated. Witty titles add more value and tell the audience about what an ad is offering. 

These also help in ranking on search engines. Hence, keywords for the topic should be sprinkled cleverly in both title and description.

Your title can be direct, witty, humorous, or emotional. Be unique in your copy and show off the brand.

The titles like “How-to”, “3 things to”, “The secret” have a greater appeal as human beings are always hungry for information.

Ads that have some reference to a favorite series or character also rack up a big audience. So next time, consider adding something from “Stranger Things” or “Friends” in your message. 

Your titles should instill curiosity and make your audience want to watch the ad multiple times.

Choose the Right Specifications

You will find it surprising, but a shabby format can be a turn-off for anyone who comes across your ad. 

You might have the best idea, but you will see poor returns if the ad lacks execution. 

With your best interests in mind, Facebook has some recommendations to make your ads visually pleasing:

• Resolution should be 1080×1080 pixels.
• H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan, and stereo AAC audio compression at 128 kbps+.
• You can choose from file types of MP4, MOV, or GIF.
• The primary text should not have more than 125 characters.
• The headline can be 40 characters long.
• Descriptions can be 30 characters long.

These specs will help you in creating a professional video that will make your audience stop and stare! Multiple times.

Soon, you will notice your views go up, and engagement boosted, and the return doubled.  

Focus on CTAs

Call to action prompts the viewers to take some action on the ad. For instance, clicking on a link or buying from your brand.

If you exhaust a good CTA at the start of the ad, the audience will think that you are selling desperately.

The starting of a video should always be a powerful message to build trust with your viewer. Once that is done, you can put your CTA in the middle when the viewer is invested in your brand.

 Most brands put their CTAs at the end, but placing them mid-roll can give you the upper hand.

Conclusion

Aside from these factors, there are other considerations for creating stellar advertisements. These include thumbnails, live ads, focus on the target audience, aligning with KPIs, objectives, mobile optimization, etc.

Facebook video ads are an unparalleled source of increasing brand awareness and attracting people from all parts of the world.

In the future, we might even witness AR videos, refined formats, provisions for short ads, and a better promotion strategy.

The future for your brand is bright, and the engagement will be soaring through Facebook ads. There are countless evolutions that you will witness beyond the years as the technology for video becomes more advanced.

Also Read: How to Scale Your Company Post Pandemic