If you’re serious about growing your business or your online personal profile, I recommend using one of the most powerful technologies known to mankind: Videos.
According to Inc.com, people are 85 percent more likely to buy a product after viewing a product video -now that’s some serious stats!
A number of small businesses are currently investing time, money and resources into shooting, editing, and producing topnotch YouTube videos in the hopes of building awareness of their brand and engaging users, but unfortunately, none of them are getting any engagement at all from the viewers.
So how do you engage viewers and actually compel them to watch your video ads? Here’s how.
Make your ad look natural
Don’t use too much branding on your ad because you’ll just end up driving viewers away.
Instead, make your ad feel natural as possible – as if it’s actually not an ad so that you can reach your target audience and make them like your brand. A great example of this principle is this ad from Oreo featuring Youtube stars Dude Perfect. This ad involved Dude Perfect in an Oreo Dunk Challenge where they used nothing but ping pong balls. The ad looks totally natural and highly watchable.
Create A Call To Action
A call to action is the action you want a viewer to take after watching your ad. Your goal is to eventually have a viewer give you their contact information or convert them to become a lead by engaging them with your content.
As an entrepreneur, you need to decide how you want to direct the attention of your viewer once your advertisement is over. You want the consumer to act immediately after they have viewed your video so there should be a clear call to action in the ad, especially if you want to direct the viewers to do something.
A great example is this ad for Clash Royale, a multiplayer mobile game, there’s a call to action at the end of this ad which pushes viewers to download the game for free – that tactic is gold right there.
Catch Your Viewers Attention
You literally only have a few seconds to grab the attention of the viewer so you need to make it count.
One way to do this is to have an intro that’s eye-catching or even downright controversial. You can capitalize on a trend or produce something funny. You should use people in the first frames or even celebrities if you can manage it to engage the viewer on a more personal level.
Have a celebrity talk about their favorite food, for example. Close shots, as well as cropped shots, can also work wonders. If you’re using any thumbnails, make sure these are clear. The titles you use should also be clear and compel the viewer to want to click on them. You can even try to have playlists to connect the videos so that if a person watches one video, they can find related videos in your playlist.
A great example is this Apple commercial featuring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. This ad was the brainchild of the agency, TBWA, and it apparently grossed more than 25 million views by the end of 2017. Using Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson in the ad was a smart move since he’s a huge Hollywood star and commands a strong presence onscreen.
Connect With Your Viewers
Use tools like YouTube analytics so you can see your view-through rates and where it may be dropping.
You might decide to do something different when it comes to editing your video to get viewers back to your ad. Thinks about your editing strategy as you create the videos. Your aim is to hook the viewer, so they stay glued to your ad.
There are two ways to hook your viewers, it’s either you make them laugh or you make them cry it’s as simple as that. Humor is always a crowd pleaser and it’s a great way to connect with viewers. Creating an emotional connection is the next best thing next to humor. You can try to come up with a touching story that goes beyond the brand message in the ad and watch the views skyrocket.
A great example of an effective commercial that uses humor is this awesome Mr. Clean ad. The man in the famous white muscle shirt never looked so attractive while mopping hardwood floor before.
In Conclusion
These are just four clever ways you can get more engagement with your video ads, there’s definitely plenty more out there. Try these methods and I bet you should start seeing better results with YouTube advertising.
Screenshot from Apple’s Youtube video