Building video ads for a mobile feed requires new creative considerations. Advertisers need to work harder if they want to earn longer views. To help advertisers understand how to create effective video ads for feed-based platforms, the Facebook Creative Shop and Marketing Science teams continue to analyze Facebook and Instagram video ad campaigns to find out what elements make them more effective. While their work is ongoing and we know there are many ways to create videos that connect with audiences and inspire action, we continue to find consistent practices across many of the best-performing ads. As you work to create video ads that resonate with your audience and drive your objectives, keep these suggestions in mind.

Establish a connection quickly

It’s critical to connect with your audience and capture attention right away. We know that 65% of people who watch the first three seconds of a video will watch for at least ten seconds and 45% continue watching for thirty seconds.5 Consider video thumbnail images and titles that will hook people into your story. Brand colors, themes and imagery can help people connect the video to your brand. Front-loading lifestyle/product shots and recognizable spokespeople can create interest, as can scenes with action or vivid backgrounds.

Kleenex® brand wanted to deliver authentic stories of care to women at the most relevant moments in their days. Kleenex® brand used captions in their videos to help viewers jump quickly into the storyline and hook them to watch more. Over the course of the campaign, they experimented with ways to evolve the creative to include the brand in each narrative. In the ad “A Shining School,” highlighting a custodial worker at a local elementary school, the Kleenex® logo appeared in the first seven seconds and Kleenex® brand sponsored a monetary gift in recognition of his hard work at the school. This campaign resulted in a 6 point lift in ad recall and 3 point lift in purchase intent. Average view duration: 23 seconds.

Design for sound off

Since most video ads in mobile feed are viewed without sound, make sure to express your message visually. In one study of Facebook video ads, 41% of videos were basically meaningless without sound. Showing captions, logos and products can help communicate your message, even in silence.

The campaign resulted in a 7 point lift in unaided brand awareness and a 7.5 point lift in brand favorability.

Seda Sunsilk wanted to engage a young Brazilian female audience with a series of 36 easy hair style video tutorials. The videos used creative text overlay to make them understandable even without sound. Each opening scene starts with attention-grabbing questions such as: “No hairstyle ideas for a night out?” This was followed by step-by-step live demonstrations accompanied by 1-2-3 text on screen of how to achieve the look with the help of Seda products. The campaign resulted in a 7 point lift in unaided brand awareness and a 7.5 point lift in brand favorability. Average view duration: 21 seconds.

Similarly, Absolut worked with their media agency, 360i, to launch a campaign on Facebook and Instagram to tell their consumers about a limited edition “Spark” bottle. Absolut made the iconic bottle silhouette the focal point, helping users to identify the brand quickly and understand that there’s a new product, even with no sound. Absolut also introduced its iconic logo within the first 2-3 seconds. This campaign resulted in a 33 point lift in ad recall on Instagram and a 4 point lift in brand favorability across Facebook. Average view duration: 8 seconds.

Automated captions for video ads on Facebook

In mobile-feed environments, people prefer having the choice to opt in to sound. Our research found that when feed-based mobile video ads play loudly when people aren’t expecting it, 80% react negatively, both toward the platform and the advertiser. Advertisers should take this into account when creating video ads, making sure their stories don’t require sound to communicate their message.

Internal tests show that captioned video ads increase video view time by an average of 12%. Facebook released a new tool that makes adding captions to video ads easier than ever. Previously, advertisers were only able to add captions to Facebook video ads by embedding captions or uploading their own caption files. But soon, advertisers can choose to have captions added automatically. Our new automated captioning tool generates captions for video ads and delivers them to the advertiser within the ad creation tool to review, edit and save to their video ad.

Experiment

There’s no universal solution to building brands with mobile video, so experiment and test to understand what works for your brand and audience. In the process, consider using ad sequencing and creative storytelling combinations to tell a story over the course of multiple interactions.

Mediassociates is an agency specializing in media planning, media buying and campaign optimization. We follow the trends to bring better thinking to you.