Facebook Video: Upgrade Your Creative

Facebook Video Creative Best Practices

Facebook users spend, on average, 1.7 seconds on mobile content and 2.5 seconds on desktop content. With such a short timeframe, social media advertisers need to make the most of the opportunity to attract consumer with a Facebook video.

In addition to the time limit, Facebook advertising also interferes with the entertainment and communication people seek social media out for. Compared to Google or Amazon advertising, Facebook audiences are not actively seeking advertising. Rather, it is typically interrupting their downtime.

With these obstacles, a good social media advertiser knows that strong creative is the solution to both problems. Creative has to capture attention in less than three seconds and make the user pay attention to what the brand has to say. It has to be thumb-stopping.

56% of a brand’s sales lift from digital advertising can be attributed to the quality of the creative. To take creative to the next level, advertisers must consider three aspects: content, placement, and ad components.

Content

Facebook is the second most popular platform (after YouTube) for consuming videos, with 40% of consumers primarily watching videos on Facebook. Not only is video the trend across the platform, but it also leads to more qualified engagement and conversions for advertising. On Facebook, video ads averaged 21% more interactions than single image ads and 19% more interactions than Carousel Ads.

However, this does not mean that brands can put their YouTube videos on Facebook and expect the same results. Facebook video ads tend to be much shorter than YouTube ads. Facebook video data shows that viewership drops off after five seconds into a video, with the recommended length of video creative being no more than 15 seconds.

With 47% of the value in a video campaign being delivered in the first three seconds, advertisers should start with their main message, accompanied by their logo and brand name to increase recall.

With a mobile-first mindset, determining what sound to use with video is answered by this golden rule: Design with sound off, delight with sound on. Most mobile users are not turning sound on. Therefore, it is important for advertisers to use text overlays and captions to ensure viewers will understand the video without sound.

Video thumbnails can not contain more than 20% text without impacting delivery. Use the Customize Video option to select an attention-catching thumbnail.

For businesses without resources for robust creative development of images and videos, Facebook offers self-serve tools that align with its creative best practices.

The Facebook Video Creation Kit is an internal tool in Ads Manager that allows users to turn static images into mobile-optimized video content. With a selection of templates, the Video Creation Kit adds text, logos, and animations to a series of images, creating a new video asset for advertising creative.

Facebook also offers Instagram Story templates that turn square or rectangle images into short, vertical videos optimized for 9:16 Story placements.

The Creative Hub is another internal tool for finding creative inspiration and designing ad mock-ups. After exploring a gallery of ads, the Creative Hub provides templates for each ad format and allows previews on mobile and desktop placements.

Placement

Facebook’s family of platforms includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Audience Network – and each of these platforms includes different placements where ads can appear. No placement is created the same, so it is important to use Asset Customization to ensure each ad creative is optimized for these placements and platforms.

For example, an ad in an Instagram Story looks very different from an ad in Facebook’s Mobile News Feed. An advertiser needs a 1:1, 9:16, and 16:9 version of each video asset to take full advantage of the real estate and provide the best user experience in each placement.

Using Facebook’s Asset Customization features, advertisers can upload the appropriate size of each video to each placement, all within one ad. The Video Creation Kit supports these different sizes as well as provide tools to further crop and trim videos.

Pairing Asset Customization and Automatic Placements ensures cost-effective delivery by allowing each version of the video asset to appear where users are at the precise moment. By opting into Automatic Placements, some brands have seen a 71% lower cost per conversion.

Ad Components

Once your video asset is created, advertisers need to design the other components of the ad to support the creative. While the user’s attention is captured by the creative, the headline and copy provide opportunities to expand upon the brand’s value proposition or highlight any other important information, like promotional details or a money-back guarantee.

Be mindful of copy length as mobile placements have less space for text copy. Let the creative do the talking and keep copy short and sweet.

Always use a Call to Action button to encourage users to take the next step – whether that is completing a purchase or learning about a rewards program.

Some ad formats, like Carousel Ads, allow advertisers to use both static images and video assets in one ad. Running different ad formats and different types of creative can also ensure your brand is resonating with its audience. According to Facebook data, campaigns that combine both static and video assets achieved a 6% higher conversion lift versus static images alone.

Are you interested in seeing how the ROI SMA team can help you maximize growth and profitability? Get in touch with us today!

You can also check out some of our free resources around social media advertising below: