Video Ads On Facebook: 4 Ideas To Help You Succeed

With more than 1.8 billion monthly active users, Facebook is a social behemoth ripe for eCommerce marketing. Its variety of social ads — carousel, canvas, lead — gives brands many ways to market to prospective customers. 

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But Facebook’s video ads are perhaps the most versatile of them all. Read on for four ideas to help your video ads shine.

Use customer testimonials for social proof.

Prospective customers scroll rapidly through their News Feed, seeking content worth stopping for. Your video ad should grab them, and what better to catch them than with a short, snappy video of some effusive praise?

An authentic video of a real customer praising your brand, product, or service delivers social proof straight to prospective shoppers’ Facebook feeds.

Studies show that 85% of consumers trust online testimonials as much as they do those from their friends and family. Consequently, a customer review video ad is an effective one that’s easy to create.

Takeaway tips

Your customers most likely willing to provide testimonials return to your business repeatedly. Identify repeat shoppers and reach out to them, offering them a freebie or promotional gift in return for their time.

Customers recognize synthetic marketing ploys from a mile off. When you create your customer testimonial, shoot it in an authentic setting, such as a living room. This will enhance your social proof by making it feel genuine.

Create virtual product catalogs

Why not use your video ad as a virtual catalog if you sell a visual product such as clothing or confectionery?

A video features several themed products (summer lookbook, Christmas gift ideas, etc.) or variations of the same item to pique customer interest on a busy News Feed.

A fine example is that of M.Gemi’s mocassin ad, below:

It doesn’t even feature actual video, offering dynamic stills showing the different shoe styles. The model’s feet in the images change each time, giving an illusion of movement. It was cheap to make but still striking — very effective.

Takeaway tips

Complexity doesn’t necessarily mean quality. A simple lookbook delivered in a slick, attractive style is perfect for presenting your products to prospective customers.

Another alternative is to create an unboxing video. These are particularly popular with young children, making them ideal for toy brands wishing to drive up sales as Christmas approaches. Unboxing videos also work for subscription box brands too.

Create tantalizing unboxing ads using a top-down camera angle with a tight focus on the product. Avoid showing faces to keep viewer attention on the product you’re selling.

Finally, end on a solid call-to-action to make good on your potential shopper’s aroused interest.

Exploit pain points to drive up sales

Your customers’ pain points to drive sales and engagement on Facebook. Tapping into their fears and needs to push products or services is simple and effective. It also works perfectly on social when your customers’ guard is down.

Grabbing shoppers’ attention with a headline or thumbnail that speaks to their pain points is a surefire way of stopping them as they scroll.

Surveys (in return for discount vouchers or freebies) are a cheap and scalable method for finding customer pain points, as is social listening. Seeing what your customers are posting about on social can provide valuable insight into what makes them tick.

Another quick fix for finding customer pain points is simply seeing what your competitors are doing. There are lots of successful businesses for sale on Exchange with robust Facebook ad strategies. Find those within your niche whose target market overlaps yours and use their Facebook video ads for inspiration. Please find out more about their niche targeting and profitability to help you strengthen your value proposition.

To find what ads a brand uses, head to their Facebook page and click on Info and ads on the left-hand menu. It’s a quick hack that can provide you with powerful competitor insight.

Takeaway tips

Identify your customers’ pain points and create ads that manipulate them.

Highlight your target market’s need: a desire to lose weight, save money on grocery shopping, and save time in the kitchen. Open with a passionate appeal to that need, and then build on it. End your video by putting forward your brand as a solution to their problem.

Display value through explainer videos

Some things need to be seen to be believed. To convey your product or service’s benefits to potential customers, you should demonstrate them.

This is especially good for more complex products such as software or appliances. Such products don’t immediately display their value at first glance, requiring more in-depth explanations to win customers over.

Take the example from Dreamfarm below:

The kitchen gadgets in the ad above don’t immediately demonstrate their use to customers. But Dreamfarm’s 41-second video clearly and concisely explains their function without a single word uttered.

Takeaway tips

The key to explainer video ads is to be succinct. Facebook video ads between 5-15 seconds long are the most successful, so you need to be concise.

Reduce your product to its most basic components and create a short clip that shows rather than tells.

Focus on your critical features and unique selling points immediately grabbing your target customer. This will hook them in and serve as a launchpad to demonstrate the rest of your product’s features.

Facebook video ads offer brands a wealth of marketing options. Strive for concision and open with a hook to grab your customers on their News Feed. Drive sales through slick product catalogs or show your value through succinct demonstration videos. Follow the tips above to create successful Facebook video ads today.

Patrick Foster writes and edits for Ecommerce Tips, his digital hub for everything eCommerce. Novice entrepreneurs seeking to up their eCommerce game can find tips on everything from marketing and technology to design and drop shipping. Find them all on Twitter @myecommercetips.

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