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3 Step Formula for Social Video Ads

When producing social media video ads it can often be hard to know where to start. We’re spilling the beans on our simple 3 step structure that we use to make high-performing social ads.

1. Excite (first 3 seconds)

By far the most important part of your advert is going to be the first 3 seconds or less. Social media audiences are fickle and fleeting, so it’s vital that you grab their attention straight away. We actually wrote a whole blog article on this, but in short, the best way to stop thumbs is by surprising viewers with something they’ve never seen before. In our company ad we decided to grab attention by attaching 7 small fluffy friends to ourselves, inspired by the iconic image of Daniel Radliffe in. A study by VideoMob also found that ads which used text in the first 3 seconds performed 46% better than those without.

2. Inform

This is the chunk of time in the middle of the video where you show how your product/service solves a problem. There’s two main ways of doing this: by entertaining your viewer or educating them. Just make sure it clearly links back to your brand. Budweiser’s ‘Lost Dog’ superbowl commercial had everything you could ask for: a puppy, wolves, strong emotions and a good narrative. However, it’s performance fell short because it simply had nothing to do with beer and didn’t link back to the brand in any real way.

3. Call to Action (last 5 seconds)

Make your advert actionable - what do you want viewers to do after watching the ad? Do you want them to buy your inflatable dart board or do you want them to sign your petition to stop people crowding around airport baggage carousels? You can make your call to action even more effective by reducing it down to it’s simplest form or offering some form of discount. I decided to emerge from a stagnant pond in full diving gear as a call to action. A study also found that ads showing the word ‘shop’ as a call to action had a fives times greater average purchase rate than ads with ‘get’ or ‘find’

Have any burning questions about video ads? Drop us a line.