These days, it’s all about the visual.

Just take a look at some of the most popular social networks: Facebook’s news feed is filled with pictures and videos, there’s not much difference on Instagram, while Snapchat users are watching 10 billion videos a day.

No wonder video marketing is skyrocketing.

Video marketing in numbers

Video marketing implies using videos to promote products or services.

Beside advertising, videos can serve other marketing-related purposes as well, such as raising brand awareness or educating customers about companies or their products.

If you’re not sure why there’s so much hype about video marketing, take a look at these stats:

• Online video now accounts for 50 percent of all mobile traffic. (Source: Bytemobile Mobile Analytics Report)
• The average user spends 88% more time on a website with video. (Source: Mist Media Reports)
• 4 times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. (Source: 2015 Animoto survey)
• Video ads have an average click-through rate (CTR) of 1.84%, the highest click-through rate of all digital ad formats. (Source: Business Insider)

What makes video marketing so attractive

The cost of video ads has reduced drastically and they have become more than affordable.

Today, there is simply no reason not to make them a part of your campaign. There are multiple video ads formats available: linear, non-linear, interactive, in-banner, and more.

In that, marketers have a wide choice and plenty of room for creativity. And, what is more, search engines love video. If you have a video on your website, it will usually be the first thing your visitors will focus on. At the same time, your search engine ranking will improve a lot.

Successful video ads have:

• good timing,
• creative and engaging content,
• simple and easy-to-digest plot.

Timing should be carefully considered before a video ad is launched.

For example, you wouldn’t want your ad to be shown in the morning if students are your target audience. At that time, most of them will be at school and your money will go to waste.

You might have a very advanced product with tons of features. In that case, you’re probably so enthusiastic that you want to share everything about it with everyone.

Don’t.

Nobody likes to feel confused. Or worse – bored.

Human attention span keeps shrinking and is now below that of a goldfish. In other words, you have 8 seconds to get your viewers’ hooked. Your message must be creative enough to capture their attention. Otherwise, they will simply scroll past your ad.

Keep the plot of your video ad simple and easy to digest, and leave details for later. The goal of your video ad is to spark curiosity and engage viewers. Make your video ad memorable, and it might even go viral.

However, simply launching a video ad does not always equal success. Viewers often skip ads, get distracted, or face technical problems (such as lags or website downtime).

Pay attention to your ads’ performance – track what is working and what is not.

Experiment.

Combining creativity, experience and analytics can help you turn video into the perfect channel for reaching your customers.

Video as the future of content marketing

Visual is the new black in the world of marketing – it allows you to do more with less.

Watching a video about a product makes people more willing to buy it. However, a good video requires a lot of planning.

Video ad format, good timing, engaging content… all these factors require attention before a new video ad sees the light of day. If you manage to combine these factors successfully, the results might positively surprise you.

It seems that video marketing is definitely a way to go. If you want to dive further into this topic, check out the video marketing glossary we’ve prepared for you and enjoy the dive!