As of last quarter, Facebook has 1.89 billion active monthly users. That’s an insanely large pool to start with, but are your Facebook video ads going to be truly effective and yield the results you want to see if you target all 2 billion of those people? Probably not.
The
good news is that you have friends like Digital Brew to do the hard and tedious work for your video strategy. Creating video ads with Facebook is easy. I think we all can agree on that, but what’s not so easy is knowing the little details and that’s where the gold is!
Don’t just take a stab at your video advertising on Facebook. We see small business doing this all the time. They don’t know what to expect but are hoping for the influx of a lifetime.
Let’s hop to it!
Facebook favors videos
In January, Facebook changed the algorithm that decides which content shows in a user’s News Feed. The recent update places more emphasis on video watch time. This new metric is considered on top of the amount of engagements a video receives, meaning likes, comments, and shares.
So what is a good watch time? Of course, the best scenario is if the viewer watches your video for 100% of the time, but keep in mind Facebook considers 95% of the video watch to be one full view. To pull this off, playback your video, and every second ask yourself does this make me want to keep watching?
Not only does the algorithm favor videos, the actual format in which the videos appear in a user’s News Feed in bigger than that of a photo ad.
How to use Facebook video ads
Instead of outlining exactly what steps to create a video ad, I’d like to share with you the best practices to use when creating your Facebook video ads. If you’re looking for a tutorial on how to create Facebook video ads, there are
a ton of resources out there.
1. Visual
Ok, ok. I have to get this out. Unless you’re sharing customer created content, or you’re posting to someone’s personal Facebook, all of your videos need to be professionally produced. There is nothing more embarrassing than a company who shares poor quality videos. It’s like nails on a chalkboard for me! As a professional company who has and provides value, don’t depreciate that value by communicating it via an unprofessional video. Ok, rant over!
When I say use visuals to optimize your video, that can be slightly confusing. A video is the most visual form of content! Yes, this is true, but think in terms of the screen capture or thumbnail and think relevance. A strong thumbnail preps the viewer so they have a faint idea of what they’re going to see in your video.
2. Clear value proposition and CTA
The most important component to using Facebook’s video ads is that you offer a strong value proposition within that ad. What are you promising your customers and clients? Make this known within your ad. Try to think further than “We offer exceptional customer service”. Maybe you do offer great customer service and keep doing it, but here in Facebook ads, people want to see something tangible.
3. Defined audience
The trick with Facebook ads is to narrowly define your audience within the ad settings. Sure, your potential reach goes down, but if the goal of using Facebook ads is to get tangible results the ad will be more successful by targeting a smaller number of people. By being more selective with your audience, your ad will show to people who are either seeking your product or service or people who are further along in the buying process.
Quick Tip: Facebook does not hesitate to
outsource likes to click farms. Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way. If you run an ad and don’t set specific demographic guideline, you’ll start to receive likes from fake Facebook profiles. Pretty obvious fake profiles, might I add. So lesson learned! The more specific your Facebook ads, the better.
Facebook is an easy and convenient way for small businesses to reach potential customers, but they don’t provide must return if not done properly with professional content. To dive deeper into Facebook’s video settings cruise over to >
“Your Auto-Play Videos Have Been Given the Silent Treatment, Now What? 
