Whether it is LinkedIn, YouTube or Facebook, video ads dominate digital media today. One of the leading marketing tools for both B2B and B2C companies, advertising through videos can help your brand stand out from the crowd, enhance engagement and shoot up your conversion rates. In fact, according to leading e-commerce players like Amazon and eBay, introducing a video ad to a product description significantly influences shoppers to buy the same.
Isn’t it obvious that anyone would prefer to watch a short video to know more about a brand instead of reading intimidating texts? Believe it or not, there is a dire need to invest in video marketing today if you want to take your brand to the next level.
Having said that, it can be costly whether you hire a professional videographer or even deploy an in-house team of professionals to develop high-quality creative videos. If you are hesitant and indecisive if investing in video ads is worthwhile, this article is for you. Keep reading to discover the potential drawbacks and benefits of video advertisements for a business.
Advantages of Video Advertisements
1. Video ads are more appealing.
Needless to say, video ads are eye-catching. They are anatomically structured in a way that piques the viewer’s interest within a jiffy through audio-visual cues, including movements and sounds that appeal to multiple senses. Moreover, thanks to technological advancements, you can include elements like animation and motion graphics to further make your ads more captivating and unique.
2. They make the brand more trustworthy.
It is very common nowadays for brands to include testimonial videos of their satisfied customers to validate the fact that they have helped people before and can help you too. You are more likely to believe in word of mouth than plain texts boasting about your brand. Similarly, most companies take the help of social media influencers to advertise their products through videos where they share their experiences of using the product/service. These are just two of the many ways through which video marketing can strengthen faith in your brand.
3. They have the potential to generate traffic and increase conversion.
Well, videos can go viral within a short span of time as they can be shared (even globally), thus expanding their exposure by crossing geographical barriers. They increase brand awareness and are capable of generating more traffic. And the more traffic is drawn to your website/designated landing page, the more the chances are to convert the visitors into customers, thereby increasing your ROI on marketing and conversion rates!
4. They help you to share your brand story in an engaging way.
Video ads allow you to effectively highlight your brand’s key features and USP that is very easy to consume by your target audience. Besides, you can convey a humongous amount of information briefly and creatively. Take the example of Alexa’s ad. How, in a matter of seconds, it very simply communicates what it does and how it can make our lives smarter and easier.
Through video marketing, the message delivered is tailored, easy to digest and comprises non-verbal cues such as body language and expressions, thus, enabling you to share your narrative just the way you want. You get creative freedom, and your audience gets you!
5. They are more memorable.
Video ads are timeless, and people are more likely to remember those than any other mode of advertising. Remember Coca-Cola’s ‘Umeedon wali dhoop, sunshine wali asha’ or the Cadbury Celebrations’ Raksha Bandhan ads? We tend to remember them even today, after years of them being premiered. That’s the magic of a video advert!
6. They are SEO-driven and prioritised by social media platforms and search engines.
These days, social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and even LinkedIn are more about engaging videos and less about boring texts or images. And we all know that YouTube, a popular video-streaming platform, is giving tough competition to Google in terms of becoming the biggest search engine. It is evident that the video marketing industry is growing by leaps and bounds and today, one needs to be on board to be successful. Thus, it is vital that you understand the importance of video marketing so that you can maximize its effectiveness.
Disadvantages of Video Advertisements
1. It can be a costly affair.
As far as a video advertisement is concerned, it has many aspects. From a creative script to the right equipment to editing it prolifically and finally streaming it on various platforms, running a successful video advertising campaign is not a walk in the park. It requires relentless efforts and a highly creative mind to film content in a way that leaves a lasting impression in the minds of your potential customers. Thus, whether you outsource this arduous task to a team of experts or plan to do it yourself, it could be problematic, especially when you are new to this business or on a tight budget.
2. It can be a time-consuming task.
Often video adverts take a long time before they are ready to go live. It is an uphill task divided into numerous stages – the rigorous planning stage, the meticulous filming/producing stage and the creative editing stage. It could be time-consuming, taking several days or even weeks at a stretch to finally reach the target audience.
3. They are more likely to be skipped than watched till the very end.
It is very common for people to swap channels while the ads are being played on television or skip the same if they are browsing on a platform like YouTube. It is sometimes super annoying, especially when it’s an autoplay video, an unskippable ad or an excessively long video. This is because there is an abundance of video advertisements today and the audience’s attention span is much less. This has led to individuals losing interest in ads altogether and has further fueled their tendency to skip the same within seconds.
Unfortunately, video marketing may backfire and increase bounce rates and website abandonments. Thus, your ad has to be very impactful so that it compels people to fight their urge to skip it and instead watch it till the very end.
4. Technical limitations can kill the vibe.
Technical glitches may arise while watching videos. For instance, watching an ad on a slow internet can ruin the experience of watching as videos generally take longer to load than images or blogs. Similarly, network bandwidth can also result in watching the video in poor quality, which may again not do justice to the amount of effort that went into developing it in the first place.
5. It may be difficult to update video adverts.
While some videos may be timeless, certain ads may become irrelevant over time due to many factors that may even be outside the control of the business. Factors like seasons, clothing and trends can hinder the ad from being evergreen.
Conclusion
After weighing the pros and cons of video marketing for businesses, it is safe to conclude that even though it has a few drawbacks (which are inevitable, of course!), it is the need of the hour to optimally utilise it so that it can work wonders for your brand.
