4 Tips for Making Better Facebook Video Ads

There is no better time than now to begin a Facebook Video Ad campaign. Although there’s still a place for traditional advertising, the tide is quickly turning towards a new, innovative, laser-targeted form of advertising—Facebook!

Place your strongest images at the start

Facebook video advertising is a different kettle of fish compared to TV, YouTube or billboards. You’ll need to grab the viewers’ attention almost immediately, and if you don’t, they’ll simply scroll straight past it and onto the next post in their newsfeed.

So, place strong, eye-catching images at the start so people will be enticed to watch the video. Users typically won't spend long deciding on whether to watch it or not—a few seconds. Therefore, you need the images to have a particularly strong pull.

Prepare for silent viewing

As Facebook video ads are automatically scheduled to auto-play without sound, the majority of people will keep it that way. This means you’ll need to construct your video in a way that conveys the message you want it to, even if the viewer is watching it in silence.

Usually, a story-type narrative performs well, as the viewer will recognize what is happening, but will watch the whole video as each set of words should lead them to the next. You want to avoid giving all the information in one serving, as you want to keep the viewer engaged. Also, remember to place a CTA at the end!

Perform frequent testing

This one is hugely important because if you neglect testing, you'll fail to figure out what works and what doesn't. On Facebook, it is incredibly easy to tweak aspects of your ad, but if you don't test regularly, you may end up wasting your budget on a campaign that isn't claiming views.

A good idea would be to create two versions of the same video, so you can directly compare their performances. However, as we've just mentioned, keep testing to avoid eating away at your budget.

Don’t make the video too long

It’s crucial that you create a video that falls into an optimal length bracket. Ideally, you should make it around 30 seconds long, as this is what produces the best engagement. Of course, slight leeway either side is acceptable, but you should preferably make it shorter rather than longer.

After all, people love to scroll, scroll and scroll on Facebook. Very few people will stop and watch an advertisement that it is a minute long. Just ask yourself – would you watch an advertisement that took up that much of your time on social media?