How to Make a Video Ad for Your Shopify Store That SELLS

Key Takeaways

video is the most popular medium on the internet and if you're not using it to attract customers well you're leaving a lot of opportunity on the table today you're going to learn how to make sales fast by harnessing the power of video ads [Music] according to studies video outperforms text and images on social media by a staggering 1200 percent and not only that but when compared to image ads video ads generate 20 more clicks but creating a video ad can feel pretty intimidating for new entrepreneurs the truth is this you don't need to be an award-winning director or have tens of thousands of dollars to spend on camera equipment to create a video ad that makes an impact it's less about what you have and more about what you do with it so the saying goes the best camera is the one you already have so whether you have access to this this or this i'm going to show you how to get in the mind of your target audience make beautiful videos that capture their heart and write effective ads that earn you more customers the biggest mistake that marketers make is trying to get people to open up their wallets before opening up their minds these struggling marketers create ads that try and extract dollars without offering any real value you see people are big bags of emotion they don't want to be sold to they don't want to have product features listed at them they want to be inspired they want to be educated they want to be entertained and ultimately they want to feel understood the reality is too many marketers try and create video ads from the perspective of the seller when really you need to see the world through the eyes of the customer so before you ever write a script or pick up a camera you need to understand your audience this helps you target the right people and craft the right message to dive into the mind of your audience ask yourself these questions what does your audience desire for example they might desire a healthy lifestyle but lack time what are their attitudes maybe they value quality over economy what are their concerns maybe they're concerned with their health and appearance do they have any deeply held beliefs perhaps they believe that gmos are destroying the planet and will only buy organic what are their values for example they prioritize spending time with friends and family what are their activities and interests maybe they're interested in nature so they spend nights scrolling instagram looking at pictures of adventure influencers and what are their demographics this is simply age income gender and relationship status once you understand what they think the next important step is to empathize with the problem they are facing on a fundamental level there are two major reasons why people buy products and services to take them closer to pleasure or to move them further away from pain here's an example jimmy gets a promotion at work and to celebrate him and his partner go out for an expensive dinner that's buying for pleasure but after dinner jimmy gets a terrible case of heartburn so he heads over to the convenience store and buys an overpriced bottle of tums that's an example of buying to solve a pain when empathizing with your customers problems it's important to understand that just like an onion sometimes the problems they face have multiple layers if you're selling charcoal toothpaste you're not just solving the problem of yellow teeth you're probably also solving the problem of enamel loss caused by other teeth whitening solutions and you might also be solving the problem of lack of confidence dig past the obvious to unearth the problems your customer is facing figure out how you can solve them and in the process make their life better now before we actually get to making our video ad it's important that we understand the distribution strategy and that's because it's crucial that our video ad feels native to the platform it's being released on unlike television commercials which are made once and released on multiple channels video ads are most effective when they're created specifically for the distribution platform that you're releasing them on the reason for this is twofold each platform is its own social environment with expectations from its users about what types of content they'll see for example linkedin is business and employment oriented so a video ad for a business to business service might feel really natural here but a video ad for an ecommerce fitness product might feel really out of place the second reason for this is that each platform has its own best practices and preferred formats youtube prefers the widescreen format which is an aspect ratio of 16x9 facebook and instagram prefer the square format which is one to one and tick talk snapchat and instagram stories prefer the mobile vertical video format which is 9x16 these considerations are so important because they'll ultimately affect how your video ad performs for example since square videos take up 78 more real estate on facebook news feeds a study showed that when compared to landscape videos square videos performed better across the board with a 50 lower cost per click and a 45 higher engagement rates beyond aspect ratio each platform has their own best practices when it comes to video length youtube recommends that video ads are between 15 and 20 seconds long with the exception of bumpers that they limit to six seconds facebook recommends that in-stream and news feed ads are between 5 and 15 seconds long and tick-tock recommends that video ads are 9 or 15 seconds long now that we have the prep work out of the way let's talk about the types of video ads that we can create here are some basic categories of video ads number one is product demonstrations demonstrations are a great way to convince someone of the usefulness of your product videos that visualize the experience of using a product can really show someone how it will fit into their life and solve a problem number two is testimonial ads testimonials are a great way to build trust with potential customers and are a tried and true way to increase conversions what's great about this ad type is that it's often lower effort as the testimonials themselves are usually user generated but if you're launching a new product here's a pro tip to get testimonials you can simply hire someone on fiverr to review your product on video number three is conversational ads conversational ads put your brand personality front and center making your brand feel more memorable and human to potential customers for example dollar shave club showed the effectiveness of conversational ads when their single hilarious video ad reached three million people number four is aspirational ads aspirational ads spur people to action with a message that is inherently motivating nike has elevated this ad type to an actual art form number five is educational ads these types of ads offer the audience a tangible educational value that works perfectly with the product they're selling for example an ad on the health benefits of turmeric would probably work perfectly for a fresh pressed juice where turmeric was the key ingredient now let's talk about how to make a video ad that sells when creating an ad it's vital that you appeal to emotions to make a connection that lasts dale carnegie once wrote remember when dealing with people you're not dealing with creatures of logic but with creatures of emotion emotions drive action remember this people decide with their hearts but justify with their heads so while a man in a midlife crisis might tell you that they bought a sports car because of its phenomenal mile to gallon ratio chances are the main motivating factor behind that purchase decision was that cruising down the highway made him feel young again that's why when creating an ad it's important to work with the grain of human nature make people feel something when choosing an emotion for your ad it's important that it aligns with your brand's tone gymshark's ads inspire you old spice ads make you laugh there's no right or wrong answer here just make sure it's authentic to you if you want your video ad to actually make sales you need to focus on benefits not on features truth be told people don't really care about your product ultimately what they care about is how your product is going to make their life better never mindlessly list product features without context if you were selling orthopedic insoles which messaging do you think would be more powerful these insoles are anatomically contoured or these insoles provide maximum comfort and support all day long if you guess number two you're on the right track focusing on benefits helps to reframe your ad in the customer's mind now you're helping them solve a problem not just asking them to buy your product make your video ad visually interesting to strike curiosity the first few seconds of your video need to have a visual hook to grab your audience's attention when it comes to getting noticed playing it safe is dangerous it's important to realize that whether you're advertising on facebook or instagram or youtube that your ad is going to appear in a sea of content that's why you need to break normalcy right off the bat so that your audience actually sticks around to hear your value proposition take great care when choosing your thumbnail and the opening shots of your video ad you want to make sure that you use visually impactful imagery to make your audience stop and pay attention when crafting your headline allude to a benefit or use unconventional language so that you entice your audience to stop and want to learn more in the digital age people are constantly inundated with content so being concise with our messaging has never been more important that's why when creating a video ad we need to front load it with the most important information as a general rule of thumb make sure to mention your brand within the first three seconds of your video ad facebook actually found that consumers were 23 percent more likely to remember your brand if it was mentioned within the first three seconds of a video ad the next important thing to remember is to get out your important message by the eight second mark why a study actually found that the average attention span is now down to eight seconds so if you don't get out your message early the chances of someone sticking around to hear the actual value that your product provides are increasingly slim so showcase your value early and often as an example all birds does an excellent job of this typically their video ads are less than 15 seconds long and focus on a single attribute of their sustainable shoes be specific with your video ad if you try and include too much information you'll end up losing focus and your video ad will actually be a lot less engaging so focus on a single theme and don't try and communicate more than is necessary use a clear call to action only after you've captured your audience's attention gained their interest and cultivated desire can you actually call them to act when you do make sure that your call to action is clear and direct as a pro tip only use one call to action per video ad or you'll end up getting some seriously diluted results now we've talked a lot about video advertising principles so here's an acronym that will help you remember the framework for creating a great ad it's called ada and for over a century it's been a powerful series of steps that help advertisers make great ads a stands for attention make your audience stop and pay attention i stands for interest entice your audience with product benefits and how the brand fits into their lifestyle d stands for desire make an emotional connection with your audience and showcase your brand personality this is where you take the consumer from liking you to wanting you and a stands for action call your consumer to action with a simple direction like shop now sign up or learn more now a lot of video advertisers are using a really effective strategy and i wanted to share it with you rather than thinking about your video ads as isolated assets start thinking about them as a sequence sequencing your ads slowly introduces your brand to customers over time and it's one of the best strategies for optimizing your marketing funnel by creating multiple video ads with unique messaging that correspond to various stages of the buying cycle you can guide potential customers towards a purchase over time a study from facebook on refinery29 showed just how powerful sequenced ads are when compared to one-off ads sequenced ads had significantly higher click-through rates turns out 87 of people who saw the sequenced ads visited the associated landing page there was also a clear relationship between subscriptions and sequenced ads following the campaign subscriptions increased by 56 and as it turns out the majority of those conversions were made by people exposed to all three layers of the sequenced ad campaign this works by setting up a retargeting campaign which will ensure that anyone who sees video one will be exposed to the next bucket of videos now if you don't know how to set up a retargeting campaign check out our video on facebook ads for beginners here's a three-step funnel that's simple but effective first we'll start with awareness which is your why make a video about what your brand stands for and what problem you're solving use content that stirs people's emotions and gets them really excited about tackling that problem next we have consideration which is your how make a video that entertains and educates and helps potential customers overcome their objections feed their curiosity but more importantly establish a great relationship lastly we have conversion which is your what now you have earned the right to win a customer these types of videos are mainly reminder based and can use promotions and discounts as a way to prompt a purchase now that we have a strong understanding of how to design an effective video ad let's talk about the steps to actually creating one step number one choose your distribution platform today we're going to be creating a square video ad for facebook and instagram step number two choose your ad type today we're going to be creating an aspirational ad because it authentically reflects the brand tone of the fitness company we're working with step number three write a script and make a shot list this is a vital part of the process to ensure the production moves smoothly and that you hit all the points to get your message across a common beginner's mistake when writing a script is letting your creativity run totally wild you need to actually limit yourself to what is accomplishable within your budget step number four location scouting when picking a location make sure to choose something that works visually but also works for sound if you're recording dialogue visuals are super important but you also need to consider logistics and practicality step number five picking your talent if you're looking for talent on a budget talking to your family and friends can be a great way to save money but if you have a little bit of money to spend you can use several online services to find professional talent alternatively using an influencer can be a great way to get talent with the added benefit of distribution step number six the legal stuff make sure that you get all your talent to sign a release form consenting to be in your video ad now since we're shooting on a cell phone location permits and insurance won't really be an issue but if you're using professional equipment or shooting in a high profile location these are something you're definitely going to want to look into step number seven rehearse rehearsing is always a great idea it's going to save you so much frustration and a lot of blown takes rehearsing will make sure that you get the best performance possible and the day will often go by a lot faster than you think so it'll ensure that you get everything you need step number eight the shoot make sure you take time correctly lighting your subject as lighting can actually make a bigger difference in how your video looks than your camera make sure your sound is on point especially if you're recording audio the wolf fix it in post attitude is a really big beginner's mistake if you don't have sound you don't have a video sure some people will watch your video without sound but you want to at least give them the option you're not just trying to make a silent film here add motion to your shot using movement can really help to keep your viewers attention here's a really simple but powerful motion technique it's revealing information slowly over time to tell your story here's an example so we start off on a close-up shot of a running shoe we slowly pull back and we see that someone is preparing to take a race and then as we pull back more we realize this is a paralympic athlete you see how the story developed over time that's revealing information use depth of field the more separation that a subject has from the background the more interesting the image is going to look focus on delivery it can take several takes to get the performance that you want so make sure to give your talent positive feedback highlighting what you liked it's a lot more effective than focusing on negative feedback which can actually make your talent feel more self-conscious make your set a safe space once you start having fun that's when the magic happens here's a pro tip since video ads are so short try bat shooting them so that you can a b test different video ads to find out which performs best or so you can have multiple video ads to put in a sequence step number nine edit your video well professional or semi-professional editors might opt for using software like premiere pro if you're looking for the most bang for your buck or are just not overly skilled at editing using a software like any moto can be an easier and cheaper way to edit videos regardless of what software you use when editing your videos make sure to keep them fast paced as this will do a lot better job of holding your audience's attention lastly but importantly you'll want to make sure that you add captions as this will make your video ad accessible and some people may be watching it with the sound off step number 10 upload your ad and choose your audience when it comes to uploading your ad like we spoke about before it's important that you choose a great thumbnail and write a great headline these will ultimately have a big impact on how your ad performs with the customer profile that we wrote earlier you should have no problem knowing who to target now let's talk about iterating creative a beginner's mistake that a lot of video advertisers make is thinking they constantly have to shoot ads instead of leveraging the creative library that they already have once you've released your ad your work isn't done now it's time to think less like an artist and more like a scientist you see one of the main benefits of digital is we have the opportunity to revise and improve our ads that's why your video ad budget should look something like this twenty percent of your budget should be spent on experimenting and learning and eighty percent of your budget should be sent on accelerating and scaling you see we want to let the data decide what's working and what isn't and then diagnose the exact moments in our video that can be improved but how do we do that you remember eta but we can use metrics that correspond to the ada framework to let us know what areas of our video can be improved attention can be measured by taking the number of three second views and dividing it by the number of impressions expressing that as a percentage so if 50 percent of people are watching the first three seconds of your video that's great any less than that and you should experiment with your thumbnail and opening frames interest can be measured by the average watch time achieving double digits is great but any less than that and you should try changing the middle of your video to build more intrigue desire can be measured by click-through rate if you're getting over two percent that's amazing but if you're doing less then try making your call to action a little bit stronger action can be measured by return on ad spend sometimes called roas and that's because our ultimate goal is to get customers to buy but roast itself can be a bit complex to actually guide creative effort consider increasing this metric your ultimate goal but roast itself is not your guiding principle hopefully this video has given you everything you need to begin creating video ads we are so excited to watch your business grow make sure if there's anything you could use help with to comment below with the topic and we'll make a video happen also don't forget to like and subscribe so you don't miss out on more helpful tips to grow your online business remember we're a channel for small business owners with big plans i've been your host tyler and i'll see you next time on learn with shopify