There is no faster-growing advertising format in the world than online video. As a marketer, you know how important it is to stay up-to-date with fresh industry directions. Take a look at six impactful video marketing trends worth following in web ads in 2019.
Video Ads in Numbers
It’s not a secret for any advertiser that online video consumption is getting significantly bigger every year:
- online video ad spend is expected to grow from US$27 billion in 2017 to US$43 billion in 2020, equalling 23 percent of the size of TV ad spends
- before 2020 an average internaut is going to watch video content on their mobile or desktop for 84 minutes a day (both Zenith)
- by 2021 online video will reach 82 percent of all consumer online traffic, with million minutes of video content crossing the network every second (Cisco)
More than fifty percent of marketers had better return on investment (ROI) ratio from video than from any other social media platform. For 70 percent of specialists, video content generates better conversion rates than other types of content (LiveStream).
Here are some of the top online video ads trends to follow in 2019.
#1. Augmented Reality
The way to the hearts (and wallets as well) of probably most types of potential customers starts with attracting their attention.
Knowing how hard it is these days, marketers realize they need something special to succeed. The augmented reality created perfect opportunities to fulfill such needs, as it is all about the experience. An immersive, engaging, emotional and entertaining one.
Even though AR may still be perceived as the wave of the future, it will quite soon have a serious impact on online ads industry. By 2022 mobile AR market is going to reach 1.9 bn unique active users each month (Tractica).
It may be helpful for almost any e-commerce activity. Ikea’s been experimenting with augmented reality since 2013.
Their latest app, launched in September 2017, contains more than 2000 furniture items. Customers just download it, and a couple of clicks later may see how a sofa they found in the catalog fits in their living room.
AR ads not only can increase sales and revenue. They are also very efficient in building an emotional connection with customers, as well as in boosting their involvement and positive attitude towards brands.
#2. Live Streaming
The popularity of live streaming is growing rapidly – not only on social media. It’s not a top advertising tool yet, but still, real-time videos can significantly improve the top of your marketing funnel.
By 2021 live online video will account for 13 percent of all Internet video traffic. That’s a considerable part of the advertising market, and – you’re right, it’s going to get even bigger (Cisco).
Why it’s so popular?
For a decent group of consumers live streaming is more reliable and transparent than fancy high-budget productions.
You can’t hide anything. It’s pure, natural and trustworthy. Even failures can’t change the latter (at least to some extent), as consumers’ expectations are a bit lower for live videos.
Authenticity is just one of the benefits of live streaming. It’s also a low-cost solution helpful in increasing the brand’s presence in social media and an opportunity for marketing ninjas to firmly interact with their clients.
Keep in mind that live video ads on social media are successful when well prepared – in accordance with the principle that cheap doesn’t mean irrelevant stuff. They have the potential to go viral when authentic, based on true values, and interactive.
#3. Stories in Social Media
Since the dawn of time, people have loved good stories. And, unsurprisingly, they still do, even though they don’t gather around the fire to hear one anymore.
No, nowadays to get loads of engaging stories they just need to unlock their phone.
As of June 2018, only Instagram Stories (in brief: short clips disappearing after 24 hours) had 400 million daily active users (Statista). It’s probably a much larger number now, as a daily user base of the feature has grown by 150 million since June 2017.
“I’m optimistic that we’ll get ads in stories to perform as well as feed over time, and that the opportunity will be even bigger because it looks like stories will be a bigger medium than feed has been” – Mark Zuckerberg said.
Among the possibilities that stories provide to improve your income or PR it’s worth highlighting (eMarketer):
- creating organic brand stories
- story advertising
- e-commerce
- influencer marketing
Ignoring such engaging, mobile-friendly and full-screen ad opportunity would be… the story of the wasted chance of earning lots of money. You don’t want it, right?
#4. Rewarded Video Ads
Who, apart from pigs, doesn’t like Angry Birds? Not a lot of us, since all of the series of the game has been downloaded more than… three billion times.
Trying to demolish whatever your pink opponent built in front of you, you probably came across rewarded video ads – short clips to watch to gain an extra life or another superpower.
You’ll probably run into more of that ad format – far away from the gaming industry – as four out of five mobile users are open to rewarded video ads (Smart).
The reason is quite simple: no one forces anyone to watch it. Users may decide on their own whether to do it or not. As a result, rewarded video ads don’t affect in a negative way internauts attitude towards brands.
What is more, when consumers know they’ll get a prize, the likelihood they’ll watch a video actively from the beginning to the end increases. From a logical point of view, watching voluntarily advertisement to unlock premium content in reward is a fair trade.
Therefore we can assume that rewarded video ads will only gain on popularity as a counterweight to adblocks, banner blindness or paywall as well.
#5. Carefully Chosen Video Formats
Do you know that three out of four videos published online in 2018 were less than two minutes long? (Vidyard). It’s not a coincidence.
First of all, it’s quite a challenge to hold people’s attention longer. Secondly, the most popular social media channels got their own audience with different needs and habits regarding online video consumption.
It’s hard to indicate with surgical accuracy an optimal video length for each of the top social media platforms. Depending on the source (Hubspot, Socially Sorted, 2060digital), it may vary as stated below:
- From 25 to 30 seconds for Instagram
- From 43-45 second for Twitter
- From 24 to 90 seconds for Facebook
- From 120 seconds to even 5-7 minutes for YouTube
To you, as a performance marketing pro, that means the necessity to adapt the format of your video to the site you’d like to publish it on.
Making your message short, catchy and engaging is just one side of current online video trends. At the same time Facebook (Watch), Instagram (IGTV), and many more top players are experimenting with long-form videos.
That’s a shift you need to observe in video marketing trends and get familiar with to stay on top.
#6. 360° Video Advertising
A lot of words you’ve already read above was about desired involvement between brands and their consumers. In a perfect world with plenty of money in marketers pockets, the optimal way to do that would be by making each ad an immersive and discovery experience for its viewers.
Even though it’s not a low-budget scenario, it’s a profitable one.
Another commercial format – as innovative as AR – powerful enough to make a significant change in online ads landscape in 2019 is 360° video advertising. The main idea of this format is to excite, entertain, and make the potential clients feel like they are taking part in the action.
Engaging 360° video ad – compared with traditional ones – may lead to a seven percent increase of purchase intent and increase by twelve percent in agreement that a brand has a great story to tell. What is more, such ad format, if correctly targeted, is perceived as more relevant by eight percent of viewers than traditional advertisements (Business Wire).
Sounds perfect? Only if the ad is perfect. Consumers expectations roar sky high when they’re promised remarkable experience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlB3Zsr-heE
Summary
More than four out of five companies use video for marketing purposes (Digital Marketing Institute). It’s inevitable to boost their sales rates and position of their brand in consumers eyes. If you’re not already online with videos smartly praising your business activity and earning money, it’s high time to do so.
Working on your best online video ads campaigns ever, remember about the ad fraud threat. It’s a big challenge especially concerning video and OTT – the most infected/vulnerable ad formats these days.
Want to learn how to tackle digital ad fraud? Check out our complete guide for advertisers!
Top Video Marketing Trends – Key Takeaways
- Online video is the fastest growing advertising format in the world
- In two years live online video will account for 13 percent of all internet video traffic
- By 2022 mobile AR market is going to reach 1.9 bn active users monthly
- 80 percent of mobile users are open to rewarded video ads, as they may decide on their own whether to watch it or not
- Instagram Stories has 400 million active users daily, being a great opportunity to promote and advertise your brand
- Adapt the format of your video to the social media platform you’d like to publish it on
- Engaging 360° video advertisements may lead to seven percent increase of purchase intent increase
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