If the cinema is considered the big screen and television is considered the small screen then, social media is considered the ‘micro screen?’
Micro screen advertising is consumed completely different. Therefore if you’re following traditional advertising strategies, they’re not gonna work.
Understanding how the ‘micro screen’ works is critical in modern advertising because over 80% of leads come through social media.
And 97% of your social media audience will never see more than the first 3 seconds of your video ad.
With social media ads, you need to be able to hook leads in 3 seconds and keep videos interesting enough for viewers to reach your call to action and follow through.
Read on to discover:
- The often overlooked engagement marketing strategy that gets leads hooked in 3 seconds. (Critical for remarketing campaigns)
- Key tactics to make content effective for the ‘micro screen’.
- Ways to optimise your video advertising for Facebook.
People aren’t coming on social media to see ads. They’re not using it like they would google or any other search engine to type in a query and seek answers.
They’re there to connect with their friends and family. They’re actively trying to avoid ads.
Luckily, you can use the following tactics, in the first 3 seconds of your ad, to get them hooked.
The often overlooked engagement marketing strategy that gets leads hooked in 3 seconds.
The most effective strategy to engage a viewer is through narrative/story arc, particularly for Facebook ads.
Narrative taps into the emotional side of the brain that is exercised in the decision making process and can help build up your S.A.L.T strategy.
So, with narrative, a traditional cinema arc obviously has a lot of building up and setting context right at the beginning.
The slow build up does not work on social media!
Start right in the middle of the action, no panoramic shots of buildings necessary.
An action-packed opening can start with an interesting soundbite, so that someone who might be already interested in that area instantly connects.
If they’re caught by that first sentence, that might make them want to watch on.
This works really well for testimonial based videos as well.
You could also use the story of the ‘hero of the business’ like the founder or CEO talking about a specific Unique Selling Proposition (USP), or unique mechanism.
Another way to weave in narrative is to tap into fear/anxieties or relatable pain points, then juxtapose this with an ultimate benefit or desire.
HOT TIP: The more the viewer can relate and see themselves as the “star” and connect with you and your product/service, the more likely they are to follow the call to action.
Optimise your video advertising for Facebook
So, how do we stop the scroll?
Remember, 80% of your audience in social media is going to be on mobile. Best way to tackle this is to take a ‘mobile first’ approach.
Make sure you view everything on a mobile device or at mobile scale.
From there consider your design hierarchy:
- Is that pretty font still readable?
- Are all the important details front and centre
- If I’m scrolling fast will it stand out?
If you’re curious to know more about the ‘Mobile First’ approach click here.
With video edits for social media ads we are looking for:
- Rough edits
- Short, sharp, jump cuts
- Zoom ins
- Motion
- Faces-smiles, frown
- Waves
- The unexpected
A lot of people think the short, quick 30 sec videos are the most successful for social media. But I have found the exact opposite to be true.
Don’t shy away from the long cuts.
Longer videos produce higher converting and warm leads who are really interested in your product or service.
Always, always, always remember content over quality.
Without the actual ‘bread and butter’ of the videos, it just isn’t as effective.
I’m not saying quality is not important, you can actually shoot most of your content in 4K on an iPhone and get really well-performing videos.
HOT TIP: Create a ‘base’ video and do multiple edits where you change up the first 3 seconds of the video. If someone sees a video and the first 3 seconds don’t grab them, they’ll scroll on. But maybe, with a different opener, next time when they’re scrolling they’re captivated by the same video (with 99% of the same content). This is a great remarketing strategy.
Key tactics to make content effective for the ‘micro screen’.
1. Big Subtitles
The majority of videos on social media are in a square format – so, 1:1 ratio.
With square format there’s enough room for enlarged subtitles down the bottom.
93% of your audience don’t have sound on, so, subtitles are crucial at hooking them in.
Plus, you can match brand colours and brand fonts for added aesthetics.
2. Big headlines
The headline at the top is critical. It’s calling out the audience and making sure they self identify.
You could do this quite literally by calling out your audience “Calling all cafe owners!”
Or through rhetorical questions, like “Struggling with a keto diet?”
the more people relate to your content the more they’re likely to follow through on the call to action.
