Erin Jelmini | GCommerce Solutions | Marketing Strategist
Video advertising is no longer an up and coming trend in the marketing world: it’s here and it’s already making a massive impact on consumer behavior.
What is video advertising?
Video advertising at a basic level is comprised of online display ads that use video instead of or alongside static images. However, in recent time video advertising has become more synonymous with video ads that play before, during, or after a video stream, such as on YouTube or Facebook.
Why is this important?
Video advertising has become the digital marketing trend in recent years, and it’s only expected to gain in popularity in 2019. According to a recent report by Wyzowl on video usage, 87% of businesses are now using video as a marketing tool, which is up from 81% in 2018 and 63% in 2017. Based on statistics alone, if you’re not using video in some form of marketing yet, you’re already behind.
So why is video advertising important, and more importantly, why should you be making this your priority for 2019? First and foremost, video is engaging. It draws in the attention of your audiences, sparks an emotion, and creates connection. Nowadays our apps and online experiences are clogged with static images advertising anything and everything causing the user to scroll monotonously past your ad without taking a second look. Seriously, think back to the last time you were scrolling through Instagram and Facebook. How many ads did you come across, and better yet, how many did you pause on? Could you recall the ads you saw? My guess is not very many if at all.
Enter video advertising, a disruption to our marketplace and re-engaging the user with entertaining content that is versatile and easy to digest. In fact, 96% of people say they’ve watched an informational video to learn more about a product or service, with 68% of people saying that it’s their preferred method of product and service learning. On top of that, 80% of users are able to recall a video ad they’ve viewed online in the past month.
Videos help explain products to consumers, and in a world full of choice, our consumers no longer need a sales pitch; that’s what a quick Google search is for. Instead our target audiences need to perceive value; why your hotel will provide a better experience than your competitor. And the easiest way to do this is through a sleek and compelling video.
How can your hotel start video advertising?
Earlier I said if you haven’t started using video you are already behind, however, it’s not too late to start! 74% of marketers not currently using video said they expect to start this year, and why not be part of that number? Video advertising doesn’t need to be complicated or take a lot of time.
There are many ways for your hotel to get started with video advertising. Whether you’re using video to tell your brand’s story, share a promotion, or showcase your beautiful property, there is a perfect way to utilize that. With Facebook and Instagram’s new live stream capabilities, you can easily start engaging with your social media followers by sharing the latest news at your property or even a weekend promotion. Uploading videos to YouTube is another way to capture an audience and will also give you the opportunity to create longer and more informational videos.
When you’re ready to start really advertising with video, the GCommerce team can help. Using video instead of static images in Facebook advertising will help catapult your ad reach and increase your impressions and clicks, thus leading to an increase in ROI. In fact, 90% of consumers say a video can help them make a purchasing decision. We can also serve your video ads programmatically, which is a type of advertising you probably see every day; think those video advertisements that play before or after any video content you are watching online. If your brand has a strong YouTube presence, you might consider running TrueView video ads, which targets people who have already interacted with your YouTube videos or are subscribed to your channel.
If you’re wondering how long your videos should be, here are some general guidelines:
- Instagram: 30 seconds
- Twitter: 45 seconds
- Facebook: 1 minute
- YouTube: 2 minutes
What we’ve learned so far at GCommerce.
At GCommerce we’ve been testing video ads with our clients in the form of Facebook paid advertising, programmatic video advertising, and TrueView YouTube advertising, and we’ve learned some pretty compelling things.
First, when using video advertising on Facebook vs. a regular static ad, impressions tend to jump and overall site traffic increases. For example, let’s look at one of our clients, Sunset Marquis, who started running video ads with us on Facebook and programmatic display in mid-December. Using Google Analytics, we were able to see some impressive statistics. 70% of the Facebook sessions came from those video ads, as well as 90% of new users. To put that in perspective, that’s 3,946 new users to the website in just a few months! This not only increases site traffic, but also boosts our retargeting lists, which means we can then serve ads to those users, thus increasing their chance of booking at your hotel.
Second, we’ve seen click through rates soar! In the month of March alone, click through rate for Sunset Marquis video on Facebook was 133% higher than its regular, static prospecting campaign. For reference, the video campaign had a CTR of 3.03% vs 0.60%. On programmatic display, we see the same thing. Over the span of a few months our HTML 5 campaigns generated a CTR ranging from 0.079% – 0.136%, compared to the video ads that have received CTRs with a range of 0.25% – 0.32%, which is incredible!
So, what does this all mean for you and your hotel? Simply put, if you want to create more engagement and emotional attachment with your users, increase traffic to your site, and raise your click through rate, then you need to start video advertising. Video advertising allows your hotel to really showcase its values and brand to the consumer in a new and exciting way. Don’t get left behind. Contact us and start utilizing video ads today!
Like GCommerce on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gcommercesolutions Follow GCommerce on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/gcommerce Follow GCommerce on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gcommerce
