When you’re scrolling through your Facebook feed, what marketing videos do you actually watch?
If you’re one of “2.01 billion monthly active [Facebook] users” that occasionally scrolls through your feeds, you’ll be familiar with the growing number of videos on Facebook.
There is a reason videos–especially marketing videos–are exploding: Facebook’s algorithms heavily rewards original video content. Subsequently, video marketing has become a necessity for an effective SMB marketing strategy. But as more and more companies invest in video it becomes increasingly difficult to get an audience to watch your video. So how do you get your audience to watch your video? Before you ask this question, you should ask yourself another question.
Are you making the right kind of video for Facebook?
In order to unlock the secrets of an effective marketing video, you must realize Facebook is unique. Don’t be a novice and assume one video fits all social media platforms. Facebook audiences are unique because they consume video material differently than audiences watching TV, YouTube, or a video on a business landing page.
So in order to know what marketing videos capture attention, small to-medium businesses must understand how audiences watch videos on Facebook.
Know about your Facebook audience
Silent-Friendly
How often do you watch videos on Facebook with the sound enabled? Not very often. This is perhaps the most important fact to know about your audience: 85% of Facebook viewers watch videos with the sound off. So the takeaway? You need your film to be silent-friendly.
This is a huge departure from the way we’ve consumed video advertisements in the past. You’ll notice that TV commercials or websites videos rely heavily on audio (like voiceovers or dialogue) to communicate crucial information. With Facebook, we need to be clever and purposeful in communicating crucial information without sound.
Side Note: there is a difference between a “silent film” and a film that is “silent-friendly.” A small percentage of viewers will click on your video and enable the sound, so don’t mistakenly resort to film technology predating The Jazz Singer. Utilize auditory senses to create a richer and fuller experience when your audience enables the sound.
Eye-Catching Beginning
If you upload your video directly on Facebook, it will autoplay as people scroll through their feed. So you only have a few seconds to catch your scrolling audience’s attention. We recommend strategies like:
- Movement within the camera frame. (A ball being thrown or someone running across the screen).
- Movement of the camera itself
- Bright colors
- Quirky visual dissonance. (A cowboy holding a rubber ducky is unusual. So unusual that an audience may keep watching to figure out why these two are together).
Text-Savvy
If 85% of your audience watch your video on silent, important information must be communicated via text. First, you must enable video captions. Second, use text (especially text overlay) within a video to emphasize key information.
So what does a silent-friendly, eye-catching, and text-savvy video advertisement look like?
The Best Video Marketing Examples for Facebook Viewers
These examples are not the “clever” video campaigns you enjoy watching during the Superbowl. These examples are not even the videos you expect to be featured on a company’s landing page.
Welcome to the democratization of video content!
As new venues and/or platforms arise creating and sharing video content, marketing strategies must tailor video content for each specific medium, like Facebook. Do you want be successful with video marketing on Facebook? Know how your Facebook audience consumes video!
Is your SMB ready for video marketing?
Many SMBs view video marketing as a pipe dream. Between the cost, time, and expertise required, you may think it’s beyond your budget or resources to create a marketing video. But it’s easier than you think when you look at resources gathered—especially our ebook.
Our ebook features a special interview with Jive’s videographer, Stephen Durr, to give your SMBs behind-the-scenes tips. For more information about your Facebook video audience, reasons to invest in video marketing, and an introduction to three videos genres to help your campaign get started, download Lights! Camera! Action! How to Start a Facebook Video campaign for SMBs
Jive is a Hosted VoIP phone service provider that, over the past decade, has grown from a start-up, to a small business, to a medium-sized business with over 500 employees. As Jive experiences and overcomes the growing pains and challenges common for SMBs, we’re busy researching, discussing, and sharing our insights with our fellow small to-medium businesses.