Instagram’s organic reach is dwindling. One way to beat this is by running more video ads. You can use image ads too, but you get better ROI from video ads. As something moving in the feed can attract more attention and clicks than a still image. And you can include more information in your ad and get people to visit your website and convert.
In fact, 31% of people who watch a video ad, go ahead and make a purchase.
So, here’s a quick guide for creating successful Instagram video ads…
Visit the websites of your top competitors:
Before you create the ad, you need to start with the research. For this, you can simply make a list of the top competitors and visit their websites. Then you can go on Instagram as they will begin retargeting you with ads.
You can observe these ads and see how they are making the videos, how long they are, the landing pages they lead to, the types of captions they are writing, etc.
Your competitors’ went through their own phase of research and experiments while creating the ads. So, these will give you a good idea on how to create high converting ads.
Create short videos:
Instagram ads can be up to 120 seconds long. But this doesn’t mean that you should create videos that are this long and take advantage of all the space. Instead, you should create short videos that are 6 seconds long. Shorter videos work better as they contain less information. People need to visit the landing page to learn more.
So, make sure you edit the videos and ensure they are short with less, but sufficient information.
Set up the rest of the funnel:
The video should follow a funnel with a good landing page, thank you page, emails, etc. And they should all gel well with the video. This is an important step. Most people just create a video and webpage and hope for the best. But you need to take steps to create the entire funnel and then make sure it ties in well with the video. They should all be a cohesive unit.
Make sure you use a good hosting service for your landing pages. If you are running an ecommerce store you should use a scalable enterprise ecommerce platform. As your audience gets bigger you need to be able to accommodate them.
Warm up the audience:
Before you serve people the ad, you need to warm them up. For this, you can either create free content that your audience will like or get some influencers to create them for you. If you use influencer marketing make sure you track it and the amount you are spending. As you need to make a positive ROI over your ad and influencer spend.
This warming up phase is especially necessary when you are promoting more expensive products i.e. those that cost more than $20. If you already have a list of subscribers who already warmed up, you can skip this step.
Add a thumbnail:
Make sure you add a thumbnail to your video ads. As people who are on mobile data won’t see the autoplay version of your ads if they have it turned off. Instead, they will see a thumbnail. If you create a good thumbnail you will generate more views.
So, use a good background remover and photo editor to create your thumbnails.
Write persuasive captions:
The video is the most important bit, but the captions are also important. So, make sure you write a persuasive caption. This should be similar to the product page copy to help you achieve a strong conversion scent which can be essential in helping you generate a high conversion rate.
Upload the ad and set targeting:
Once you have the video, the caption, the thumbnail, and the rest of the funnel set up, you can upload the ad onto your Instagram account and set the targeting.
Make sure you zone in on your targeting and only reach the right people. When you zone in on your targeting the number of people you can reach goes down, but your conversion rate will be higher. So, don’t shy away from it.
Launch the ad with a small budget:
After everything is done you can launch the ad with a small budget to check if it works. You can actually create several versions to see which one performs best and run them all simultaneously with small budgets. Then pick the best performing one as the winner and scale it up.
Conclusion:
These are my 8 top tips for creating successful Instagram video ads. Use them today to generate more sales.
