Video has become a priceless medium for promoting your brand, engaging with your audience, and delivering a clear message. Over 85% of businesses use videos in their marketing strategies. Some businesses, however, have decided to stick to the tried and tested image advertising. Which route should your company take? Let’s solve the video vs. image ads debate once and for all.
Do Video Ads Perform Better Than Image Ads?
If we look at the statistics, it becomes pretty clear that video ads tend to perform better than many other ad formats, including images. Video helps marketers increase traffic and dwell time, convey a clearer picture of their product or service, generate new leads, and even reduce the amount of customer support calls they receive. Let’s take a look at some numbers:
This is not to say that image ads are completely obsolete and that you should just forget about them. After all, not every piece of information is video-worthy.
For starters, it only takes us a few seconds to look at an image and decide whether we’re interested in the advertised product. This is much more efficient than having to sit through a 15-second video.
Secondly, images are still easier and cheaper to produce than videos. The sad reality is that many businesses simply can’t or don’t want to work videos into their advertisement budgets.
Lastly, because of their limited capacity for written text, image ads (or at least the good ones) tend to be concise, snappy, and memorable. It is much easier to get carried away with the amount of text when creating a video ad.
With all of that said, we’d be lying if we told you that we don’t prefer video ads. And this is not only because we are an online video platform! In fact, here are the top reasons video ads are superior to image ads.
Why Video Ads Are Superior to Image Ads
What is it that makes videos a better advertising option than images? There are three main advantages of video ads over image ads — how much they engage the audience, how well they build consumer trust, and how clear of a message they convey.
Engagement Differences
Video content is far more engaging than any other content type, especially on social media. You can’t scroll down your feed without being invited to watch a tutorial or participate in the latest challenge. With an obvious upward trend in video usage for advertising, we can safely say that this medium isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
On Instagram, for example, both sponsored and organic video posts generate more engagement than their image counterparts. The situation is quite similar on Facebook, where video ads reach 10-30% more people than other ad formats. But more on that later.
Building Consumer Trust
People are more likely to purchase things from companies they like and trust. With this in mind, successful businesses launch campaigns that educate their customers about what they do. They strive to show a product’s tangible benefits and how it solves people’s problems.
Video is a better tool to use to show the world what your brand is about. It creates space for a more authentic connection with your audience. When that audience feels like they know your brand, they are more likely to purchase from and work with you.
If you want to start implementing video ads into your marketing campaigns, you will need a reliable, secure, and easy-to-use video platform on your side. With Brid.TV, you can host and manage your video ads without a hassle. We also offer a lightweight HTML5 player that can play your ads on an array of devices, operating systems, and browsers.
Clearer Message
You can convey more information in videos than you could in images. If you decide to post an image ad with a lengthy message, most of your audience will give up after a few words. As a result, they might select your competitor.
On the other hand, you can deliver a lot of information with videos and get your prospects to pay attention. With video ads, you can provide answers that will help viewers make an informed choice. For example, a good product video can reveal the price of your products or services, include client testimonials, or offer a quick tutorial on how to use your product.
Video vs. Image Ads Performance on Google
Google Ads is a true goldmine for advertisers. It covers millions of websites, including giants such as YouTube. So if you’re planning to advertise through Google Ads, should you use videos or images in your campaign?
The answer to this question largely depends on the purpose and type of your campaign. For example, image ads (and this includes 30-second gifs) are great for increasing brand awareness. However, videos tend to have higher conversion rates, especially if they are in an interactive video ad format.
Video vs. Image Ads Performance on Facebook
When it comes to Facebook video ads, not only do they perform better, but this platform seems to prefer them, too. Elements such as Facebook Watch, Facebook Live, and Stories are all geared toward video content. It comes as no surprise that video ads have a 30% higher audience reach than image ads.
Research conducted by Biteable has shown that videos can generate three times as many leads as their image counterparts. Videos also have the power to generate more clicks — almost five times as many.
Video vs. Image Ads Performance on Instagram
As we have already mentioned, both organic and sponsored videos perform better than their image counterparts on Instagram. More specifically, video ads on Instagram generate three times as much user engagement. Similarly, organic video posts see around 40% more comments and likes than organic images.
Tips for Using Video Ads in Your Campaign
Did we manage to convince you that implementing video advertisements into your campaign is a worthwhile investment? If so, great! But first, make sure you know how to do this. Here are some general tips on how to create a successful video ad:
- Focus on the First Few Seconds — If you don’t grab a viewer’s attention in the first couple of seconds, they will likely lose interest and click away. This is why an effective hook is crucial.
- Keep It Short and Sweet — You don’t have to present your company’s whole history in the ad. Around two-thirds of video ads are under 30 seconds.
- Provide Value to Viewers — Don’t only focus on shilling your product. Tell your audience why they need it and how it could make their lives better.
- Be Memorable — Your viewers should remember your ad long after watching it. The best way to do so is by being funny (if appropriate). You could even resort to some common fallacies to make the ad stand out.
- Include a CTA — Prompt the viewer to take action with an effective video CTA, whether that means clicking on a link, calling customer service, or purchasing a product.
Ready to Use Video Ads in Your Campaign?
Are you ready to start using video ads in your next campaign? If so, you can count on Brid.TV to provide you with high-quality hosting services at reasonable prices. Our state-of-the-art video CMS will make it easy to keep track of and manage your ads. And our ad analytics tools will allow you to keep tabs on the performance of your campaign.
Want to find out more about how Brid.TV can improve your video ad campaign? Try our platform for free and see for yourself!
