With more than 145 million daily active users on the platform, Twitter is a must-use channel for marketers worldwide. That is particularly true for everyone catering to predominantly Americans since the overwhelming majority of Twitter’s active users are from the U.S.
As you can see from the chart above, 64 million users are from the USA alone, seconded only by Japan at 48 million. With such huge numbers in play here, it should come as no surprise why Twitter earned so much popularity among digital marketers.
But one particular advertising option has seen immense success. We are talking about video ads! Ever since Twitter launched promoted videos on its platform in 2014, businesses both big and small have been crazy about them. Twitter video advertising has proven to be one of the advertising methods with the best ROI on the platform and a potent way of increasing your reach and brand awareness.
So if you like what you hear and want to get a taste of what Twitter video marketing success feels like, you’re in the right place! We’ll help you learn the ropes of video advertising on this social media platform. Here’s what we’ll cover in brief:
Without further ado, let’s get to the matter at hand!
Why Is Twitter Video Marketing a Good Choice?
We’ve already briefly touched upon this, but let us take a more in-depth look into why Twitter is such an excellent social network of choice for video marketers.
Aside from the vast audience the platform has, there are many other benefits to marketing on Twitter. Here is some data from WordStream that proves that:
- B2B businesses love using Twitter! 67% of them are on the platform.
- Users view Twitter ads for 26% longer than on any other leading social media platform.
- People on the platform are 53% more likely to be the first ones to purchase a new service or product.
As you can see, Twitter is widely used by businesses worldwide as they are well-aware of the platform’s potential. Also, because of this social network’s exploratory nature, users engage with twitter ads more than they would on other social platforms. Because Twitter puts such high emphasis on discovery, brands have an easier time converting leads into paying customers.
OK, but how do videos fit into the equation here? Let’s take a look at some more data:
- Users consume over 2 billion videos on Twitter daily.
- Tweets containing videos get about ten times more engagement.
- Promoted videos save up to 50% on cost-per-engagement.
As it’s evident from the data above, not only are Twitter videos one of the favorite types of content on the platform but promoting them is highly cost-effective. Hopefully, that should be reason enough to convince you to get on board the Twitter video advertising train!
Twitter Video Ads
As fantastic as Twitter video ads are, there are some limitations to them. These mostly consist of Twitter’s video ad guidelines. According to them, here are some parameters your ads should follow:
- Max Video Size: 1 GB
- Length: 15 seconds or less is recommended. However, the max ad duration is 2:20. (Note: Select advertisers may contact Twitter and arrange for their ads to be up to 10 minutes long.)
- File Types: MOV or MP4
- Preferred Bitrate: 6,000–10,000 for 1080p; 5,000–8,000 for 720p
- Optimal Frame Rate: 30 FPS
- Supported Audio Codec: AAC LC
- Supported Video Codec: h264
- Optimal Video Aspect Ratio: 1:1 (other aspect ratios will be subject to resizing on different displays and devices)
- Best Choice for Video Size: 1200 x 1200
Aside from these parameters, you also have varying pricing models for different types of Twitter video ads. You can find more info on them here. But now, let’s glance over the types of video advertising options you have on Twitter.
Types of Twitter Video Ads
When it comes to Twitter video advertising, you have three options:
- Promoted Video — This advertising option lets you promote a published video by making it appear on other people’s timelines. When it does, the video will autoplay whenever they scroll down to it.
- Video Website Cards — These video ads allow you to drive users to your website by leaving room for them to take action. Ask them to buy your product, enter a giveaway, or pique their curiosity by offering them to learn more — any call to action will do!
- Instream Video Ads — If you’re a Twitter content partner, this advertising option is open to you! These ads play before a video starts playback, and it’s best to put them on popular video clips that get lots of views.
- First-View Video Ads — These ads are like regular promoted ads, but this promotion guarantees your ad to remain in the first ad position on users’ timeline for 24 hours. That puts your advertisement way ahead of the competition because people’s memory is most potent within the first 30 seconds of a Twitter session. Because your ad is so close to the top of their timeline, it will gain better exposure and will garner much better brand awareness.
These four options leave plenty of room for brands to choose from depending on their needs and goals. So once you’ve determined which of these choices you’ll go for, you’ll need to make your video ad. But what should you do if it’s your first time making one? Don’t worry; we have prepared a few tips to help you create a successful video ad.
5 Best Practices for Twitter Video Ads
Keep It Short
Short and sweet is always the way to go. Although longer video ads can be successful too, they’re much harder to pull off. We wouldn’t recommend going for ads longer than 15–30 seconds, particularly if you’re a beginner. Here are a few reasons short-form video ads are often the better choice:
- People’s attention spans are getting shorter by the day; they are currently at around eight seconds, which even trumps that of a goldfish!
- You’ll have an easier time engaging consumers throughout a shorter video ad than a longer one.
- They are much cheaper to make and require less editing.
Again, we’d recommend sticking to shorter video ads for the above reasons until you gain more experience. If you immediately try to make a longer Twitter video ad and it fails, you’ll lose much more than with a short-form ad.
Make a Compelling Hook
Starting your videos is hard, we know, but making an engaging hook that will reel your audience in is essential to your ad’s success. So how do you do it?
Some of the easiest ways to compel your audience to stay and watch more are:
- Open with a joke.
- Tell a story.
- Ask a question.
- Begin with a problem and provide a solution.
These are all surefire ways to captivate your audience, but if you want to get some concrete examples and more methods to hook your viewers, check our article on the most effective hooks for videos.
Include a CTA
If you want your Twitter video advertising campaign to succeed, you must make sure your ads have a concise call to action. If they don’t, how do you expect your customers to convert? That’s right — you can’t.
We’d recommend you include a CTA at the end of your video and in the copy of your tweet. That way, you will almost guarantee it gets noticed. Oh, and don’t forget to make your call to action as specific as possible!
If you need some ideas for effective calls to action, you can find some in our article on the best CTAs for videos.
Optimize It for Mobile
Did you know that 93% of Twitter videos get watched on mobile devices? That’s right! Mobile video advertising is so popular that, if you don’t optimize your ads for phones, you will significantly hinder your campaign’s performance. But how do you do that? For starters, include captions and subtitles in your ads — you will need them if your viewers watch videos with the sound off. And don’t forget to test your videos to check whether they run smoothly on mobile!
Use Engaging Types of Videos
Just like not every video ad will succeed, not every video type will generate engagement on Twitter. So if you are looking to use instream ads in particular, you will need to put them on videos with high engagement rates to get the most value for your money. Here are some types of video content your audience will love and that are bound to generate a lot of engagement:
- Explainer Videos — These videos are excellent at driving engagement because they are tailored to meeting user intent. What makes explainer videos so incredible is that they help your viewers solve a problem, which might even positively reflect on your brand awareness!
- Customer Testimonials — These videos are perfect to put your ads on since users looking for these types of videos are doing so to help them make a purchasing decision.
- FAQ Videos — Similar to explainer videos, FAQ videos serve to help users solve a problem, but these cover a much wider variety of topics. That is why getting your product on one of these is an excellent way to offer your viewers a solution before they even watch the video.
- Behind-The-Scenes Videos — If anyone is looking at your brand’s behind-the-scenes content, they are likely already a paying customer or are in the consideration stage. Putting a video on this type of content will help inform your potential and current customers of your newest products and services.
Will You Give Twitter Video Advertising a Shot?
With all the benefits of Twitter video advertising we’ve listed above, we think you’d be remiss not to utilize it to generate leads, enhance brand credibility, and up your brand awareness. With four different types of Twitter video ads, you’ll have plenty of options to meet your business needs. So don’t forget to follow the five best practices for Twitter videos to make the most of your video content marketing campaign! Best of luck to you!
Until next time!
