From live streams to stories, to Facebook posts and WhatsApp status’s, social media users are consuming more video content than ever before. According to a report by Hootsuite, 84% of internet users in South Africa are active on YouTube and that 97% of internet users in South Africa watch videos online. The same report also gives us an indication of the average engagement rate on Facebook for a video post which is 5.08% compared to an image post which has an average engagement rate of 2.28%.
Social media platforms offer many ways for brands to get their video content in front of consumers. The challenge with this is that a lot of these consumers are always ready and quick to press that “Skip Ad” button or scroll past a post that looks like an ad. We take a look at two video ad types that can increase your brand awareness and get you complete video views whilst avoiding the “Skip ad” button.
- Bumper Ads on YouTube
These are videos that are 6 seconds long, which are played before the main video, are not skippable and you only get charged per 1,000 impressions. - Facebook in-stream video ads
This ad format on Facebook allows advertisers to place 5-15 second videos before, during or after video content. Facebook claims that over 70% of in-stream ads are watched to completion.
The benefit of these two video ad types is that a users’ attention is already invested in the video that they are watching or about to watch, making it easier for brands to get their message across. The challenge would be creating a video that is impactful and carries the brands message whilst also being shorter than 6 or 15 seconds.
