Video is the new black. It’s been part of my Google Rep Bingo for the last 6 years, but now it’s squarely out of the early adopters phase. Most of the time, the biggest problem is cost. Finding the right team to put together a quality video to highlight your brand can be costly. It’s hard for a company to see the benefit of spending thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars to have professional videos put together. In my opinion, that’s short sighted. Here’s why I believe you should start investing in video.
Video is a Strategy In Itself
YouTube anyone? It’s a channel that’s all about video. Sure, you can have display ads in there as well, but arguably the bigger bang for the buck comes in actually utilizing the format the channel is known for. With the video formats available, you can have skippable videos, non-skippable videos, and bumper ads.
Each format brings it’s own pros and cons (not unlike most other advertising channels), but given that folks visiting YouTube are most likely interested in watching videos, it stands to reason that engaging them in their chosen medium is a good bet.
You can read more about YouTube ad formats here.
Video Can Drive Search Behavior
“But video doesn’t drive end users to convert on my site.” – Everyone who’s advertised using video.
Correct. This is an obvious downside of utilizing YouTube, but that’s not the only goal of advertising. Every buyer goes through some form of buying funnel. Search campaigns are relatively close to the bottom of that funnel. Those folks are actively looking for your product/service and are likely in the market to buy.
Video on the other hand is a top of funnel strategy. Although you might not be reaching the user when they’re ready to buy, you could be providing them valuable information ahead of their research phase that puts your company ahead of the competition.
For example, let’s say your video highlights one specific feature of your product that you know your customers love and that your competition doesn’t have. If a potential buyer sees that video, then later is looking for the type of product you sell with that unique feature, you’ve got a huge leg up on the competition. Granted, this doesn’t always guarantee a purchase, but you’ve put yourself in a much better place to win that searcher’s business.
Additionally, it’s worth mentioning that Google has a Brand Lift study that can be completed to measure the impact of your YouTube videos. You can read more about that here.
Video’s Not Just for YouTube Anymore
We’ve had video ads through YouTube for a while now, but with the huge rise of social channels and video within them, we have a whole bunch of new play grounds to check out. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, need I go on? It seems like every channel has video capabilities. So why not leverage them?
If you’re already advertising on these channels, you realize the value of them. So take it one step further. Use the ad format that allows you to create an experience for your target market that only you control. Grab their attention, keep it, and tell them something they didn’t know about your product/service.
Conversion Rate Optimization
Video usefulness doesn’t stop at ad formats. They can be used in a ton of different ways to influence your audience, but let’s talk about one specific use that can be a major win for PPC: landing pages.
In this article, unbounce talks about the benefits of using videos on landing pages and even cites a study that says video can improve landing pages conversion rates by 80%! I don’t know about you, but those are the kinds of tests I dream about.
Go Beyond the Ads
Again, videos aren’t just for ads and landing pages. Once you’ve created the video, it’s yours to use how you wish. So why not put that video on your website’s homepage? Why not utilize it in email campaigns? Why not leverage it as an elevator pitch when talking in person to potential customers in meetings or at trade shows? Publish it organically on your social pages? There’s no shortage of options.
Video allows you to show and say whatever you want to about your company and/or product in a way unlike any other format. The initial cost may be steep, but the payoff can be broad and great, especially if you leverage it across many different channels, formats, and purposes.
What hurdles do you have to creating videos for your company? Are there other ways video can be leveraged to increase return on investment? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
