A GUIDE FOR HOW TO BRING YOUR ADS TO LIFE

Videos of different forms and styles have always been a great asset in marketing and advertisement. From old TV commercials to more recent online video ads, they have always been a popular form of advertising that sticks to mind.

Banner Flow rated video ads as the first marketing trend of 2022. So, whether it’s a product, service, or idea, utilizing visuals is always great for grabbing your target audience’s attention to learn about it.

In this post, we are going to discuss:

• why animation is a safe, successful, and easy way to make video ads
• how to produce animations
• which platforms you can look into to share your videos
• and our tips to ensure the ad’s success.

You will want to consider various factors before you decide how to use this form of marketing. Hopefully, by the end of this post, you’ll have a clear vision of which way to go.

Table of Contents

Producing an Animated Video Ad

There are different courses of action you can take to make an animated video ad. We have mentioned two approaches below:

Have Professionals Do the Job for You

Most people think that getting professional animators to do your project for you is much more expensive than it actually is. It is one of the most cost-effective ways to get the best results without too many resources.

Imagine a whole set of actors, producers, gears, etc. that is often required to record and post-produce a video commercial and compare that to hiring one or a few individuals doing the work at home or a studio.

Besides, when it comes to animation, the only limit is your imagination! That gives you a lot of room for creativity and storytelling.

Work with an Animation Studio

There are various advantages to working with a studio or agency. Animation studios have good recourses and hence, are great for faster production with bigger or more complex projects.

If they offer full-services, you will be able to trust them with the whole process without needing to search for different artists and service providers for different parts of your project. They also provide quality control and reassurance, which makes them more reliable than freelancers.

Hire a Freelancer

If you are trying to cut down the prices, hiring individuals with hourly/day rates might be a great option.

For simpler projects or ones that do not need a variety of skills, having freelancers carry out the work is a safe possibility.

Also, for more frequent projects on a regular basis, hiring a freelancer to join your team will most likely be more efficient.

Freelance Rates

Freelance animator rates vary greatly depending on country or region, animation style, video length, and whether you work with an individual or a team of professionals. It could be between $50 to $300 per hour in the United States.

Animators often make quotes based on the complexity and length of videos to determine an estimated cost for the project. For instance, depending on the mentioned factors, a 30-second 2D explainer video might cost between $1,000 to $10,000. Also, consider animators or studios overseas to do the job remotely.

Make sure you do enough research on the best price you can find for an animated video that meets your specific needs.

DIY Animated Video Ads

If your business is small and you’re short on budget, or you want to get creative and get it done yourself, you might actually be able to do it.

Keep in mind that your animated video ad serves a specific purpose and needs to convey your message clearly, so make sure your DIY video can do that efficiently.

Video Production Software and Websites

Below we have listed some websites and software you can use to create your animated video:

• Powtoon
• Animaker
• Animatron
• Moovly
• Vyond
• GoAnimate
• Renderforest
• the good old “Windows Movie Maker”
• Prezi
• Google Web Designer
• Explee

Best Social Media Platforms to Share Video Ads for Your Target Audience

There are various platforms with different video formats to use when it comes to advertising.

Knowing about them is essential when choosing one best fits your needs. We’ve listed popular social media platforms along with the requirements, possibilities, and recommendations for their format in each one for sharing videos.

Facebook:

Facebook has over 2.8 billion active users monthly and lets you advertise for a target audience based on demographics, interests, etc. It is also considered a cost-effective platform for video ads. 

Here are the possibilities Facebook gives for videos:

YouTube:

With a user base of 2.3 billion, it is a prevalent platform for video ads. YouTube also lets you advertise for your target audience and provides analytics showing how well your ads have done. Besides, you get to choose if your video ads are skippable, non-skippable, or displayed before, after, on, or next to the content users watch.

You have a variety of options with this videos-sharing platform:

Instagram:

Instagram has been allowing its users to share videos since 2013. As of 2021, Instagram had over 1 billion active users each month, which has only been growing since then. This platform also allows you to post for a target audience based on age, interests, location, etc.

Below are Instagram’s offered formats for videos:

LinkedIn:

Although LinkedIn does not offer many formats for videos, it is an ideal platform for your B2B marketing. If your target audience is professionals, LinkedIn is arguably your best platform. Posting visual content, including videos, is the best way to catch eyes while scrolling through feeds.

You can choose one of these two to share your video ads on LinkedIn:

Twitter:

Twitter might not be the first platform that comes to mind to share video ads, but with a monthly user base of 450 million, along with other advantages, it can be a good choice. On Twitter, you can advertise to a target audience based on interests, demographics, geographics, etc., and choose from a variety of video formats. It also gives you detailed analytics to track your ad engagements.

TikTok:

With a monthly user base of nearly 700 million that is still growing, TikTok is among the most popular social media platforms, especially among Gen Z, so if that’s your target audience, TikTok is your app! This platform also offers user-friendly filters and editing tools that help you create attractive and engaging video content.

6 Tips to Ensure the effectiveness of Your Video Ad

How to make sure the video ads you produce and publish are effective, you may ask? We have 6 tips for things you would benefit from considering before planning a strategy for your ad.

Start with a surprise!

You can use visual assets to shock your audience at the beginning of your video ad and make them stay and watch the rest. Make good use of those first few second. Adding the most exciting part to the beginning is a great idea.

Stay true

Stay true to your brand identity, values and goals, and target audience, and keep in mind a clear message you want to convey with a successful video ad.

Offer solutions

Know your target audience and what they need; invite them to use your service to solve a problem. That way you give them a good reason to come to you.

Focus on quality storytelling

You don’t always need high-quality production or many resources to stand out and attract an audience. Based on Wistia , video ads with a great story that sticks to mind do better than those that merely take advantage of high-quality production.

Follow social media trends

When it comes to social media platforms, especially TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter, trends are everything! Follow them and use them to your benefit to ensure your video ad is seen and successful.

Keep it short

Last but definitely not least, you should stick to shorter video ads as shorter content does a better job at attention-grabbing. According to a survey, by HubSpot, 64% of marketers say the ideal length of marketing videos is between 20-60 seconds, so try to convey a message in less than a minute.

Wrap up

In this blog, we discussed successful video ads and how to create them or who to hire to deliver them to you. We then went through the social media platforms you can benefit from to grab your target audience’s attention. Finally, we gave you some tips to ensure your video ads do well.