So over the past few weeks, you’ve been hard at work on your advertising campaign – you’ve hired the best graphic designers, PPC experts, and more to create the perfect video ads for your company. These ads are now featured on various platforms online and can be viewed by thousands – maybe even millions of those who use the internet every day. All this means you now have a successful Digital Marketing Campaign to celebrate, right? Right? Oh c’mon! Where could you possibly have gone wrong?
Well, it doesn’t always matter if you have the best video ad you’ve ever made on your hands, there’s one monster rearing its ugly head just around the corner, waiting to sabotage your marketing campaign: ad fatigue. Ad fatigue – as you may have guessed – occurs when people online are compelled to view the same ads over and over again until they grow tired of them. Let’s be honest here, we all face ad fatigue every now and again, regardless of whether or not we liked a particular ad the first time we viewed it.
Ad fatigue occurs regularly among those who are exposed to the same or similar Display Ads a little too often for their liking. However, it would be interesting to note here that online audiences find it more annoying to view video ads rather than Display Ads. Interesting, but not surprising. After all, video ads demand more time and attention from viewers than static ads do as they contain more elements.
With display ads, viewers are somewhat spared from having to pay attention to them as they grapple with banner blindness. To put it another way, users are growing increasingly accustomed to ignoring the static ads they see online and simply scroll past them without giving them the time of day. However, the same cannot be said for video ads. Have you ever visited a website and found a small window pop up with a video ad playing inside it? And by the time you’ve figured out where the close button for the window is, you’ve already heard and seen a few seconds of what the ad is about? It can be pretty annoying, right?
Now, this is just one example of the many ways in which video ads interfere with a user’s experience on the internet. However, just because an ad interferes with a user’s online activities doesn’t mean that it has to be annoying. There are ways in which you can get viewers to understand what your product or service is all about without getting them to hate you for interrupting that cute puppy video they were watching online.
One of the ways in which you can make sure your video ads don’t annoy viewers is to reach your target audience. Google can help you find users that are truly interested in what your company has to offer, and in so doing help you derive maximum benefit from featuring your ads online. For instance, if your company is all about selling canvas shoes with graphic prints of comic book characters, you don’t want your ads to be featured on a website that compares retirement plans, you want one that is frequented by younger users. So you see ad placement is the key to ensuring those who view your ads don’t end up resenting your company or the platform they viewed your ads on.
Moreover, you need to decide what kind of websites you want to feature your ads on. While it’s easy to float display ads almost anywhere, the choice of platform is rather limited for video ads. A good rule of thumb to follow here would be to feature your video ads on sites that feature mainly videos such as YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. Since users on these sites are expecting to watch videos anyway, chances are, they’ll be more amenable to viewing your ads.
You would need to adjust the length of the videos according to the average length of all other videos featured on these sites to truly engage viewers. And remember, it’s not just engagement you want here, it’s meaningful engagement. A call to action at the end of a short video ad should convince viewers to click on your ad and prompt them to purchase your products or services. This is easier said than done for video ads as viewers don’t generally stick around to watch the entire ad, but it can be achieved if you manage to make your point within the opening seconds of the video.
Another way in which you can prevent viewers from getting bored or tired of viewing your ads is to mix things up a bit. Instead of creating one long elaborate ad, why not split your ideas into shorter ads and feature them across multiple platforms to reach maximum people? Think about it, would you rather watch the same ad over and over again or different ads for the same product that each highlights its unique features?
Besides, you could always feature ads of different lengths on different websites and apps depending on the average ad lengths of these platforms. For instance, you could feature ads 15-30 seconds long on Instagram and 1-3 minutes long on YouTube alongside a ‘skip’ button. This way, users who are interested in your ad or product will stay and watch the whole ad, and those who aren’t interested will have to view it for 5 seconds anyway – plenty of time in which you can introduce your product.
Well, there you have it – some of the many ways in which you can prevent your video ads from annoying viewers online. With the right kind of marketing strategy on hand, you may be able to keep audiences engaged and allow your investment in advertising to pay off handsomely.