With an increasing number of people spending hours upon hours every day on the internet, it’s no surprise that Display Ads and Video Ads are viewed more than they were before. Everything from clothing brand websites to entertainment streaming services relies on such ads to bring in revenue each year. The reason companies are choosing Digital Marketing over traditional marketing avenues is that it reaches a wider audience.
Besides, featuring ads on websites is shaping up to be a very good investment for companies that mainly sell their products and services online. However, merely featuring ads online is far from enough, especially when there are so many types of ads to choose from. The most basic of all online ads is Static Ads. These are the Display Ads that are no more than images with some written content. Generally speaking, static ads are the go-to choice for most businesses that advertise their products online.
After all, these ads don’t require as much effort as video ads and take a lot less time to create. Besides, static ads require only a small amount of attention from viewers and enjoy good conversion rates with the right kind of content and illustrations. However, this often turns out to be a double-edged sword. Most people usually scroll past the ads they see online like viewing them is an inconvenience they have to bear with to view the content they’re actually interested in.
Therefore, you have no more than a few seconds – mostly just one or two seconds – to capture a viewer’s attention and intrigue them with what products or services you have to offer. Depending on the kind of product you’re advertising, it may be a good idea to have interesting graphic illustrations in your Display Ads. If you don’t have the right employees for the job in your company, you could always hire the services of a marketing agency to get the job done. After all, there’s no shortage of talented professionals in the industry that can make the most out of even half a second of a viewer’s attention.
However, you may want to take note of the fact that static ads are not always the best option for you if you want audiences to get to know your brand better. Display Ads can – at the most- give the viewer’s an essence of what your company is all about and a little information on the product you’re promoting. Think about it, there’s only so much that an image and a tagline can do.
On the other hand, Video Ads allow you to introduce your brand to viewers in the way you want. You get the time and space to elaborate on what your company stands for and give viewers a more elaborate idea of what to expect from your products and services. Consider that some of the biggest brands in the world have had memorable video ad campaigns on television. Viewers still associate these brands with the video ads they’ve watched growing up.
This only goes to show how impactful video ads are when compared to Display Ads. These ads allow a brand to tell their target audience unique stories and spark their imagination to get them interested in their products. Viewers are more likely to trust a brand if they know it better, and it’s indisputable that video ads provide a better platform for brands to reach out to customers and gain their trust than static ads are. However, there’s a major advantage that static ads have over video ads is that they don’t take up much of a viewer’s time.
So, as you can see both video ads and static ads have their fair share of pros and cons. More often than not, companies with the best PPC experts and marketing agencies on hire don’t know what the right balance is between static and video ads. While picking one over the other is not a decision you can hope to make overnight, it certainly helps to keep a few basic points in mind.
First, you need to consider the platform you’ll be advertising on. If you’ve found great website placements for your ads and these sites feature mostly written content, it may be a good idea to stick to static ads. No one wants to read quality content online only to be interrupted over and over again with video ads. Static ads that aren’t too flashy and feature basic details about your brand and product should work like a charm here.
On the other hand, if you’d rather advertise on YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram, you’d be better off making video ads. While Facebook and Instagram feature their fair share of static ads, users on these platforms have grown accustomed to viewing video after video so they’re quite likely to want to watch your videos too. As long as your ads are not over 30 seconds long, you’re good to go. As for YouTube, you have the option to create ads that can be skipped so you can afford to make them longer.
Another important consideration to bear in mind here is that your ads should feature meaningful content. If you think you can put your point across and receive good conversion rates with just a few words, opt for static ads. Video ads don’t come cheap so it doesn’t make sense to splurge on these unless you want to tell customers an elaborate story. Sure, viewers are more likely to remember the video ads they viewed than the static ads but without good conversion rates, this doesn’t mean much.
All in all, striking the right balance between video ads and static ads depends on the platform you wish to advertise on and the kind of content you want to feature. A good mix of video ads on platforms such as YouTube and static ads on informational websites should give your brand the edge it needs to stand out from competitors. Besides, if you’re having a hard time determining which one would work better for you it could be a good idea to create both kinds of ads and test them against each other.
