After years of advertising mobile games and creating video ads for social media, we have identified some tips you’ll find useful.
1. Make It Short and Simple
There are a couple of different reasons why you should make a video ad that’s short and straightforward.
First, most social media networks have requirements regarding maximum video length. That limits you to a shorter video.
Additionally, attention spans are quite short, especially when it comes to ads. Nobody is going to watch a 3-minute video ad. It’s hard enough to make them watch for 15 seconds.
Furthermore, the content of the video ad should be quite simple and easy to understand. Make it very clear what the ad is about, why your game is cool, and why people should download it.
When you complicate things, you end up with an ad that’s all over the place and impossible to understand.
For that reason, we advise you to edit down all your video ads. There are always some scenes that could be shorter or simpler. Some should be edited out altogether.
Don’t be afraid to streamline your video ad – it will become more refined and effective.
15 to 30 seconds is the sweet spot for a social media video ad.
Each and every scene has to count, each second has to work towards your goal – presenting the game to your target audiences.
2. Start With a Bang
As it was mentioned before, attention spans are at an all-time low. As users endlessly scroll through their social media feeds, it’s hard to get them to stop and watch an ad.
However, it’s not impossible.
If you make the first couple of seconds very appealing, you have a chance of grabbing their attention.
There are many techniques advertisers use to accomplish that. Sometimes the beginning of the video is weird, shocking, humorous, or suspenseful, all to capture attention.
Some ads literally start with a bang.
Consider your target audience and think about what would entice them to continue watching. Perhaps they’re into memes so you can start your video with something hilarious and fun.
Another great way to capture attention is to pose a challenge to the viewer. Something like, “Can you solve this puzzle?” or “Only 0.001% can solve this!”. You have probably seen variations of these in different video ads.
It’s important to mention that these are not used just for puzzle games. All genres use this technique and include some type of puzzle in their ad that has nothing to do with gameplay. It’s solely for the purpose of advertising.
3. Have a Consistent Visual Style
Our next advice is all about consistency. Since video ads consist of gameplay footage, animations, branding, and other assets you download, they must make sense together.
Consider colors, fonts as well as other design elements, and try to create a recognizable brand style.
It can get really easy to overdo certain elements, especially if they are trendy.
For example, explosions sound fun for your action-packed game, but everyone will get bored if they are present in every scene.
Switch things up – make your video flow nicely by setting a tempo. Dynamic scenes look great in combination with static scenes.
The best thing is to think of a certain theme and try to stick with it. Consistency doesn’t mean that every scene should look the same.
4. Showcase Game Features and Benefits
The focus of a video ad for social media should be on game features and benefits. You should always highlight your game’s USP.
A good strategy is to choose one feature/benefit that will be the focal point of a video ad. And create different videos for each of the main features.
For example, one video ad could be all about introducing the main character and the ability to upgrade his gear. Another video ad could be the social aspects of a game, i.e., the ability to play with friends.
When it comes to the use of gameplay footage vs. animated cinematic scenes, there are different opinions.
The benefit of using authentic gameplay footage is that viewers get a real representation of the game. They know exactly how the game looks like and how it’s played. The downside is that recorded gameplay is not as exciting or flashy as animations. However, you can make it more interesting and dynamic by adding video effects and music.
Animated cinematic scenes look very cool and they’re great for capturing the viewer’s attention. The issue is that they can be quite misleading. Oftentimes, players are disappointed when they download a game, which can lead to poor user retention and churn.
Our advice is to use both in video ads, but with an emphasis on gameplay footage.
Use animations and different effects to make the video more interesting and have that wow effect. But include gameplay footage that’s a true representation of the game.
That way you get the best of both worlds.
5. Optimize Video for Mute Viewing
Most commonly, video ads on social media are auto-played on mute. For that reason, you need to make sure the video is just as effective without any audio.
Moreover, never rely on music and sound effects to make your video ad interesting and dynamic. Achieve that with the visual aspects of the video. You can also add captions to make the video more understandable.
6. Include a CTA at the End
At the end of the video ad, the goal is to direct users to the app store and have them install the game. You can achieve that with a call-to-action.
For mobile games, the most common ones are, “Download for free”, “Play now”, “Install now”, “Start playing”, etc.
However, you can get creative with it and have a more personalized CTA.
An important thing to note is that CTA’s should be split tested to figure out which one achieves the most conversions. You basically create a couple of video variations, each one with a different CTA, while everything else stays the same.
Then you run the ads and see which CTA version performs better.
7. Follow Social Media Guidelines
Each social media network has different guidelines and requirements when it comes to video ads.
Make sure your video ads abide by all the policies. Otherwise, your ad will be rejected. Most networks are pretty strict as to what they allow.
Source: Udonis Blog
Conclusion on Video Ads for Social Media:
You now have the knowledge to craft compelling video ads for social media and drive user acquisition for your mobile game!
But if you face any challenges while creating your video ads, don’t hesitate to contact us. We have extensive experience in user acquisition and expertise in developing top-notch video ads for mobile games.
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