Video is among the most popular and highly-convertible mediums for mobile advertising. About 82% of marketers report that video advertising has a positive impact on their sales. It’s the most popular form of content for consumers and tends to get a brand message across more impactfully than text-based advertising or images alone. However, because it’s so powerful, there’s also a lot of competition for an audience. Video advertising best practices can help you stand out from the competition to create a campaign that aids in CPG brand growth and awareness.

Video advertising on mobile platforms is particularly important, as consumers are spending more time than ever viewing content on smartphones and tablets. When video is incorporated into shopping apps, it can help CPG brands connect with consumers so that they remember you while they’re in the shopping aisle—and in front of your products.

Best practices for video advertising are based on creating a campaign that’s accessible when consumers are viewing content while on the go. Short, impactful, and branded content will take your mobile video advertising campaign a long way toward gaining success.

Video Advertising Best Practice #1: Make Use of Subtitles

Subtitles aren’t just for the hearing impaired. One UK study found that 80% of closed captioning users were not hard of hearing, but that they used closed captioning because subtitles help make programs easier to understand. There are a lot of reasons individuals might use subtitles, including:

• English is their second language: Subtitles can help someone who isn’t entirely fluent in English to better understand dialog in a video.
• Greater comprehension and retention: Subtitles often encourage viewers to more actively watch a video, meaning they’ll be more likely to remember it.
• Better for crowded spaces: Having a video playing in a public space without headphones is noisy and distracting. With subtitles, the viewer can watch it on mute and still accurately receive the message.

In addition to subtitles, adding a transcript of the video to the platform can assist in SEO, allowing your video to be found with keywords. Adding text to a video through subtitles, transcripts, or both can improve the number of views you get and help consumers remember your brand—provided you consistently advertise it during the video.

Video Advertising Best Practice #2: When and Where to Brand Content

You may naturally place your call to action at the end of your video. That’s a problem when you consider the fact that the average human’s attention span is a mere 8 seconds. The most impactful message for the consumer occurs at the beginning of the viewing. Rather than lead with a sales pitch, however, which could turn off the viewer, brand your video advertising content. To accomplish this:

• Use your logo as your thumbnail: Most video libraries include a thumbnail, which is a snapshot of your video. Consider using your logo on that thumbnail to improve brand recognition.
• Leverage product framing: You don’t want your product placed dead center in your video. Instead, follow the photographer’s rule of thirds: Consider that your screen is broken into nine equally-sized squares. Ideally, your product should be positioned somewhere on the border of the center square, rather than directly in the middle.
• Color code your branding: Color is a powerful medium for delivering a feeling about your brand. Per one study, 90% of first impressions about a product are made based on color alone. While you don’t want to go over the top with it, you do want to try to create brand recognition by choosing signature colors for your brand that appear throughout the video.

By branding your content early in the video, you create a more memorable experience for the viewer, even if they don’t watch the video in its entirety. Even if you don’t get an immediate sale, you’ll generate brand awareness, which can be leveraged to create brand affinity in the future. The ability to turn that awareness to affinity—and, ideally, sales—depends on how many people see your video, however, which is based in part on the platform you choose.

Video Advertising Best Practices #3: Choose the Best Platform for Your Audience

When you’re optimizing video advertising for mobile, you want to be able to deliver that video on a platform that’s ideal for mobile rendering. There are a lot of places you could choose to share your video, but you must consider which avenue will get your brand in front of the most viewers. Choose a platform which offers:

• A high number of active users: While platforms might boast a large number of users, how active those users are will determine how many lead-generating views your video gets. Look for a platform that offers statistics on its users, details on how often they’re on the site, and, most importantly, how much time they spend on it.
• Low competition: YouTube might have a high number of active users, but competition for those viewers is extremely fierce. About 300 hours of video are uploaded to the platform every minute; getting your content in front of the right viewers could be a challenge.
• Access to data: A beneficial platform that will help you generate ROI for your mobile video advertising campaign will provide you with real-time information about who is watching your video, how much time they spend on it, and finally, what they do after viewing it. This can give you insight into the common signals of purchase intent, allowing you to use that data to retarget the most motivated buyers.

One unique yet ideal platform for sharing video content is mobile shopping reward apps. These apps are designed to travel with the consumer, allowing a brand to share its message with motivated shoppers right before they make a purchase. In addition, many shopping rewards apps have wide, active audiences that consistently use the app to make purchase decisions.

Your brand can gain traction on a shopping app—and the attention of motivated consumers. These best practices will ensure that your video doesn’t just get views, but also encourages interaction with your brand and, ultimately, sales and growth.

Shopkick allows our partners to use the power of video to connect with an active audience of engaged users. To learn more, contact our team today.

Image courtesy AntonioGuillem