Stewart Major, Paid Media Manager at Tag Digital, shares more information on why you really need to incorporate video ads for successful event marketing.

82% of internet traffic will come from video by the end of 2022 (Cisco).

What is Video Advertising?

The process of displaying ads either inside online video content – usually before, during, or after a video stream. This is known as pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll or as standalone ads.

Video ads excel at telling a story and educating users about your brand and event

There is a vast number of paid platforms offering advertisers the opportunity to utilise video ads – YouTube (5 billion views a day), Google, Linkedin, Meta (Facebook), and Tiktok.

Read our blog on Video Ad Formats for Event Marketing to learn more about the five ad content types you should implement into your video strategy.

Benefits of Video Ads

1. Video encourages engagement 

Video provides advertisers with a platform to share an engaging message or story with their target audience.

• Video allows movement, sound, and emotion to promote your event in a more engaging way – to capture the user’s attention more.
• Users on video platforms are ready to engage with this type of content, making it the perfect time to target users who could be interested in your event.

Users are up to 27 times more likely to click through online video ads than standard banners. (Cision)

2. Video builds trust and credibility

• Video allows you to tell your brand or event story in a clear format that does not overwhelm the audience. 
• Videos help to educate and inform your customers, positioning you as a market leader in your industry. This builds trust and credibility with your audience, ultimately improving your sales.

3. Video drives conversions 

• Video ads can help to drive action by delivering impactful messaging at a time that matters most to your target audience. 
• Use remarketing campaigns to reach users who have previously engaged with your business.
• Video ads can help drive action by delivering impactful messaging at a time that matters most to your target audience.

4. Video ads excel on mobile

• Video ads are well-known for their ability to reach users on alternative platforms. Especially mobile and tablet users. 
• Screen resolution plays a huge part in the effectiveness of video campaigns.

88% of short pieces, around 30 seconds, are watched through to the end on mobile (WordStream).

Desktop screens are not limited by resolution, sometimes mobile and even tablet formats can become limited. Therefore, using video ads can sidestep this issue.

5. Video connects with the audience

• Video ads often convey messaging more clearly than banner (image) ads, where there is limited space to effectively tell a story about your brand. 

4 Rules for High-Performing Video Ads:

30 seconds or less: 

Users have a notoriously short attention span, so it is important to keep your message short and sweet. Going above and beyond 30 seconds risks users dropping off before they have heard all of your messages. Instead, we would recommend breaking videos up into different themes and pitching them one after the other.

Diversify content 

Standard banner (image) ads can be limiting in terms of ad copy, but video ads can help diversify your content.

Fundamentally, cut down the written content and let the video do the talking. Content ideas could be attendee testimonials from the previous year’s event, a highlight video, or speakers from a previous year.

Communicate visually 

Although the video is important, it’s crucial to find the right balance between video and text content. Not everyone has their audio enabled when watching a video, so it is crucial that users can understand your message even without audio.

Grab attention in the first 5 seconds

It is important to grab the user’s attention immediately.

Always make sure that your brand logo is one of the first thing the user sees. You want to build awareness surrounding your brand, and users are most engaged at the start of an ad.

The Video Marketing Funnel

Each stage of the funnel approach requires different content to reach the desired target audience.

Awareness Stage

Top of the Funnel (ToF) is when the focus is on awareness, discovery, and gaining interest in your event. For example, short event promotion videos, sharing the event USP, and utilising a softer call to action like ‘Learn More’.

At this level, you would be casting a wide net to capture a lot of users and then refining these users down into audiences based on their level of interest. This includes interest targeting and custom intent targeting – targeting users based on keywords searched for.

At Tag Digital, we would recommend creating content with topics associated with your event, industry recognition and rewards, and any other top-level USP to drive interest.

Consideration Stage

The Middle of the Funnel (MoF) aims to target those who have shown an interest in your event type in the past but are weighing up their options before taking action. 

During this stage, the user knows what your event is all about, so you should start pushing alternative USPs. For example, content could be event speakers, testimonials from a visitor, or exclusive sessions or workshops. Similarly, Tag Digital advises using a call to action that is relevant to the content like “View Our Speakers Now”.

Action Stage

The Bottom of the Funnel (BoF) requires videos that speak directly to the audience seriously considering attending your event. The focus point of this stage is encouraging action. Event marketing-specific CTAs like “Buy Now” or “Sign Up Now” can be used to drive action and this could be used as part of a convertor campaign to drive on-site engagement.

Within the action stage, you are focused on those users who have previously shown an interest in your event and are close to converting into customers. During this stage, you are targeting users who have shown an interest in your event in the past.

If you are focusing on incentivising sign-ups to attend, your video could include copy such as ‘See You There’.

Tag Digital can help with the creative for your video ads, find out more about our video service, our team and we will be more than happy to help get in touch today.