We have seen an increase in digital media; there has also been a significant increase in video streaming content and video streaming content platforms. A wide variety of video content is now available to consume on almost every mobile device we own.

So, if it is your first time learning about video advertising, you may be wondering how you could use video advertising in your business to promote your product and brand.

With so many video content platforms available to us, it would be foolish to ignore the power and potential to use video advertising for your business. This blog post will give you a few helpful tips to get started with using video advertising in your business.

1. Use social media platforms to reach your target audience

Before you even start using any means of running a video advert, it might be necessary to research your target audience and define your objectives for your video ad campaign.

Define your target audience

Your target audience is the people, customers, or users you wish to target for your specific niche, product, or service. For example, if you run a children's eCommerce store, who would most likely buy your product and support your brand?

Are you a retailer, distributor, manufacturer, or wholesaler of your product? Knowing the answers to all these questions will assist you in creating compelling video adverts that target your direct consumers.

In some cases, like YouTube and Instagram, you will have to pay for running video adverts, so you want to maximize your use of these platforms. If you do not utilize these services correctly, it may be money wasted, which many small businesses cannot afford to lose.

Define your objectives

The second aspect that you should pay attention to before running any video ad campaign is to understand your objectives and what you hope to achieve by running a video advert?

Will it be to achieve more brand awareness or to get more sales? Or maybe you want more engagement on your social media platforms.

Whatever your answers to these questions are going to be will help you define the video ad that will generate revenue for you, as well as bring in additional customers to your brand, product, or store.

Identify the social media platforms to use

Only once you have completed the steps listed above should you start thinking about starting to use video advertising on social media. There is a vast array of video content platforms to use for your video advertising.

The table below lists the top social media platforms from which American adults have made the most purchases.

2. Use video advertising platforms like YouTube

With so many video advertising platforms available, you are spoilt for choice to run your video advertisements. Research each of them individually to understand their pricing model and the clients and customers they serve. Understanding that will help you choose the right video content platform to run your video adverts.

Platforms like TikTok are free to use, so if you have zero to minimal budget to spend on video advertising, then using TikTok might be worth it to run your video advertisements. If you can afford to run extended video ad campaigns, platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and even Facebook will work well.

YouTube is one of the most common and popular video streaming platforms available, so you should consider using it to run video ads. YouTube has several new formats with tracking capabilities to provide you with data to analyze your ROI. Recently, Google has made significant changes to make YouTube a worthwhile investment.

Furthermore, Google has made further improvements that allow advertisers to reach more viewers on YouTube across mobile devices. According to Google and YouTube, about 50% of YouTube views originate on mobile devices. Marketers can now target ads directed at people who have recently searched for a product or service.

If a YouTube video is related to a search term or phrase, they will be more likely to watch the whole ad or click the ad to go to the website. Another radicle feature that YouTube is implementing is to allow YouTube advertisers to create audio ads.

While you can start using a video ad initially, when you feel more confident using audio, you can think about using an audio ad later.

Google has also upgraded YouTube's data attribution model to help its users measure and understand how users interact with video ads. Additionally, keywords are less expensive to target on YouTube than on a regular Google search. The average cost per click of a video ad on YouTube is between $1 to $2.

3. Create engaging video content

Your video content should be informative and engaging, and it needs to be relevant to your target audience. Once you have identified your target audience, this step will be simple.

To inspire you on the kinds of content to create for your product or service, find and follow social media influencers within your niche and mimic the content they are creating.

When you start with your video ads, you can learn what others in the space are doing and create your content based on what popular social media influencers and marketers are doing.

Once you are confident with creating video adverts and are more familiar with your niche, will help to know what works best and what doesn't. With this knowledge, you will already have come a long way in creating compelling and engaging content.

Remember that when you create your video advert, always stay on point and pay attention to the message you are getting across. Sometimes it is easy to drift from your original objective and spend time creating a video advert that does not achieve its intended goal.

4. Use call to action in your videos

Your videos need to have a call to action, such as asking viewers to visit your website or sign up for your newsletter. Using a call to action will help you convert viewers into customers. One of the simplest examples of a call to action is, "Buy now!" or “Subscribe here.”

After you have defined your objective earlier in the process will enable you to create your call to action.

If you are creating a video advert to drive more sales, then use a compelling call to action to guide your customers to your store (online or brick and mortar) to make a purchase.

You could also offer them a discount when they click on your video advert that will help convert clicks into sales. A call to action can take various forms; a text hyperlink, button, or some plain text with no link.

A call to action that stirs up a sense of urgency, such as "Buy now! Offer expires soon!” helps increase sales. When your call to action encourages potential customers to be engaged on your website or app, you know that your CTA has done its job well.

5. Test different video advertising strategies

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to video advertising. You'll need to experiment with different strategies to find what works best for your business. If you have found that one platform does not deliver your desired results, don’t be afraid to change to another platform.

As you get confident in creating video ads, it will become clearer what works for you and what doesn't work for you. Always experiment and alternate your call to action, and try using other social media platforms to get the desired results.

Some platforms like YouTube and Instagram provide you with helpful analytics that will help you analyze the data from your video ads. That information will be a gold mine to guide you through creating a stronger marketing message and creating better video ads.