There are several classic formats when creating an online advertisement for social network, the text, image and video format.
Some formats are more effective than others in attracting the attention of social network users. They are continually inundated with content, so you have to create an ad that stands out from all other posts. For this, the most efficient is the video.
I have written this post as a guide to best practices for maximizing user attention and designing effective video ads.
The goal is to create an advertisement with a strong viral potential that users will want to share as much as possible!
Also discover free and paid tools to efficiently design your video ads and simple methods to find ads that already work for your competitors.
Whether you have a large or extremely small advertising budget, this guide helps you see things more clearly.
Find viral videos
When you sell dropshipped products, it’s extremely likely that competitors sell the same product. And it’s absolutely not a problem.
It’s easier for us to find the videos that performed best. All this in order to have a clearer vision of what works best for your product.
To find viral videos, there’s nothing better than going on Facebook. For the sake of example, let’s say I’m looking to sell tooth whitening powder.
A product that sells a lot as you can see on Aliexpress:
To search for viral videos on Facebook the method is as follows, type in the Facebook search bar the name of your product to see the best ads in English-speaking countries.
On some products, competition in the French-speaking world is weak, so it’s difficult to find competing advertisements, so you have to start by looking at the English-speaking market, which is very often ahead of the game.
In this way, you have a more accurate picture of the state of your product on the market. Then it’s up to you to take the winning codes and apply them for your country!
Here are the first 3 results for the search « Teeth Whitening ». You can see that the authentic engagement is pretty crazy, more than 3 million views for the first video and a lot for the others as well. That’s a good sign.
Unfortunately, advertising is no longer available, however other interesting posts are on the Charli CoCo page, including this one which has performed very well:
You can see the engagement is not bad. The video lasts 1 min and is sufficiently dynamic. I advise you to bookmark it or download it with this Chrome plugin.
Do the same with your product, watch several ads from several competitors, note the commonalities to see what worked best for them.
You can also use Instagram to search for viral videos, it’s the same thing and it’s very efficient!
Take videos of your competitors
It’s not a solution that I advise you but if you have a small budget, it remains a good temporary option. However, you should be aware that there are risks that you are responsible for if you take videos from other vendors.
If you’re starting to make a lot of sales, it’s easy to delegate the creation of multiple video ads on a smaller budget.
To download the videos, a free app such as Video Downloader For Facebook does the trick. A button will then appear on the Facebook videos allowing you to easily upload them.
Sometimes, it happens that the applications no longer work, just go test others on the Chrome Store, there are dozens of them.
That’s it, now you can reuse any video that has performed well. But how do you go about it if you want to create your own videos?
How to create a good video?
You get it, the goal is not to create a simple commercial video, but to design a real viral video that can generate much more interaction.
It’s therefore important to be aware of some good practices in dropshipping advertising. The list is not exhaustive but you often find these elements in the videos that have had the best performances.
How long?
First of all, do not create a video that is too long or too short, a minimum of 20 s to a maximum of 1 min are good basics.
Of course, there are always exceptions, but making sure that you always edit a video in that range is a good basis to work from.
What shape?
The use of small videos is very effective. You can design 4 to 10 clips of 4 to 6 seconds each. It’s very important that the video is dynamic to capture the maximum attention of the people who will watch it.
Each of these clips must also be accompanied by easy-to-read and attention-grabbing captions.
Go for short and effective captions, look at what the competition is doing, in my example cited above, the video used the following terms:
- « People Are Going Crazy Over This!!! »
- « All Natural Teeth Whitener »
- « Made From Activated Charcoal »
- « Charli CoCo is Easy To Use »
You quickly understand the principle: short, descriptive and engaging sentences.
To help you, make a list of all the benefits of your product and then use them in the captions. Again, if you’re not sure what to score, look what the competition is doing.
The first 3 seconds
The most important thing to catch the user’s attention are the first 3 seconds. So your first clip determines whether or not the person decides to watch the sequel. So there are a few important points about this one.
You can see that in my example, the first legend is very catchy « People Are Going Crazy Over This!!! » you have to do the same with effective catchphrases:
- « Everyone’s Talking About It! »
- « You’re Going to Hallucinate »
- « Everybody Is Crazy About This »
You need a sentence that attracts maximum attention and makes you want to watch what happens next.
It’s also important from the very first seconds to show the product in action, if possible show what problem it solves. If you don’t have a product that solves a problem, show it in action, don’t waste time presenting the product.
Also, to test later which video has the best performance, I advise you to create 3 or 4 first clips to determine which sentence has the best hook and converts best.
No need to change the whole video for testing, the first clip is enough.
The last clip
If you manage to get the user excited about your video, bingo, but you have to end it in the best possible way, i.e. with a call to action.
This allows you to encourage the user to visit your shop and buy your product. For example, you can end the video with a simple and effective call to action such as :
- « Tag a friend in need. »
- « Click to buy the product »
- « Get your own »
I find the classic « Buy Now » too aggressive in my opinion. That said, you can still try it, it might work better for you.
Dynamic music
Music is not the most important element because some people watch videos without sound, but it’s very easy to find effective, free and copyright free music for your videos.
If you use video editing software or services, it’s very likely that copyright free music is already present. However, for more, look at the Youtube audio library that provides musics for download.
How to make the video at the lowest cost?
Now that you know the best practices for creating viral video ads, it’s time to make them. Depending on your budget, several solutions are available to you.
Gigs platforms
Thanks to the gig platform Fiverr, it’s very easy to hire professionals to create your advertising videos.
This overview corresponds to the first 4 results for the search « advertising video » on Fiverr. There are others on this platform, you have a wide choice.
Give them your instructions when ordering and look carefully at the description of their service to avoid unpleasant surprises.
Instagram Influencers
This method is to send the product to 3 or 4 Instagram influencers to film themselves using it and then send the clips to you. However, this method does not work effectively for all niches. Some are more favorable than others, like the beauty niche!
To avoid inflating your budget, find small influencers in your niche, between 10k and 100k, or influencers who have never made product placement. You are then able to negotiate lower prices.
Make it clear that you don’t need posts or stories to avoid paying more.
Once you agree with your influencers, send the product for them to film themselves using it. You can also offer them to become an ambassador for your brand and offer commissions on sales through an e-commerce application such as Referral Candy.
Make the video yourself
Another effective option is to create the dropshipping video yourself. And contrary to popular belief, you don’t need great talent and a great camera to film your product.
Get the product on Amazon to get it faster and make several clips showing the product in action. If you need actors, ask your friends or family.
Your mobile phone will do the trick for filming, people love the authentic!
Easily edit the video
Now that you’ve got your clips, it’s time to do the video editing. Once again, there are several options available to you depending on your budget.
InShot for Android and Iphone
The InShot application for Android and Iphone is perfect for quickly editing dynamic videos. It’s free!
InShot is packed with features, you can cut the clips, assemble them, speed them up or slow them down but also add music and stickers. By the way, the accelerated effect is very popular and works well on viral videos.
And of course, the app includes the addition of captions by completely customizing colors, positions, fonts, etc.
Personally I like for the captions of the white text on black background by changing the color of the important words.
Animoto
Animoto is a paid online service but with a trial period. I invite you to try it because it’s really a great solution to create dropshipping videos. No need to download, everything happens on the website.
Once registered, you choose templates that are more or less relevant, but starting a project from scratch remains one of the best options. Otherwise, the Clean Cut and Blank Slate themes are my favorites:
Once again, it’s up to you to choose your preferences, but Clean Cut is really the best to put white text on a black background.
All that’s left to do is import all your clips and edit them very simply thanks to Animoto’s intuitive interface by putting a different caption for each clip.
Filmora
Finally, there are several video editing softwares, I tested some of them. I prefer Filmora by Wondershare which is paying but very easy to use.
For the price it’s still very fair compared to other video editing software, for around $60 you get a lifetime license.
The interface is very clean, there’s no burr. You edit videos very simply in a few minutes. There is everything you need, text style, music, filters, etc..
Protect videos
It’s important to protect your videos, there are several solutions to achieve this. For example, some people put the logo of their shop in a corner of the video, but it’s very easy to hide it by replacing it with something else.
The best solution is a little less aesthetic but works very well. The idea is to put the name of your shop in the middle of the video with an opacity of about 30%.
Here’s what it looks like:
The rest of the video is still very visible, but I understand that this technique may disturb some people.
It’s up to you!
Now you know the basic rules for creating effective viral video ads for your e-commerce products. You see that even without a large budget, you can have a beautiful video that works very well with a minimum of work.
The goal is not to make a perfect advertisement in every way because as I said before, it’s very likely that the people you target appreciates this homemade video.
Now that the budget required to launch advertising campaigns on Facebook is becoming increasingly important, it’s essential to consider other methods of acquiring traffic.
For your brand, it’s important to create your own community, develop your organic traffic and become an influencer of your market!
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