With more than 2.6 billion monthly active users, Facebook has become much more than a social networking site where you can connect and share with family and friends online. It’s now also a solution for most savvy marketers’ digital marketing campaigns.
Lately, the platform has turned its attention from photos to videos. From the top 500 Facebook posts of 2018, more than 80% of them were videos. Not to mention that video posts also generate an average of 59% more engagement than any other type of posts on the platform.
Here, one thing is obvious: Not only does the platform tend to favour video content more but also it’s the Facebook users that tend to respond to it more frequently.
It’s no wonder that video marketing statistics say that more than 81% of marketers use the platform as their video marketing channel this year.
So, how do you use the full potential of Facebook video marketing campaigns? Below are eight handy ways you can implement to get maximum results from the platform:
1. Use native Facebook videos
Native Facebook videos here are the videos that you upload directly and play in-feed on the platform. Instead of using videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, LinkedIn, and sharing the link on Facebook, you better upload them on the platform itself.
The reason is it offers an uninterrupted viewing experience since the users don’t have to perform unnecessary extra clicks or new windows. Therefore, viewers can feel much more engaged in increasingly authentic video content.
What’s more, native videos are shared ten times more on Facebook compared to links from giant video-sharing platform YouTube.
2. Craft square videos
Facebook allows you to upload videos in different formats – from vertical to horizontal to square. If you’re not sure which way to go, you may be better off choosing the square format.
The beauty of square videos is that this format is more suitable for viewing on both desktop and mobile devices. It doesn’t fill the entire screen just like vertical videos do and take up more space in users’ news feeds than horizontal videos.
So, it comes as no surprise if this square format is popular, especially among marketers. It can bring >30-35% higher video views and an 80-100% increase in engagement.
3. Add a featured video on your homepage
Placing a video on your Facebook homepage can help your audience get to know you and your brand even more.
This can be a great way to introduce what your brand is all about or showcase your best video to users who are interested in watching.
Uploading a featured video is actually the same as uploading a regular, native video. For a brand’s introduction, You can use an explainer video to make the introduction more captivating.
The feature video will be displayed prominently at the top of both your video page and the video section on your timeline – under your ‘About’ section.
4. Utilise the Facebook Pixel
Facebook Pixel is a cookie you should install on your website. Without utilising Facebook Pixel, you only get half the power of your overall marketing.
This all-seeing eye tool from Facebook can help you to improve your ROI, create higher-value audiences, and retarget viewers who bought or almost bought your brand.
It’ll track your target audience behaviour so that you can get a fully customised audience. That way, your videos can perform effectively because the viewers are the people that are interested and care about your brand.
And as the pixel records the demographic and interest of users, you can also continuously create better and better marketing videos for your next campaigns.
5. Use video carousel ads
There are tons of video ads that Facebook provides for your campaign. But, video carousel ads are gaining a lot of traction nowadays.
This type of ad allows you to use multiple videos (up to 10 videos) for one single ad. You can put different descriptions and calls-to-action at the bottom of each video.
Therefore, to cut through the noise, you can give this highly-engaging type of ad, especially if you want to show off multiple products or want to explain a process.
It’s safe to say that this carousel ad offers you the flexibility you don’t get in any other ad format on the platform. Since there are ten unique cards, that’s ten unique chances, you have to get the users to click on them.
6. Leverage Facebook stories ads
Stories are such a fun and fast way to get both information and entertainment on social media platforms, including Facebook.
According to the Facebook IQ, more than 68% of social media users say they watch stories on at least three social media apps regularly, and 63% of them plan to use it more frequently in the future.
Placing your marketing on Facebook Stories can help you expand your reach as 300 million users access Facebook Stories daily.
So, make sure you tailor your videos that fit into the vertical format with short duration and don’t forget to place obvious and clear calls-to-actions.
7. Make use of targeting options
One of the main reasons why Facebook is such a potential platform to host your marketing videos is its robust targeting options. These marketing features come handy when you try to determine who to show your video ads to.
Before you launch your Facebook video campaign, you’re required to fill out these features. You need to set the parameters so the ad can perform better and much more effective by reaching the right audience.
The targeting options include everything you could ask for highly-customised viewers or audiences. It includes demographic, connection behaviour, even the lifestyle of users on the platform.
8. Keep an eye on Facebook page insight
It’s always crucial to keep your video marketing campaign on track and monitor it constantly to understand how well it performs. On Facebook, you can use Facebook Page Insight to get the live report and analytics of your video ads.
There are some essential metrics like views, viewers retention, viewers demographic, and more. These metrics are available for all paid and organic videos uploaded directly to Facebook Pages.
It helps you to learn what kind of videos your audience engages and interacts with most. That way, you can make informed decisions about your next strategy on your future Facebook video marketing campaigns.
When YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok might seem like “a new routine” of internet users, Facebook is still alive and kicking. In fact, with a massive number of user and constantly-updated marketing features, Facebook has now become a mainstay for savvy video marketers out there. With the right strategy, Facebook video marketing campaigns offer an opportunity to show off your brand’s personality and connect with potential customers on a more personal, emotional level.
Andre Oentoro is the founder of Breadnbeyond, an award-winning explainer video company. He helps businesses increase conversion rates, close more sales, and get positive ROI from explainer videos (in that order).
Twitter: @breadnbeyond
Email: andre@breadnbeyond.com
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Think Little Big Marketing.
