Help Ukrainians
Millions of people in Ukraine are suffering right now. We are fortunate to have several Ukrainians on our team, all of whom continue to amaze us with their bravery and spirit.
Our COO, Yuliya from Kyiv, has partnered with an NGO providing medical supplies & training to those most affected.
Please go here to learn more and see how you can help: https://www.facebook.com/Medics-to-Medics
2022 eCommerce to provide YouTube ad Creative Checklist
Creativity is king when it comes to making YouTube ads work, at scale, for your eCommerce product.
Want to scale your eCommerce product on YouTube?
Follow this checklist when you produce your creatives:
Strong opening 10 seconds
Remember: if you’re running smart bidding campaigns like target CPA, Maximize Conversions, etc., you are paying for impressions, not views.
How does Google determine your cost for those impressions?
A big piece to the puzzle: how well your ad gets users to engage - with an engagement defined as a viewer watching past 10 seconds or clicking on the ad.
How to do it: Share 2-3 sentences about the product in the opening 10 seconds:
- What does it do?
- Why it’s unique?
Watch how this earwax cleaner video from Tvidler (with over $500k adspend in 2022) does this in the opening 10 seconds:
https://youtu.be/QE-fKf8VQzI
Bonus: Test anchoring a price in the first 10 seconds (and discount it later). We’ve seen this work extremely well.
Show, don’t tell
Don’t rely on narration. SHOW the product working.
This ad for a SuperZoom scope (w/ $700k+ adspend) shows how you can zoom in on a grasshopper from 100M+ away, giving you an “ownership experience” of what it will be like to use the scope yourself.
Split-screen setups showing features/benefits can also be a great way to do this, like one of our favorite ads from those master marketers at 4Patriots:
Show very clear before/after results
This is non-negotiable: Show the results before and after using the product.
A clear case in point here from Snow teeth whitening.
Note: Some other types of gadgets (wifi boosters etc.) can require a bit more creativity to show before/after results. But do what you can to show the product’s impact.
Notice how this wifi booster ($450k+ adspend) does it:
If results aren't super clear to demonstrate, having a strong Founder-backed story (our next point) becomes especially important…
Relatable & Impressive Founder-backed story
People crave that a product is endorsed by an authority figure.
● Key points:
○ Relatable founder, with a strong education or some kind of
credible technical background
○ A founder is a good person: they intentionally keep the prices
low despite the pressures of big business
You’ll see this theme again and again in successful videos. Here is just one example.
Bonus points for the origin story: People love Japanese-related origin stories.
Nuubu foot patches’ massive success is just one example of this.
Conspiracy/anti corporate greed angle
People love the anti-corporate greed angle - emphasize this.
- example: founder as employee branching off to start his company after he discovered the horrible industry corruption etc.
- people enjoy buying from people who they believe to be a small business
- Underdog narrative
Example: this “small drone startup” who got tired of seeing big drone brands selling drones for $700 that cost just $60 to produce.
Re-iterating important points multiple times in the video
Re-iterating important points multiple times in the video
○ Pricing
○ Guarantee
○ Scarcity
○ Call to Action
Notice how 4Patriots does this, in what is arguably the lowest budget YouTube video of all time! (And it works, thanks to their great offer and great messaging)
Third-Party Validation
Call it “social proof”, “validation” or whatever you want. The point is, to build trust & belief by showing your viewer that other people are using the product and getting great results.
● Social media 3rd party validation
○ “Over X million sold”
○ show a montage of UGC showing a bunch of people using
the product
○ Overwhelming montage of before / afters from customers
Snow teeth whitening does great mashing up everyday user reviews + celebrity endorsements here.
Maintain viewer’s attention & control impulse to open new tabs:
Control your viewer’s tendency to multi-task and keep them focused on your video by doing the following:
● Make an offer as exclusive as possible to the video ad
● Need to retain the traffic / retain their attention on the video.
Control impulse to open new tab & search for the product
○ Say "This is not on amazon" or any other channels.
(Prevent viewer from opening up another tab to search on
Amazon.)
○ Don't say the name of the product until later in the video
(Prevent viewer from opening up another tab to search for
the product name.)
Make the price irresistible
Ideally, you want to make the product a “no brainer” offer. How to do this?
● Make the price irresistible - make a massive discount vs. price
anchored at beginning of the video
○ “Today, instead of $100 you can claim 50% savings when you
click the link in this video & claim product X for just $50…”
etc.
Strong CTA finish
Don’t skimp on the call-to-action (CTA). We like to aim for at least 15 seconds at the end of the video, devoted to giving the viewer compelling reasons to click through now and not later, and take advantage of the offer presented in the video:
● Last minute of video: Pure administrative closeout: pure "icing on
the cake" getting the viewer to click through & take action
○ spoon feed the viewer exactly what to do: "click the link
below" "claim the discount"
○ Provide explicit countdown: “You have 10 seconds to click
through and claim this”. Add a countdown timer to build more
urgency.
○ Add arrows etc. to make where to click crystal clear
Key General Points:
● Find ways to create real value & interest in a shorter amount of time.
● Follow the formula above & make every sentence matter.
○ Ask yourself for every sentence: "what is the purpose of this
sentence?” Is it emphasizing any of the essentials from the
list above?
Do you need help producing live action video ads from scratch?
Including...
- getting high quality live action footage
- sourcing on-screen talent
- writing the scripts
- shooting the videos
- editing / post-processing / animating
...So you can have high-performing video ads you can scale on YouTube, TikTok and other video ad platforms?
- Sponsored -
Inceptly: the performance video ad team behind $950M+ in direct response revenue
Inceptly High-Performance YouTube Advertising Agency
Inceptly builds YouTube ad creatives & manages over 5M USD/month in YouTube ad spend for companies like ClickFunnels, Descript, MindValley, Advanced Bionaturals, Organifi, and many more.
Are you spending over $1k/day on ads and looking to scale your business with YouTube ads?
Schedule your free YouTube ad brainstorming call here:
👉 inceptly.com/call
What are your YouTube ad questions?
In the meantime though, what questions do YOU have about YouTube ads?
Let us know in the Comments section below, and we’ll make sure to cover your question in an upcoming post.
Have a great week!
The VidTao Team
VidTao.com
Sign up for VidTao.com: The Free Tool to Discover & Track Your Market's Best YouTube Ads.
Are you spending over $1k/day on paid traffic and want to scale with YouTube ads? Schedule your free YouTube ad brainstorming call here: inceptly.com/call
VidTao.com is brought to you by Inceptly.com - High Performance YouTube Ad Creative & Media Buying Agency Managing $5M/month+ in YouTube Ad Traffic.