Running an eCommerce business can be frustrating.
You’ve had to choose a niche you’re comfortable in and ensure your product is solving people’s problems among other things.
The list just goes on and on!
Then, you’re confronted with the challenge of making sales and scaling your business.
Well, aside from using images of your products to run ads have you tried videos?
Videos have a way of stopping people in their tracks and that’s what we talk about in this piece.
More specifically, we’ll look at:
- Why you should use video ads
- Tips to help you create engaging videos
- Examples of video ads that are making the rounds
So, let’s get started!
[fs-toc-omit]Table of Contents
Reasons Why You Should Invest in Video for your eCommerce
5 Tips for Engaging eCommerce Videos
Example #1: Yoppie
Example #2: FanfareLabel
Example #3: Jean Patrique
Example #4: Hollywood Hair Bar
Example #5: Oodie
Example #6: Solo Stove
Example #7: Glossier
Example #8: Dollar Shave Club
Example #9: Training Mask
Reasons Why You Should Invest in Video for your eCommerce
When the average person wants to buy a product, they either ask their friends and family about it, read reviews, or compare it with similar products.
According to a Wyzowl report, 88% of people say they’ve been persuaded to purchase a product or service after watching a video.
In other words, an engaging video can convince potential customers just like word-of-mouth marketing will.
Images are good and with text, they’re probably even better.
But only 11% of people in that report said they prefer text when they want to learn about a product.
You understand what that means, right?
Video ads can make all the difference in your marketing strategy.
So, what are some of the benefits of using videos for your eCommerce store or website?
- It helps boost your brand
Creating eCommerce product videos can help boost your brand by giving your business a face or voice.
Having that face or voice to go with your brand makes you stand out from the competition. As you put out video content, people become more aware of your brand and product.
They’ll know what you stand for and what solutions your product offers them.
Videos will help you build trust over time and that allows you to attract potential customers who will remain loyal to your eCommerce brand.
- It increases conversions
Once you’ve been able to get people to trust you, it’s only a matter of time before they start buying from you.
Video marketing makes it easy for visitors to become buyers.
87% of marketers have said that videos helped raise their return on investment.
Another 81% say videos helped them make more sales.
- It improves user experience
Given that the average human attention span is getting smaller and smaller, writing long product descriptions may not be as effective as you think.
What’s the alternative?
If you said creating videos, you’re 100% right.
They can provide lots of information within a short time frame.
Plus, customers can see your product in action.
We’ve got proof of this too!
94% of marketers have said that video helped to explain products or services better.
82% of them say it’s been beneficial in helping them increase dwell time.
Let’s continue!
5 Tips for Engaging eCommerce Videos
If you’re already sold about trying eCommerce video marketing, there are two questions you’ll likely ask next:
How do I start and what do I keep in mind?
We got that right, didn’t we?
Well, here are some things you should remember when creating video content for your marketing campaign.
1. Add storytelling elements
Stories distinguish your video from other brands. You want something to attract visitors and keep them glued to your social media page, landing pages, or website.
Stories can do just that.
Here’s an example of what your video script might look like if you want to make a video for a skincare brand:
“A few years ago, my face was covered in acne.
It was so bad I had to spend most of my time indoors.
All the products I was using seemed to make things worse…
…and then, I decided I was going on a journey.
A journey of discovery into nature’s ability to transform.”
We’re pretty sure you’re already imagining what the video would look like.
Now, you want your video to have certain elements aside from being relatable such as:
- Having a hero: Your storyline should have a hero which in this case should be your product or service.
- An exciting plot: This refers to the hero’s situation and other details that will keep viewers glued.
- Emotions: You want to evoke different emotions when people are watching your videos.
- Sounds: This is the glue that holds all of these elements together and makes viewers watch your video repeatedly.
2. Insert a strong call to action (CTA)
A call to action is what compels people to take action after watching your video.
As such, it’s important to insert it in your social media post or wherever you want to upload the video.
The downside of failing to include one is that people will enjoy your content and move along because there’s no clear line of action for them to take.
CTAs can help increase your conversion rates so much that including them in your post can increase its effectiveness by at least 2x.
You can insert them whenever you want people to take action.
It’s safe to say that CTAs are your secret conversion weapons.
…just that they’re not so ‘secret’ and shouldn’t be inserted ‘covertly’.
3. Make sure the video and sound are of high quality
Another thing you want to keep in mind is the quality of your video — the visuals should be appealing and engaging.
That might mean that your video production will be expensive but you can think of that as an investment.
If you’re going to create a quality video for your ecommerce brand, you need to ensure that it’s great!
Give yourself time to plan and prepare for it.
If you feel it’s not something you’re up to, you can consider outsourcing it to experts (aka content creators).
Also, you don’t want to forget to add sounds to your video.
Adding sounds helps:
- Viewers to better engage with the video
- Increase the value of your video
- Evoke an emotional response
- Trigger action
- Promote storytelling
4. Keep it short
Short and sweet is the mantra of high-quality videos.
Many social media platforms that allow video sharing, such as TikTok and Facebook, recommend between 15 and 30 seconds.
That looks like a short time but probably only when you’re counting, not if you’re actually watching Facebook video ads or scrolling through the For You page on TikTok.
TikTok actually recommends 15 seconds for video ads.
The only time when it’s probably alright to create long videos is if you want explainer videos to shed more light on your product and what it can do for your viewers.
Other times, short videos are recommended.
To be clear, both long and short videos have a place in video marketing.
5. Keep it real
If you want potential customers to feel like your video is speaking directly to them, you must keep it real.
In other words, let them feel like there’s a human behind the video who understands them, even if you’re using animations.
That’s another reason why storytelling is essential.
But if it’s something that’s outside your ability or your team’s, consider collaborating with content creators.
That might even be a better solution because content from creators would look like testimonials to your audience…
…and as you know, everyone wants to hear good testimony once in a while.
Let’s go through some live examples of eCommerce video ads that you can draw inspiration from.
Example #1: Yoppie
Our first example is this product demo video from Yoppie.
In a bid to showcase their product while giving off the vibe that they are authentic, they collaborated with a creator.
Their caption was written in such a way that made their audience feel like their products are just what they needed when they think of self-care.
And the sound they used?
It was soothing — able to trigger emotional responses just like we mentioned above.
Example #2: FanfareLabel
Fanfare Label is a clothing brand that embraces recycling.
In this unboxing video, their product and its packaging are the hero in this story.
You can see from the screenshot how the camera is focused on their product which draws the viewer’s attention to the product.
The sound used in the video also contributes to the value of the video.
High-quality video and sound can make the audience watch your videos more than once.
Their caption also describes the ‘Fanfare process’ and what their thought process is like.
To crown it all, there’s a bold call to action at the bottom of the page instructing viewers on where they should be headed next — the product page.
Example #3: Jean Patrique
Jean Patrique sounds like a celebrity name, but it’s actually a kitchen brand.
This cookware brand featured a content creator who’s also a chef in this video.
We can assume it’s an explainer video because he goes on to explain how to prepare the double cheeseburger he’s eating at the beginning of the video.
Some interesting elements in this video are:
- the caption
- the CTA
- the audio
- the video length
You’d assume because the video is describing how to prepare a burger it should be at least 60 seconds, but they finished in less than that.
So, what product are they advertising?
The grill pan used in the video.
Subtle, right?
Example #4: Hollywood Hair Bar
The name already gave it away but Hollywood Hair Bar is a haircare brand.
This is a product demo + close-up video that helped describe what their growth serum product can do.
It began with one of the tips we spoke about earlier — storytelling — with the growth serum as the hero and curly hair as the plot.
With text overlays like subtitles, it made the story more engaging to follow.
Speaking about keeping it real, the video featured different people using the product and showing the results they got.
And all of that lasted for only 37 seconds.
Example #5: Oodie
Oodie is a clothing line with blanket-like hoodies as its main products.
The video used in this post has a short duration with a captivating sound that can make viewers better engage with the post.
Plus, considering everyone in the video is putting on oodies, it’s safe to assume that it would make anyone watching consider getting one for their next movie marathon.
Example #6: Solo Stove
Solo Stove is a brand that creates and sells outdoor fire starters.
Their target audience will most likely be people who love camping out or the outdoor lifestyle.
Taking their audience and product into consideration, we believe it’s only right that they used content creators for this video.
And of course, the creators helped showcase how Solo Stove’s product can be used.
The caption added in the video also hinted at how the product can make life easy for campers.
Example #7: Glossier
Glossier is a skincare and makeup brand. Boldly written on their bio are the words: ‘Skin first, makeup second.’
They partnered with a creator to promote their eyeliner product.
A creator partnership keeps your video real, authentic, and relatable.
Those are elements that can make your audience see your brand as trustworthy.
The video shows how potential customers can apply the eyeliner.
What’s more?
The caption used in the video gives a vibe that people are using their product and whoever is watching would be missing out if they’re not.
Example #8: Dollar Shave Club
The Dollar Shave Club is a brand that sells shaving products.
This video began with a focus on their shaving stick and a text overlay that would undoubtedly grab people’s attention.
Dollar Shave Club kinda used storytelling in this video with their product being the main character and inflation as the situation around it.
Example #9: Training Mask
Our final example is from Training Mask and it features a creator who happens to be a fitness coach too.
In the video, wearing the training mask, he shows viewers how it works and helps them so they know what they’re getting when they buy the product.
And the sound?
It does a good job of provoking emotional responses from viewers and improving the value of the video.
The text overlay in the intro also keeps viewers glued to their screen as it contributes by explaining how the mask can help people breathe.
To sum up, most of these examples incorporated all of the tips we spoke about earlier with the addition of captions and text overlays.
So, you can be certain that if you create ads using these video templates, you’d be making more sales in no time.
Let’s bring this article to a close.
Now Over to You
And it’s a wrap!
We’re glad you were able to read through and hope you’ve been able to pick up a thing or two from the examples listed above.
Creating video ads doesn’t have to be a tedious endeavor.
You can follow in the footsteps of some of the brands mentioned in this article by collaborating with creators.
They can take the stress off your hands and you just have to tell them what to do.
Wonder where you can find awesome ready-to-use video ads and collaborate with the best creators for your industry?
Feel free to book a demo with Insense: we’ve got a community of experienced creators waiting to work with you.
Thanks for reading and good luck on your journey!
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