The Case For Social Video - Part II: Why Video Needs to Be Part Of Your Social Mix

In part of one of this three-part series about social video ads, I reviewed the social media industry’s shift towards promoted video ads. The focus was specifically on Facebook, as they continue to emphasize native video content recently announced ANTHOLOGY, their in-house publishing and production shop for advertisers.

During a recent client campaign promoting Mobile App Installs for iOS devices, emfluence A/B tested video ads against static image ads (using the same audience targeting). The results of a month long test showed video ads significantly outperform image ads across a number of KPIs.

Ad engagement, audience reach and penetration all performed significantly better with the video ads (creating greater organic reach and installs) – in addition to significantly higher CTR and cost-per-install on ads promotion mobile apps.

emfluence A/B Split Test of Video and Image Ad Results:

Video Ad – CTR – 8.34%
Image Ad – CTR – 1.14%
Video Ad – Cost-Per-Install – $1.23
Image Ad – Cost-Per-Install – $0.98

Takeaway: CPC on our Video Ads were $0.20 higher than Image Ads. However, Video Ad CTR was 730% higher!

Engagement Results:

Video Ad “Loyalist Users” – 71.95% (6,133 users)
Image Ad “Loyalist Users” – 68.57% (2,931 users)

Takeaway: Loyalist Users are defined as those that launched the app 3+ times since installing.

While a 3.38% higher loyalist user rate for video may not seem earth shattering; this equates to 6,133 Video Install users that are regularly using the App. This is more than 2x than that of the app users that installed from the image ads and ultimately, represents the most valued segment of all installers. Based on client defined KPIs, this increase in consumer usage benchmark justifies the higher cost per install/acquisition – and so promoted video ads have been a resounding “WIN” for their campaigns after only a month

The most critical piece of information to take away from this is that video ads provide significant lifts across all relevant KPIs and are a vital tool to include in your social advertising mix to help balance static ads and drive awareness to a broader audience – all through a more engaging medium.