How to Make a Video for Facebook Ads to Achieve the Highest Conversion

Here is an article by Leah Diviney, a Content Manager at Biteable (the world’s simplest video maker), who shares their experience with the readers of the SplitMetrics’ blog.

There’s plenty of advice out there about how to create Facebook video ads. But most of this advice focuses on the nuts and bolts of ads: setting up the ads in Facebook ads manager, A/B testing, optimization, and so on.

However, before you can do any of this, you first have to create videos for your ads. Creating quality videos is an equally important ingredient to Facebook video ad success. After all, you need content that will stop the scroll and motivate your audience to take action.  

Fortunately, creating videos for Facebook ads is easier than most people believe.

Every marketing video has five key sections: the introduction, the hook, the payoff, final words, and a sign-off. Creating Facebook video ads that get more views, clicks, and higher conversion rates is just a matter of doing the right thing in each key section.

If you follow best practices for each section of your video and use a few assets that you probably already have, like stock images, you can nail your Facebook ad videos. 

Your 5-point checklist for creating Facebook ad video

We’ll get into the nitty gritty of each video section in a minute. But first, here’s an easy reference checklist to help you create great videos for your Facebook ads. 

Facebook ad video checklist

1. Introduction: Include movement and/or bright colors in the first seconds of the video.
2. Hook: Deliver key information within the first two to five seconds.
3. Payoff: Keep your video short, between 15-30 seconds.
4. Final words: Prompt the viewer to take action near the end of the video.
5. Signoff: Include your logo in the last frames (and in opening frames, if possible).

Opening sequence: start with a flashy introduction

To leverage the autoplay feature and get people to stop scrolling, start your video with movement, bright colors, or both. This might sound gimmicky, but movement and bright colors get attention. 

And you need attention on social media. 

Stock video footage is an excellent way to achieve this, but a bright image that slides across the screen also works well. (Use an image resizer to easily fit any image into the Facebook ad specs). 

Even animated text is a great option, because it creates movement and gives information up front. So is starting your video with your logo. But as a word of caution: if you start your video ad with a logo, it’s best to animate the logo so you create a sense of movement. 

Whatever tactic you choose, the underlying fundamental is to make your video ad as attention-grabbing as possible, starting at the first frame. This is what gets people to stop scrolling long enough for you to convince them to watch the entire video.

Hook: get to the point fast

Once they’ve noticed your video ad and stopped scrolling, you don’t have long to convince people to keep watching. You have to draw them in and start giving information almost immediately. That’s why this part is usually called “the hook.”

What information you give depends on your ad objective and what you’re selling.

If you’re trying to get more people to download a whitepaper or sign up for a free webinar, you should immediately start telling your audience what they’ll learn from the resource. If you’re marketing an app or a physical product, you  may need to start with the key benefit or most interesting feature. 

Either way, start giving information in the first two to five seconds of your video ad. The closer you can get to two seconds, the better. Attention spans are short. People need to know right away what you’re advertising and why it matters to them. Otherwise they’ll scroll away.

Payoff: keep it short and sweet

Facebook kind of forces you into this, because the Facebook video ad specs have a hard limit for length. However, keep in mind that a strong video ad is usually even shorter than Facebook’s time limit. 

Videos between 15 to 30 seconds work best for most Facebook ad formats.

People don’t use Facebook for the ads. Even if they’re interested in what you’re selling, viewers still want your ad to be efficient.

The majority of people will make the decision whether or not to click within 15 to 30 seconds. If they click, they stop watching the video and move to your landing page or other resource. If they don’t click, they stop watching and move on.

Either way, almost no one is going to watch past the 30-second mark.

Additionally, this part of the video is the payoff. This is where you deliver value for the audience. If you deliver the value more efficiently, it’s more payoff for the viewer.

Keeping your videos short saves you work. And it delivers a better payoff for the audience. Everyone wins.

Final words: always include a call-to-action

This is the “last words” section of your Facebook video ad. If your video has delivered interesting or valuable information, you’ll get an opportunity to make a request. Always take this opportunity.

That means that you should always have a call-to-action in your videos.

Even if your goal is awareness and your Facebook ad objective is simply to get people to watch your video to the end, it’s still a huge missed opportunity if you don’t at least include a link to your website.

Obviously, your call-to-action will get more specific as you move deeper into the marketing funnel. But don’t neglect the call-to-action, even if you’re running an awareness campaign.

Signoff: use your logo

Most businesses aren’t shy about using their logo. You’re probably already getting this one right. But it’s still part of a good Facebook ad video.

Using your logo at the beginning and the end of your video is perfect. But if your video introduction makes it challenging to integrate your logo, closing your video with your logo works just fine.

Again, an animated logo is ideal. It’s not an absolute requirement though. (Unless you include your logo at the start. In that case, animation is a must.) 

If you’re an experienced marketer or business owner, this fifth and final checklist item might seem obvious to you. But it’s important to keep this on your checklist to ensure that it never gets left out, even when you expand your team or outsource video production.

What to put on your video creation checklist:

• Company logo in the last frames of video (and in opening frames, if possible).

Get better results from your Facebook ad videos

Use this five-point plan if you’re struggling to make videos for your Facebook ads or if you’ve never used video ads because you’re not sure where to start. And if you are not getting apt support from your current server, a cheap dedicated server will do the trick for you. 

After you create a quality video for your ad, you can always go deeper into the analytics and optimization. But if you start with the five-step framework: introduction; hook; payoff; final words; signoff — you’ll have a strong foundation. 

A well-made video will help your ads perform better. Instead of burning your money on Facebook video ads that don’t work, you’ll see a good initial return-on-investment. From there, you’ll continue to increase that ROI as you learn more and further perfect your Facebook video ads.