Video advertising: Advantages and disadvantages for brand growth and awareness

Video advertising’s potential advantages and disadvantages are open to debate. Many companies have found video to be a powerful converter and have made it an integral part of their marketing campaigns. Others choose to go with more traditional advertising avenues. Determining if it will be profitable for your own brand is something that’s often difficult, though, as calculating the return on investment for video advertising isn’t possible until after you’ve run a campaign and can crunch the numbers. However, if you’re aware of the common barriers to success related to video marketing, you can overcome them and effectively utilize the medium to boost consumer awareness of your brand, and, as a natural result, sales.

Positioning video advertising to get your brand’s message across can be highly impactful on your brand awareness and bottom line, provided you use the right tools to make it visible. One way to see a significant return is by crafting a compelling message and delivering it through third-party platforms. First, however, you must have a firm grasp on the advantages—and disadvantages—of video advertising in the digital age.

The Advantages of Video Advertising for Brand Growth and Awareness

It can’t be denied that video has a certain appeal that text and image-based advertisements don’t. While it can be a bit more expensive or time-consuming to develop than other mediums, it allows you to deliver a message that connects with consumers in a deeper and more genuine way.

Here are a few of the advantages of video advertising for brands:

Video is popular: The first and most obvious reason to choose video is that it’s simply what consumers want. More than 70% of the online US public regularly watches streaming video online. This is an audience that can’t be ignored.
Video is a powerful converter: Video is an excellent way to increase brand recall. In one study, it was noted that 80% of respondents remembered the videos from brands they’ve watched in a 30-day period. That’s not the case for text and photos, which consumers are inundated with so often they rarely remember individual instances of advertising.
Video gives your brand a personality: Video allows you to give your brand or product a personality. They allow your consumers to connect with a person or situation, rather than an image, which can help to humanize your brand.
People share videos: It’s estimated that 92% of individuals who’ve viewed a video have shared a video. If you’re looking for an innovative way to increase brand awareness, then this is a number that you need to consider, as the more people who share your brand’s message, the more that awareness will grow.

Video is clearly an advantageous option for many brands of all sizes as it allows you to create a message with genuine impact. It’s specifically successful for growing brand awareness, as people remember and share videos more often than they do any other kind of content. That being said, it must be noted that video can have its disadvantages as well.

The Disadvantages of Video Advertising for Brand Growth and Awareness

While video might be a great medium for marketing, it needs to be acknowledged that not just any video can compete against a similar product or company that puts out quality text and images. A bad video can cost your company more in the long run as you could invest a lot only to see a minimal return on your investment.

Here are some of the potential disadvantages to consider with video advertising:

The market is saturated: While video advertising has a lower cost of entry now than it did in the past thanks to new tools like low-cost cameras and free-to-use hosting platforms, that benefit creates a disadvantage as well in that anyone can make a video. It’s estimated that 300 hours’ worth of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute! That’s a large pool that your brand is going to have to compete against.
Video doesn’t promote itself: Due to the staggering number of videos online, it’s not possible to simply post a video and hope for the best. Marketers need to essentially market their own advertising tools by sharing it—and ideally convincing others to share it as well.
A commercial is still a commercial: If your video is strictly advertisement-based, don’t expect a strong conversion. A big part of ad conversion is ad viewability. After all, a commercial is still a commercial. About 65% of consumers who watch online videos skip commercial ads. Brands that do the best with video don’t advertise. They offer content with real value.

While there are disadvantages of video, they can be overcome with better marketing, the right partners, and the right timing. By being aware of potential pitfalls, you can use the benefits of video to its full advantage.

Balancing the Advantages and Disadvantages of Video Marketing

The types of videos that get shared and improve brand awareness aren’t advertisements. Instead, they’re videos that provide useful content to the viewers. If you’re going to release video as a medium to advertise, it’s important to create branded content over pure product advertisements. Branded content may include:

How-to videos: These can be videos that show how to use your product or answer questions about it. They can also be videos that show your product being used in a new or unique way.
Product reviews: User-generated content, like product reviews, are a good way to share your brand’s message through a third-party. While not as easy to control, if you get a good review, ask for permission to share it on your brand’s page.
A behind-the-scenes look: People want to work with companies that feel human to them. Giving a consumer a sneak peek inside your company or interviews with your employees, for instance, helps to humanize your brand.

The options are extensive but the key to video advertising is to create content that’s not simply based on making a sale. Put yourself in your consumer’s shoes and ask yourself “Would I watch this?” when you’re considering a video campaign.

In addition, you need to put your marketing muscles behind that video. Share it on social media, your website, and encourage consumers to share and comment as well. One good way to leverage video is to offer it via a shopping endemic publishing platform, such as a shopping app. You can leverage strategically placed videos within these apps to help your brand stand out and increase consumer awareness.

When partnering with a shopping app, there’s a built-in and engaged audience at your fingertips. By creating a compelling video with a powerful, branded message, you can grow awareness of your brand exponentially.

Shopkick offers our partners the opportunity to reach users with video messages within an endemic shopping environment. If you’re interested in gaining more attention for your branded video content, contact our team today to learn more.