A conversion funnel for your video ads can help you strategise your efforts so that people who have been researching your brand for months don’t see the same ads as those who have just discovered you.
In this article we’re going to take a look at exactly how you can build a conversion funnel (that works!) for your video ads.
What is a conversion funnel?
A conversion funnel is essentially the journey that people take with your company, from their first interaction, all the way to becoming a loyal customer.
It’s a way for you to visualise and understand the customer journey, so that you can create content and ads that do a good job of guiding customers from stage to stage.
A conversion funnel can typically be split into three sections – the top, the middle, and the bottom.
The journey begins at the top of the funnel. Here, people who have never heard of your business discover you.
When people reach the middle of the funnel, they’re interested in what your business is offering, but they need to be supplied with more information.
Those at the bottom of the funnel are closest to making a purchase. They know they want what you’re offering, and you need to show them why they should choose to do business with you over one of your competitors.
That was a very simple overview of each stage. Now, let’s take a look at each part of the funnel in more detail and find out what types of video ads work best for each!
Top of the funnel video ads
This is where you make your first impression on potential customers – so it’s arguably the most important part of the funnel! If you don’t WOW people here then you could lose them before their journey even begins.
At this stage, potential customers have a problem or a need that you have the solution to – they just don’t know who you are yet. So your goal is to raise awareness of your brand, and also explain your product or service in a short and engaging way.
You need to stand out from the rest of the noise in the video marketing world and shout: “Hey! Look at me! Over here! I have the solution!”
Here are a couple of different video ads that are perfect for doing just that…
Pre-roll ads
The online world is a very busy, fast-moving place. So those ideal customers who don’t yet know who you are will be unlikely to stumble upon you accidentally. You need to go to them.
A pre-roll ad is a great way to increase brand awareness because the incredible targeting capabilities can help you to get your message in front of the right people. You can find out more about that here: What is a pre-roll ad? (+7 ingredients of the best ones!)
With a pre-roll ad, you don’t have much time to pique the viewer’s interest – so your video needs to be direct and punchy.
Here’s an example of a pre-roll ad we created for one of our clients:
Using mainly music and visuals, this video conveys a lot of information in just 30 seconds. Also, because it’s animated it was a steal to make! Can you imagine how much that ad would’ve cost using real cars and filming in all those locations around the world?
Social media ads
Just like pre-roll ads, social media videos will put your brand, product, or service in front of the right people.
Social media ads have all the same targeting capabilities as pre-rolls – you can whittle down by age, gender, occupation, interests, and more – with the added benefit of being shareable. According to our 2020 video marketing survey, people are twice as likely to share video content with their friends than any other type of content!
Check out this Instagram video from Proper Whiskey:
It’s short. It’s simple. It sells an experience rather than a product. And it also capitalises on a public holiday. Public holidays are often celebrated on social media with people using hashtags to share their experiences.
This is a great way to increase awareness for your brand. So next time you create a social media ad, think about the hashtag-holidays you can link it to.
It’s also a good idea to create your own hashtag, just as Proper Whiskey uses #OneforAll. This will encourage customers to share their own posts with your product or service, using the hashtag – generating even more awareness for your brand.
Explainer videos
First impressions aren’t all about what you look like. People also want to know what you do. An explainer video is the perfect way to give potential customers a quick overview of your brand.
Here’s an example from ERW:
This video checks all of the explainer video boxes:
- It’s less than 90 seconds
- It talks directly to the customer
- It tells a story
- It has a call-to-action that leads viewers to the next step in the conversion funnel.
When creating an explainer video like this one, the aim is to pique the interest of potential customers.
The video shows the customers their current problem (jetlag), it presents the solution (ERW), and it also throws in some benefits of using the product.
Explainer videos are extremely powerful top-of-the-funnel content because they can take complete strangers to your brand and transform them into potential buyers in minutes.
Brand stories
To today’s modern consumer, it’s not all about what you’re selling, it’s also about who you are. According to Forrester research, 7 in 10 millennials actively consider company values when making a purchase.
By creating a video that shows the face behind the brand, you create the opportunity to connect with potential customers and make them aware of your values.
Here’s an example from Tony’s Chocolonely:
This video features interviews with former child slaves and then encourages viewers to make a difference by opting to purchase slave-free chocolate, which is what Tony’s Chocolonely stands for.
Metrics to measure at the TOFU:
- View count
- Click-through-rate
- Watch-time
Middle of the funnel video ads
When people enter the middle of the funnel, they already have some awareness of your brand – who you are and what you do.
You’ve made them curious and now you need to feed that curiosity. Video ads at this stage should be focused towards educating your prospects and presenting answers to their questions or objections.
This isn’t the time to be super-salesy. It’s the time to build trust and establish your company as an industry leader.
Let’s take a look at some videos that can help you do that…
Product demos
A crucial step towards winning a customer is showing them how your product or service works. If you’re currently doing this with sales calls and live demos – STOP.
Okay, you don’t have to stop all together! But a product demo video could act as a perfect stepping stone between introducing customers to your brand and giving them an hour-long demo of your product.
According to our 2020 video marketing survey, when asked how they’d most like to learn about a product or service, only 2% of people said they’d prefer a sales call or a demo. Most people – two thirds of respondents – said they’d prefer to watch a short video.
Let’s take a look at this product demo for the Tasty app:
This short and simple video gives a great, real-time overview of how to use the main features of the app.
Think about how much more free time your sales team would have if they didn’t have to perform long demos. Plus, it could increase customer satisfaction too, because people are free to learn about your product in their own time.
How-to videos
If you deal with physical products instead of software, you may think that a demonstration video is less of a pressing issue for you.
But a demo or how-to video could actually be the very thing that helps to sway potential customers into making a purchase.
Look at this video from Dyson:
A cordless vacuum isn’t the most complicated product. Most people would probably be confident that they can pick it up and use it without instructions.
But what this video does is highlight all of the different functions of the vacuum – so that potential customers can get the most out of their purchase. And the amount of value a customer feels they get from a product tends to link strongly to customer satisfaction.
FAQs videos
Every company has a list of FAQs. But how many ‘on-the-fence’ customers actually have the time to look through them? And even when they do, how convinced can they be by a few lines of copy?
FAQs videos can give customers a faster answer to their question and a stronger peace of mind than your average FAQs page.
Here’s an example:
This video very quickly and efficiently answers a potentially sales-preventing question, while also showing customers exactly how to perform the function.
Metrics to measure at the MOFU:
- Leads
- Sign ups
Bottom of the funnel video ads
This is your make-or-break moment.
You’ve already put tons of effort into nurturing your leads and now you need to give it one final push to get them over the finish line.
In other words, it’s time to convert those leads into sales.
Engaging video content is a relatively easy way to convert warm leads quickly, and it can also help to convert potential customers who have been sitting in the bottom of the funnel for some time.
Here are some videos that can help you with that…
Testimonials
When you have leads in the bottom of the funnel, you need to consider all of the obstacles that could prevent them from converting.
And then you need to cover those in a video, or multiple videos, that give potential customers peace of mind.
Testimonials are a great way to offer reassurance by showing potential customers someone they can identify with. According to our 2020 video testimonials survey, a staggering 9 out of 10 people trust what a customer says about a business more than what that business says about itself.
Take a look at this testimonial video from one of our clients, Configit:
This video covers Configit’s experience with Wyzowl and the benefits they have seen from the video we made for them. And, because it is in the client’s own words, it is a much more powerful conversion tool than a typical sales video.
Personalised videos
In addition to showing your customers social proof and giving them practical reasons to work with your business, it also doesn’t hurt to flatter them a little!
Personalised videos can really help you stand out in the inboxes of your leads! Just take a look at this example from Barclays Bank:
It immediately captures the viewer’s attention by using their name, both on-screen and through the voiceover. And it keeps their attention by using their name in clever ways throughout the video, too – by showing the potential customer all the things they could do with the money from their loan.
This is a very clever way to stand out and, not only does it encourage people to convert, it could also get them talking about your brand!
Metrics to measure at the BOFU:
- Sales!
Bonus: delight your customers
When customers pass through your conversion funnel, where do they go?
They certainly don’t disappear. And you shouldn’t treat them as though they have.
Your existing customers can be one of your most valuable assets as a business. Not only is the probability of selling to an existing customer much higher than the probability of selling to a new one, existing customers that love your brand will also feel a sense of loyalty that could result in some priceless word-of-mouth marketing for you!
Here are some videos that you can use to delight your existing customers…
Thank you messages
‘Thank you’ is such a simple phrase, and it can make your customers feel so valued. Sure, most companies send out a blanket: Thank you for your purchase email. But a video, especially a personalised video, will really show customers that you mean those two words.
Here’s a wonderful example from Constant Contact:
This fun, light-hearted video no-doubt injected a little bit of joy into the days of every Constant Contact customer. And it probably made some of them life-long fans of the company.
Detailed demonstrations
After a customer has purchased your product or service, you still have the power to delight them by ensuring they get the most out of what they bought.
Check out this video from IKEA:
Building furniture can be so frustrating! And it can be easy for customers to direct that frustration towards the very company that sold them the product.
This step-by-step demo video from IKEA adds an extra layer of support for customers and also helps to ensure that they build the unit correctly – which is important for customer happiness!
It sounds cheesy, but you can’t put a price on customer loyalty. With all of the effort you’ve gone through to get customers through every stage of your conversion funnel, it makes sense to put a little bit more effort in to keep them.
Final thoughts
In business, there’s certainly no clear roadmap to success. But having a clear understanding of the customer journey through your conversion funnel can definitely put you on the right track.
Video marketing is such a powerful tool that’s being utilised by so many businesses right now – big and small. If you want to know anything about any of the types of ads mentioned in this article, or want to know how you can create your own video adverts, do get in touch. We’d be happy to help!
