High Production Video Ads vs. Slideshow Video Ads

YouTube Ad Video Production Quality

YouTube has over 1 billion monthly viewers (Google) and is used by over 70% of U.S. adults (Pew Research Center). It’s no secret that YouTube is an incredibly popular marketing channel. So why aren’t more marketers incorporating YouTube into their marketing strategy?

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Four Apartment Marketing Trends You Can’t Ignore in 2020

At one point, ideas like conversion software, analytics-driven marketing, and dynamic video advertisements were innovations that apartment marketers saw coming on the horizon. Headed into 2020, these ideas and others have established themselves as necessities for those in the apartment marketing space. So which trends do you need to know about in 2020?

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5 Best Practices for YouTube Apartment Ads

YouTube Apartment Ads

Facebook and Instagram steal a lot of the spotlight in the advertising world. But they aren’t the only powerful players in the advertising game. Google’s social media frontrunner, YouTube is now the most used social media platform in the country. More U.S. adults use YouTube than Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat or Twitter.

They aren’t just watching cat videos all day either. American adults are watching thousands of years of apartment video content. In the past few years, YouTube viewers spent over 7,300 years of watch time on apartment and home tour videos (YouTube Advertising).

We know most U.S adults watch YouTube, and we know that they are watching apartment content, but are they watching ads?

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Social Video Marketing Strategies for Student Housing

Video Marketing Strategies for Student Housing

College-aged students live on their mobile devices. Most spend their time watching videos and using social networking sites. Student housing communities have a variety of choices when it comes to marketing on social media video sharing platforms. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat all have a share of this market’s attention.

Each of these platforms has its own purpose and communication style. In this blog post, we show you where your target market is engaging with video content, the opportunities, and limitations that these platforms provide student housing marketers, and strategies for getting the most out of these communication channels.

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Facebook Inserts Mid-Roll Ads into Videos

Facebook Video AdvertisingFacebook continues to evolve and develop new opportunities for advertisers and publishers. Most recently, Facebook started testing mid-roll ads in live-streaming and regular videos on its platform. This new feature aims to help media companies and the social network generate revenue from growing video audiences. How will this affect your video advertising efforts?

After a video of at least 90 seconds in length has played for at least 20 seconds, Facebook may insert a 15-second ad “break” during video content. Facebook will reportedly give publishers 55 percent of all ad sales, the same revenue split that YouTube offers. Facebook is rolling out these new ad slots to agencies.

The mid-roll ads will be enabled by default when you buy a video ad campaign on Facebook, but you do have some control. As advertisers, you can opt out if you don’t want your ads to run in the middle of publishers’ videos. You can also pick categories of videos (like DIY segments or sports clips) in which you want your ads to run. Conversely, you can avoid certain categories like, “live news,” controversial social issues,” and “political debates.”

These mid-roll ads are an effective way to reach a captive audience. Take advantage of these engaged audiences by sharing your message with consumers. How can you best utilize this 15-second video spot?

Tailor your story to your audience: People want to watch relevant, helpful ads catered to their interests. Customize your ad’s message to the people who see it.

Invest in production: Spend some time and resources to produce the best possible product within your allocated budget. Consumers will respond to well-crafted, professional video that renders properly on every size screen.

Get to the point: Bring your story to life quickly so you quickly grab consumers’ attention. Consider showing brand or product imagery in the first few seconds so it’s clear what you are promoting.

Focus on storytelling: Since you only have 15 seconds, you need to tell a clear and concise story. Use every second wisely to keep your audience engaged from beginning to end.

If you’re interested in learning more about Facebook advertising, or want to launch a Facebook video campaign, contact us today!


Snapchat Will Serve Targeted Ads Based on What People Buy

Snapchat AdvertisingThe more personalized an ad is to its audience, the greater chance it will drive a consumer to act. Snapchat will soon deliver more personalized and relevant ads to its users, improving the user experience and connecting buyers with brands.

Partnering with Oracle Data Cloud, owner of data collection firm Datalogix, Snapchat will start targeting and measuring ads on its platform based on what people buy outside of Snapchat. The list of approximately 100 categories takes Oracle’s data tracking people’s online and offline purchases and organizes them into un-branded segments including in-market shoppers in the automotive, retail, and service industries.

The focused targeting options apply to all ads bought directly from Snapchat or through a third-party API partner. Facebook and Google have successfully executed similar agreements with Oracle to use data to improve targeting. Using offline data to specifically target users will help you achieve even more effective campaigns. View Snapchat advertising success stories here.

Snapchat AdvertisingThese ads:

  • Targeting: You can target consumers based on their interests, shopping behavior, and past purchases. The ad-targeting options go beyond demographic information and help you accurately pinpoint your audience. People are more likely to respond to an ad based on a product they are interested in that a generic ad served to them because of their age, gender, or location.
  • Increase Relevance: Delivering ads of interest to consumers increases relevance because now they will view ads for things they already buy or might be in the market for. Deliver a more impactful ad that a user wants to see.
  • Maintain User Privacy: Snapchat will use anonymized email addresses and mobile IDs to match data with Snapchat users. The data remains encrypted so that Snapchat can’t see how individual users tie to Oracle’s purchase data and Oracle can’t see how its purchase data ties to Snapchat’s individual users.

Snapchat, which filed its IPO in November 2016, plans to go public this year. By offering enhanced targeting options, the social platform hopes to generate more customers for its advertisers in the same way that Google and Facebook have.

Do you advertise on Snapchat? Contact us today and we’ll help you develop a comprehensive social media marketing campaign that reaches your target audience.


Step beyond the TV buy with video pre-roll

Online Video Pre-Roll

It’s the era of the internet baby!

Yet we still have a hard time breaking from the habit of traditional media approaches. The principle still applies…PEOPLE REMEMBER 90% of WHAT THEY SEE!

The question is where will they see it?  Or perhaps better yet, “where will it be most effective?”

The “audience of one” is the feeling you get when we see your ads in the wild. A feeling of pride and assurance rushes over you, and you know you’ve been heard.  You hope that your potential customers were watching or listening at that time.  If that’s not the case, then the ad was lost in the noise.

Traditional media costs are hefty and time consuming. To get the most out of your traditional ads, invest in video pre-roll, the most intentional tool in re-purposing traditional media with an exponential punch!

Drop your 15 or 30 second video in the cue for display.  Throw in a pixel for retargeting and behavioral targeting andy you just launched a lethal combination of advertising both to your known audience and those who are actively looking.  This way you’re not just hoping that everyone is looking.  You can know (via analytics) what was displayed, what was seen and what the results were.

When its all said and done, it’s a fraction of the cost.  A mere 10% of an average cable commercial, or 1% of a prime time commercial.

Better yet, you can redo your whole mindset for shooting your traditional media with your target audience / medium in mind.  Shoot smarter not more!  Edit content for both mediums!

Top of mind awareness for your future customers’ sake takes on a whole new meaning when they are seeing you online — where they are spending most of their leisure time — instead of watching their DVR’d shows while skipping over the commercials.