What’s the key to reaching tech-savvy, on-the-go apartment renters? Video advertising.
It can have a major impact on your apartment community’s bottom line: Simply having a video embedded on your website landing page can increase conversions by as much as 80%.
Video is also very important when it comes to search engine optimization and improving your site’s rankings. Google owns YouTube, which means video has a major impact on where websites appear in Google searches. You’re 53 times more likely to show up first on Google if you have a video embedded on your website.
While there’s no denying the power of video to sell your apartment community, you can leverage even greater returns on investment when placing apartment video ads on social media.
Growth in this area in recent years has been remarkable. Research from the Interactive Advertising Bureau shows a 37% increase in digital video ad revenue that surpassed all other formats from 2017 to 2018. Nearly two-thirds, or 63%, of that revenue came from mobile, up from 52%.
Video advertising — particularly on social media — has grown rapidly when compared to text-only ads for a few reasons:
- It gets to the point without asking consumers to read a lot of text.
- It builds trust by connecting to the emotional needs of the consumer.
- It meets consumers where they are — 75 million people in the U.S. watch online videos every day.
Prospective renters want to gather as much information as possible before even visiting a property, and apartments are visual in nature, making apartment video advertising a no-brainer. Read on to learn how to harness the power of social media video ads into your apartment marketing strategy.
Multifamily Video Marketing Tips
These best practices apply to social media platforms across the board, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
Optimize your apartment videos for mobile viewing.
Almost 50% of all video is watched on mobile devices, so make sure you’re giving the best possible user experience for mobile. Keep in mind that the majority of video ads on social media are watched without sound, so make a strong visual impact and add captions. Also, square format video offers the best user experience for mobile.
Keep it short.
You only have a moment to make the case for your apartment community. Here are the ideal video ad lengths for each platform:
- Instagram: 30 seconds
- Twitter: 45 seconds
- Facebook: 1 minute
- YouTube: 2 minutes
Choose an advertising objective.
Make sure your ad has a clear goal. Most social media video advertisers focus on four main objectives: brand awareness, website traffic, video views, or conversions. Depending on the social media platform you’re using, you’ll get recommendations on what approach to take based on your objectives.
Mention your apartment community right away.
Since social media video ads are so succinct, you should mention your brand within the first two or three seconds. Research shows that viewers were 23% more likely to remember a brand name if featured within the first three seconds.
Put your call to action in the middle.
If you want to encourage viewers to take a specific action, like sign up for a tour or fill out a lease, do so in the middle of your video ad. Putting your CTA at the beginning doesn’t give viewers a strong enough reason to take any action, and leaving it for the end means many viewers will miss it.
Make your video feel authentic.
You just need a smartphone and a bit of creativity to create a successful video ad. Make sure to strike a balance between a slick production and DIY. The more production and effects you include, the more it will feel like an ad and turn viewers off. But you don’t want an ad that’s unprofessional either.
Optimize your video settings.
Each social media platform has guidelines for video resolution, file size, format and settings. It’s recommended that you follow those specs in order for your apartment video ad be considered high-quality and, in turn, shown more often to prospective renters.
Give your ad a great title and description.
Generate enough curiosity that people will want to watch the whole thing. Also, your title and description tie into the platforms’ targeting algorithms about the topic of your video, so include keywords relevant to your ad.
Add captions.
Most users watch social media ads on mute. In fact, Instagram video ads auto-play with the sound off by default. So, it’s worth the extra effort to include captions. (Instagram Stories ads don’t allow for captions, but you can still add them yourself by putting text in the actual video.)
Video advertising on social media is only going to get more and more important as we move through 2020. Respage can help you get started! Talk to our team to learn more.
