It’s very necessary for software-as-a-service (SaaS) owners to utilize social media video ads, as they’re becoming an increasingly popular and effective way to reach potential customers and create brand awareness. And with a vast array of platforms to choose from, it can be difficult to know where to begin. That’s why in this blog post, we’ll walk you through the A-Z of social media video ads for SaaS owners that’ll help you to turn your viewers into customers.
If your brand wants to stay relevant and engage your audience, then you need to be using social media videos in your marketing strategy.
Audiences and potential customers all have access to mobile devices with social media apps and they want to be entertained.
Here are some important social media video statistics you should care about when considering your next marketing campaign and whether to invest in videos:
Each social media site has its quirks and treats videos differently. Most prefer a widescreen format (stories-based content on apps like Snapchat is the exception) and a screen resolution of roughly 1920×1080 pixels, but the similarities end there.
YouTube is the world’s second-largest social network, the second-largest search engine, and the only place where videos are the primary form of communication.
If you’re looking to dip your toes into social media video, this is among the most forgiving sites. Videos here are the point, and you can sometimes get away with reposting videos you already have. It’s a fitting home for your company’s hype reels and trailers as well as long-form webinars and event broadcasts.
When you plan video content for YouTube, prepare for it to be discovered by users trying to solve a particular problem. YouTube users often find videos by searching Google or searching YouTube’s social media video app. They also often search terms like “How to,” “The best way to,” or “Product review,” and look for clearly titled videos with relevant thumbnails.
Pro Tip: Add a featured video on your YouTube Brand Channel to explain what the channel is about and spend time organizing videos into playlists so viewers watch more than one.
YouTube Video Specs: The recommended video size is 1920×1080 pixels. YouTube’s player is in widescreen format (16:9) but very forgiving, and supports most ratios.
YouTube Video Ideas:
On their YouTube channel, content experience platform Uberflip posts live-action explainer videos that are hilarious and keep viewers watching to the end.
Facebook is currently the largest social media video site.
In terms of earning a massive reach, Facebook video marketing works a bit differently. Unlike YouTube, which shows everything to everybody, Facebook shows your videos to followers and friends of followers.
Facebook users are generally more interested in entertainment or inspiration than they are in solving problems. Videos that do well here are ones with a broad emotional appeal like customer stories, surprising facts, or jaw-dropping imagery.
Another big difference is that 85% of people watching videos on Facebook do so with the sound off. (Many are on mobile, on their commute, or in the office without headphones). Ensure your Facebook videos work just as well on silent, by adding captions that explain what’s happening.
Facebook Live stream has also taken off, with one in five videos on the platform now broadcast through Live. The tool allows you to stream content live to your followers, who can engage and comment on the stream after the broadcast is archived on your account. Using tools like Facebook Live can increase your chances of catching your audience’s attention, as users are now 4x more likely to watch live streams than recorded videos.
Another way to stay relevant on your audience’s feed is to upload your video files directly to Facebook rather than post a link that directs people to view them on YouTube or other video hosting sites. The reason: Facebook wants to keep people on Facebook and prefers not to link to other social networks, especially competitors. It gives preference to natively uploaded videos that get more engagements and shares than any other content type on Facebook, including Facebook Live videos.
Facebook Video Specs:
The recommended video size is 1280 x 720 pixels, but there are lots of video formats on Facebook with different parameters:
Here are a few Facebook Video Ideas:
Cloud-based business network and platform Tradeshift has a cover video on its Facebook page. It’s an eye-catching way to show visitors to their page what they do.
LinkedIn can now safely be called a video-friendly social network. A LinkedIn video post is 20x more likely to be re-shared versus a text-based post.
As the world’s premier professional social network, videos that do well here are typically career-related and are shamelessly product, company, or feature-centric, and that’s applauded.
On LinkedIn, you’ll see lots of videos about successful funding rounds, hot takes on the state of an industry, praise for mentors, off-the-cuff interviews, and live broadcasts from conferences.
LinkedIn videos are somewhat temporal on your personal page. Meaning, they disappear quickly. Unlike YouTube, they don’t have a place where they all live and you can’t make playlists, so old videos get buried in your feed unless you repost them or promote them as an ad.
LinkedIn recently added hashtags that people can follow, and on which your video can “trend,” or be shown to people who follow the hashtag. Trending videos are mostly a function of using the hashtag and then earning lots of comments (likes, reactions, and shares matter much less).
LinkedIn Video Specs: The recommended video size ranges from 1920×1080 to 4096×2304 pixels, but likely, the camera on whatever device you’re recording with will do.
Here are some LinkedIn Videos Ideas:
Twitter is the debate forum of social media sites where everyone’s connected, for better or worse, and things go viral quickly. If LinkedIn videos seem transient, Twitter’s are even more so. Things move fast and the videos that do well tend to have lower social media video production value and be higher in in-the-moment authenticity and off-the-cuff candor.
Twitter features a truly unfathomable number of niche interest groups and finding them is a matter of finding the hashtags they use to band together. Things trend in real-time and live streams work great because immediacy is in Twitter’s DNA. It’s part of what people find addictive about the platform.
You’ll see a wide variety of videos on Twitter, but the great preponderance of them is someone talking to the camera or filming something with their smartphone. Not surprisingly, most videos on Twitter are very, very short. Yours should be too—attention spans here are microscopic.
Twitter Video Specs: The recommended video size is 1920×1200 pixels and vertical videos are 1200×1920 pixels. Don’t fret too much: Likely any device you’re tweeting from has a built-in camera that can accommodate that size and ratio.
Here are some Twitter Video Ideas:
Instagram is a visual-first platform that (heavily) prioritizes images and videos over text. Any videos you post here will typically compete with highly curated photography, design, and art, so the pressure to film something surprising or visually arresting is higher than on other sites.
Snapchat may have invented the ephemeral video story, but Instagram made it famous. Nearly 400 million people use Instagram Stories to post a series of photos or videos in a slideshow format which disappears after 24 hours.
Instagram provides lots of tools for annotating Stories content with text, emojis, GIFs, and interactive stickers. Like the animated text in PowerPoint, it’s easy to overdo these.
The discovery process on Instagram is driven by hashtags. Unlike other sites, you aren’t limited or penalized for using too many hashtags. You can add up to 50 of them, but do it at the bottom of the post where they won’t interrupt the rest of the content.
Instagram Video Specs: The recommended video size is 1080×1080 pixels. (Instagram images and videos are square by default, though you can share horizontal or vertical content).
Here are some Instagram Video Ideas:
Like YouTube, Pinterest is primarily a discovery platform. Photos are the focus and users are generally pretty goal-oriented. They’re looking for recipes, gift inspiration, design inspiration, or products to buy.
In Pinterest’s words, “The best videos are those that are actionable and show the viewer how to do or try something new.”
Users interact with Pinterest either by searching or by scrolling down through an infinite feed where videos auto-play by default. The motion of an auto-play video can really set your post apart.
Pinterest Video Specs: Pinterest supports a range of aspect ratios and sizes, including 16:9, 1:1, 9:16, 4:5, and 2:3.
Here are some Pinterest Video Ideas:
In many ways, TikTok is quite unlike other social platforms.
The standard video length is up to three minutes. And the company has recently started rolling out the ability for videos to be up to 10 minutes. Vertical video is all-but-mandatory (rather like stories-based content on other platforms, but without other feed or aspect ratio options). Sound is essential to most videos on the platform (unlike many networks where silent video playback reigns supreme).
The app boasts a loyal and active user base. It has 800 million monthly active users (according to a leaked deck from the company), 30 million of which are in the U.S. The average global user spends 13.3 hours per month watching videos on TikTok. There are more than 35 TikTok influencers who have tens of millions of followers.
What about brands? So far, TikTok has proven popular with consumer brands, counting the likes of Nike, The Washington Post, Skittles, the NBA, Fenty Beauty, the San Diego Zoo, and Pepsi among its ranks. But some B2B companies have started testing the waters too and exploring using TikTok for Business.
TikTok Video Specs: Because TikTok video is exclusively vertical, the recommended size is 1080×1920 pixels in a 9:16 aspect ratio.
Here are some TikTok Video Ideas:
Snapchat leaped to fame with its disappearing video messages which competitors like Facebook and Instagram quickly copied, though Snapchat remains popular. The company claims that more than a third of its audience can’t be found on Facebook or Instagram.
Marketers seeking to sell to these individuals can find Snapchat a good if somewhat finicky fit.
Snapchat’s video Snaps are ephemeral! They disappear by design. But not all of them. The company has a discovery feature called Snapchat Story Ads where users essentially agree to watch a short ad in return for the right to watch a longer piece of content. News sites like BuzzFeed and Daily Mail use these to tease larger stories.
Snapchat is a rare outlier in that it prefers vertical videos to horizontal ones. Keep that camera (probably, your smartphone) pointed upright.
Snapchat is truly a different beast from other social sites, from the somewhat intuitive interface to the streetwear-brutalism design aesthetic that’s so popular there. (Think leopard prints, neon colors, and misaligned text). B2B marketers better are warned, because it’s not for the faint of heart. Only 11% of video marketers say they’ve used Snapchat as a video channel, and – out of those – less than half report success.
Following are Snapchat Video Specs:
Here are some Snapchat Video Ideas:
Some video best practices apply across all social channels. For example:
Social media video ads are an invaluable tool for SaaS owners to reach potential customers and build brand awareness. With the right strategy, SaaS owners can create compelling, high-quality ads that will generate leads and drive conversions. Utilizing this A to Z guide of social media video ads, SaaS owners can create campaigns that will turn viewers into customers.
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