Commercials have been around ever since video became viable as a medium. Throughout their life, they’ve changed and adapted to markets to stay effective, giving advertisers an exciting way to reach their audiences.
With so many people spending their free time online, they’ve had to evolve again. They’ve become leaner and more agile but serve the same purpose at their core. A good commercial exists to tell the public who you are and how you’re about to make their lives better than ever before. It’s an exciting time to make a commercial, so here’s what you need to know to get in the game.
Set Goals
You can’t measure the success of your commercial online without first deciding what exactly success looks like. With any kind of online marketing, you should define clear, specific goals that you can track. One of the strong suits of digital marketing is that, unlike many traditional forms of advertising, it provides a bevy of data points to analyze a campaign’s success. Instead of increasing revenue broadly, focus on driving traffic to your website or getting people to sign up for a mailing list.
Since online advertising is built to gather information on your commercial’s performance, you should be positioning yourself to take advantage of that data. If you have the bandwidth, you can run multiple campaigns simultaneously and A/B test different strategies. If you don’t have the bandwidth, working with a company with experience in digital marketing, such as Pretzel Logic Productions, can help take the work off your plate and place it in the hands of the pros.
With a trackable goal in mind, you can compare their performances and determine what approach works better. With an online commercial, specificity is the key to valuable, informative data.
Have a Clear Call to Action
A commercial online has to do a lot of things. It must communicate who you are, what your brand is, why the person viewing it should care, and many other qualities that convince someone you’re worthy of their business. However, you make your case, whether it’s through customer testimonials or hard data, your commercial also needs one more thing: a call to action (CTA).
A CTA is a clear directive that tells viewers what they should do now that they’ve seen your commercial and know what you do. You’re probably familiar with CTAs, even if you don’t know them by name. It’s the “Buy now!” or “Shop today!” that comes at the end of any ad. Consumers might be excited about what you offer, but you need to tell them what to do with that excitement. Determine your CTA and state it clearly so your customer knows what to do next.
Know Your Audience
A vital part of any marketing strategy is identifying your ideal customer. With the technology available online, you can reach them much more efficiently. Instead of spreading an ad campaign as wide as you can, trying to get as many eyes in front of it as possible, make sure you’re homing in on your target audience.
Putting a commercial online gives you the power to target your audience with much higher accuracy. You can choose to only appear in front of people who are likely to be interested in what you have to sell based on location, previous purchases, internet behavior, and more. Partnering with an experienced company such as Pretzel Logic Productions can help you utilize the digital marketing tools available and ensure your ads target high-value customers.
Develop Striking Branding
If you want your commercial to stand out, you must develop a brand that catches people’s attention. The importance of unique branding cannot be stressed enough. Utilize a bright, cheerful color palette and avoid using too much text in the video. Any images you include should be clear and relevant, so don’t clutter the frame with unnecessary objects. A well-made commercial should be able to impart its meaning to someone even if they only happen to see it for a few seconds.
If you haven’t already, this is also an excellent opportunity for you to solidify a visual language for your brand to use in future ads. Tying yourself to specific imagery or colors gives you a visual consistency that helps your commercials become recognizable at a glance.
Create Something Worth Watching
A commercial is an opportunity to put your brand out there, telling your existing customer base that you have something to share and hopefully drawing in some new people simultaneously. Just because you’re putting your commercial online doesn’t mean you should settle for anything less than professional quality.
While there’s value in more personal, homemade ads featuring videos shot around your office or showing off your staff, investing the time and energy into a commercial made by industry professionals will show your audience that you’re a serious business. If you don’t know how to make something of Hollywood quality yourself, the team here at Pretzel Logic Productions is ready and eager to step in. As an experienced production company, we can help you create something that encapsulates who you are as a company and engages customers and potential customers alike.
Track Key Performance Indicators
Once you post your commercial online, your work has just begun. Now that it’s out in the wild, it’s time to track your key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs are all the data points you gather throughout your ad campaign, telling who engages with your commercial and what actions (if any) they take after seeing it. This is how you determine if you’ve reached the goal, you set back at the inception of your commercial.
KPIs are valuable because they can tell you what works in your advertising strategy and what doesn’t. If a particular demographic responds well to your commercial, you can double down and divert your budget away from more underperforming population segments. If the commercial underperforms overall, you know it’s time to return to the drawing board. You can make your next commercial even better with everything you learn from your KPIs.
Whether you’re looking to get to work on your first commercial or you have some data and are excited to start your next one, at Pretzel Logic Productions, we are ready to get rolling on something great. We have the team to make your commercial online dreams come to life.