Ads Review - Why Native Ads Work
I sat across the table from a guy in his fifties a few days ago, eating lunch. We were talking about marketing, advertising. He was telling me how people’s attention spans for video content have gone way down. With social media, people only want to watch a video for ten seconds or so.
Scrolling YouTube yesterday, I was shown a few different ads. Some of them, I skipped as quickly as I could. Others I watched in their entirety. Which ones did I watch all the way through? The longer ads.
Granted, I love ads. I write weekly about ads and love to see what’s going on. But the real reason I watched the longer ads to the end was because they fit the platform I was on.
Most of the content I watch on YouTube is in the two to five minute range.
So when I’m on YouTube, and Paramount shows me a two-minute trailer for their new movie, I’m willing to watch it. I’m on YouTube to watch content like that anyway, so now I get to see something interesting, and then I get to watch the video I wanted to watch. But when Toyota shows me a 15-second, highly produced ad about their summer car sale, I skip it. I’m not there to see content like that.
When I’m on instagram, I’m there to see photos and short videos. So when a brand tries to tell their company story with a sentimental two-minute ad, I scroll past it. This is probably why the average time for effective Facebook Ads is down to only six seconds or so. It’s not because my attention span is short. It’s because it’s not the content I’m there to see.
If you ran into an old friend at the Metro station, you would say hello for a few minutes, and then be on your way. If your friend started telling you about everything they had been up to, and how their family was doing, it would be weird. Because you’re commuting. There’s no time for that. But if you and that old friend took a road trip, and your friend didn’t share what had been going on in their life, that would be weird. Because you have all the time the world to talk about it. It’s exactly the right place.
In advertising, as in communication, making sure your message fits the platform and the scenario is everything.
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