You might have heard people saying that the attention span of humans is decreasing day by day. If you think it is exaggerated, you’re not entirely correct. While technically there is nothing wrong with our attention span, there is no denying that it is becoming impossible for anything to hold our interest for a long time. It has nothing to do with our brain or nervous system, it’s just that we have an immense number of options.
Every day we are fed with so much information on various platforms that we are gradually losing patience to sit down and watch, read, or listen to long content. From a marketer’s perspective, this is a great challenge. If you are running a YouTube Ad Campaign, you must be asking yourself this question over and over. How can you hook your potential costumers with a video ad if they lose interest in a few seconds? Image ads serve better in such cases but nothing can match the impact of a video ad. What we’re talking about is a video ad which lasts only a few seconds. That’s where bumper ads by Google come in.
According to Google, “A bumper ad is a six-second video format ideal for driving brand reach and frequency. They are available through Google Ads as an add-on to traditional campaigns and sold on a CPM basis. Bumper ads can both extend the reach of an existing campaign and complement broader messaging.” You see unskippable bumper ads playing before almost every YouTube video. Most of them are catchy and effective in boosting the business.
Bumper Ads can be launched as an independent campaign in Google Ads but Google recommends you pair it up with an existing TrueView campaign. Bumper ads are mainly aimed not for the launch or introduction of a product, but for the spread of your campaign and increase awareness about the product.
Is bumper ad worth it?
Yeah, it is. As said earlier, the audience tends to lose interest in a few seconds so it is necessary to keep your ad as short as possible. Since it is only six seconds long, its design is also less time-consuming. Given that your Bumper Ad is good, it guarantees the escalation of your YouTube ad campaign.
When bumper ads were first launched in 2016, the concept was not well-received by advertisers for obvious reasons. How can you hook the target audience in just six seconds? Again, it is not skippable and it’s certain that the audience will watch it so some of the advertisers took the challenge. A year later, Google conducted a wide study and found 70% of the brands which used bumper ads saw an average 9% lift in brand awareness. If that’s not a reason for you to think bumper ads is worth a try, then what is?
Yes, bumper ads are short, but if used correctly, have the potential to be just as effective as regular ads for generating brand awareness.
Things you need to know before starting a bumper ad campaign
If you are an advertiser, you’ll probably have a Google Ads account. If not, a Google Ads account is required to start a bumper ad campaign. As mentioned earlier, you can start an independent bumper ad campaign, but it is recommended you pair it up with your TrueView ad campaign to maximize effectiveness. You must also have a six-second video, which can be hosted on YouTube.
We have created an infographic which will guide you through each step of a bumper ad design. It includes the specifications along with some tips on design.
Once you have your video ready, you can easily set up a bumper ad campaign through a series of easy steps.
Designing Bumper Ad Videos: The Dos and Don’ts
You have a clear objective here- make the audience hooked to your product in six seconds. It’s not as easy as doing the same with a TrueView Ad, right? What can you do make to make your ad as effective as possible?
- Keep it simple and on-point: Your product might have several cool features to it, but you don’t have to showcase them all in a single bumper ad. Instead, focus on a single feature and try to advertise it. For example, consider you own a restaurant and you offer a 15-minute delivery and 30% discount. Focus on only one of these aspects and create a bumper ad based on it rather than stuffing your design with too much information. 6 seconds is not enough for the audience to comprehend that much information. You can create multiple bumper ads to advertise each of the features of your product.
- Be visually rich: All you can do with six seconds to hook the viewers with catchy imagery. The visuals, music and editing should always be based on the age group of your target audience. You can also use colour psychology to choose appropriate looks for your ad design.
- Add a catchy narration: Most of your audience might be distracted when an ad plays, so it’s important to add a short narration to get their attention. Remember, you have only six seconds to say what you have to say, so it should be on-point and impactful.
- Make it intriguing: It’s hard to get the interest of the audience with such a short time unless your design is clever. You can tease the audience by creating some mystery around your product, making them think about it even after the ad ends. This way, your audience is less likely to skip the TrueView ad when it comes up next time. You can also tell a longer story with your ad by using a series of bumper ads, thereby creating a sense of suspense at the end of each ad.
There are a few practices you shouldn’t be doing when you design a bumper ad.
- Don’t create an ad and then trim it down: No matter how much you try to edit a long ad, you can’t make a bumper ad out of it in most cases. If you want a bumper ad, the basic script should be six seconds. You have to shoot keeping in mind it’s just for a short amount of time. The editing should be razor sharp, but at the same time, comprehensible.
- Don’t rely too much on sound to convey the idea: Even though a good narration can retrieve the attention of distracted viewers, most of them will be playing your ad muted. They may be travelling, or at the office so if you are trying to convey your idea using narration or any kind of sounds, it would be ineffective. Always use sounds in your bumper ad as a supplement to your visuals.
- Don’t use too much text: How much can you read in six seconds? Forget about the text, you should be praying your audience should be able to comprehend the visuals correctly. It’s not smart to rely on text to advertise your brand. The brand name can be written in big and readable fonts, which can be registered quickly by the brain. Use of small and fancy fonts are not effective when it comes to bumper ads since the viewer won’t have time to read it.
Bumper ad campaign has the biggest advantage that you can be 100% sure that your ad is viewed and heard. Moreover, setting up a bumper ad is as easy and cost effective as setting up a TrueView ad. It’s worth a shot if you are looking for a quick way to lift brand awareness through YouTube ad campaign.
To learn more about how to create effective ads online, speak to an expert from TechWyse Internet Marketing today. Give us a call at 888.208.3095, or contact us here.
