Video advertising is a key part of any video distribution strategy. That's why we wrote this article and essential video advertising guide download to help you identify the right channels, and to inspire you to create irresistibly relevant video adverts to your target audience with.

Online video has become completely ubiquitous.

On Facebook 500 million people watch videos daily. Each a day a billion hours of content are watched on YouTube.

No matter who your audience is, from tweens to business leaders to retirees, they're watching videos online.

With the rise of video has also come the rise of video advertising. It's the best option available to marketers today for reaching a specific audience online as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Your potential customers are becoming savvier and more discerning. Creating video content they actually want to watch, in the places they already spend their time online, boosted by paid promotion, is a surefire way to get through to them.

And it's not just about broad top-of-funnel awareness, you can and should use video ads across multiple channels to engage your audience all the way along the marketing funnel.

To do video advertising right you're going to need a good plan (and the knowledge of how to execute it). We've created a guide aptly called How to Run a Video Advertising Campaign that lets you in on the tips, techniques and advice to help you generate the results you're looking for. Keep reading for a summary of its contents, or click the button below to download it now.

3 Stages to Planning, Designing and Running a First-Rate Video Advertising Campaign

1. Build a Plan Backing up Your Marketing Strategy

Video advertising can either be done as a standalone marketing activity or as part of a larger strategy. But the better you integrate video into your overall marketing approach, the better your end results will be.

Think about the messaging your audience sees on your site, other ad campaigns they might be exposed to, and what your wider marketing strategy says about your brand. Video ads need to fit into this existing framework, support your wider goals and help present a coherent message about your business. And to do this, you're going to need a plan.

There are five core areas to consider when it comes to planning your video ads:

What's the goal?

Are you looking to increase awareness? Drive higher engagement? Boost conversions? Setting what you want to get from video advertising is the first step to achieving it. Be sure it aligns with your other marketing objectives and can be measured through metrics.

Who's your audience?

Your audience isn't necessarily everyone who might buy your products or services, and your goal isn't to "go viral". Be clear on which segments of your target audience you'll be going after. Use buyer personas if you have then. And make sure you know enough about your audience, what kinds of content they enjoy, influencers they listen to, where they spend time online, to create ads that resonate.

What's the message?

You've got things to communicate. Your audience has things they care about. You need to combine the two into a message that will generate the desired thoughts and feelings in your viewers so they take the action you need to achieve your goals. Keep this simple, what's one thing your ad needs to get across?

Where are your distributing?

You should select advertising channels based on where you're most likely to reach your target audience. The ones you pick will affect your campaign from budget to creative, so make up your mind early. Narrow it down to those that will get you the best ROI.

What's the budget?

How much are you prepared to spend? What's your goal worth to you and what do you realistically need to put forward to achieve it? Use past advertising data as a benchmark if you can, or recent industry stats otherwise.

Download our guide to running video advertising campaigns for a more in-depth explanation of these key strategic areas.

2. Craft the Creative to Entertain, Inspire or Educate

Now you've got your plan, it's time to flex your creative muscles and put together some engaging and effective video content.

To do this well you need to think about how you can attract your audience, appeal to their values, and get your message across through visuals, sound and emotion, all while meeting the requirements of your chosen channels. Plus you need to create the right emotional state in viewers to encourage them to take your desired action. No pressure!

There's also a lot out there vying for your audience's attention. You'll have every web page, news article, and viral video on the internet to contend with. Your adverts must offer something truly valuable, otherwise viewers aren't going to waste their time (or they'll feel frustrated for being forced to).

When it comes down to it, your video needs to do one of the following:

• Entertain
• Inspire
• Educate

In short, you've got to offer something worth watching. Start by using visual elements to grab your audience's eye: with motion, contrast or human faces you can create a video viewers will feel compelled to watch in the very first seconds. Once they're paying attention, you've got to hook their hearts.

What you need is an emotional hook. Something that will make them feel the way you laid out in your plan. This is where your understanding of your audience really pays off; if you know their passions, hopes and fears, you can create adverts that will resonate genuinely with them. Use whatever insights you have into your ideal buyers to craft meaningful, valuable content.

Finally, end your ad on a clear and simple Call-to-Action. Don't waste all the goodwill you've built up, make it obvious to your audience what you want them to do next.

Our guide to running video advertising campaigns goes into more detail on the specifics of creating effective video ads for YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and the Google Display Network (and has examples of real adverts to inspire you).

3. Spread Your Content with Smart Distribution

You're at the final hurdle now. The last task is to carry out your distribution plan and actually set up some ads.

Running online video advertising campaigns requires care, dedication and attention to detail. Past the initial setup, they need to be managed and optimised, and the right metrics must be tracked so you can measure your success and build on it in the future.

To get the most from your adverts you must be clever with your targeting, use the right form of ad placement based on your audience research, and balance your campaign budget based on what you're looking to achieve.

Here are our four basic rules when it comes to distributing video ads:

• Be as specific as you can with your audience targeting. It generally pays to be narrow rather than broad as you're less likely to waste money and more likely to get the best results possible from leads you really care about. The one exception is if you're looking to achieve pure reach. You'll be able to target your ads through demographics, retargeting data, keywords and content.
• As we stressed at the beginning of this post, you should keep in mind how your ads are impacting your wider marketing efforts. Your brand presence should be consistent and clear. If the way you're communicating with your audience changes in other areas, you need to update your video ads too.
• Not able to create videos specifically for advertising? Put your existing video content to the test organically, for example on Facebook. Whichever video gets the best results is the one you should put spend behind. You're investing in what has already proven itself.
• Always keep optimising, tweaking and learning. Don't just rely on best practices: learn what works for your business or brand, in your industry and to your audience. Reassess frequently. Do more of what works and less of what doesn't.

Read our guide to running video advertising campaigns for specific tips on setting up ads across YouTube, the Google Display Network, Facebook and Instagram.

Round-Up: Connect to Leads Through the Funnel with Video Advertising

With these three stages you've got to grips with the basics of setting up a powerful, potent video advertising campaign.

But there's a lot more to know about the specifics of each advertising platform, how to resonate with your audience across multiple channels, and the best ways to handle the nitty-gritty of setting up your campaigns.

Our comprehensive guide to video advertising, which we sensibly call How to Run a Video Advertising Campaign, covers all of these topics and more. It also includes outstanding examples of real video ads to get your creative juices flowing. Download it now to take your campaigns to the next, more advanced, level.