Video continues to dominate digital marketing, especially on Facebook. More than 8 billion videos are viewed on the platform every day, with the average user spending 26 minutes per day just watching videos. Other platforms are seeing similar affinities for video, with the average person spending 18 hours per week watching videos across all platforms.
And more good news for marketers: 85% of online video viewers want to see more video content from businesses! Combined, these stats make a compelling case for adding in-stream video advertising to your strategy.
Definition: In-Stream Video Advertising
In-stream video advertising is like a video within a video. Brands can create video ads that play before or during other video content—but not just any video content.
For instance, Facebook’s in-stream video advertising program only allows in-stream ads for a select group of publishers and content creators, and they ensure that those videos don’t compete with your own (they call them “brand-safe videos”).
In-Stream Video vs. Facebook Video: What’s the Difference?
If you’re using Facebook in your video marketing strategy, you may have noticed there are two types of videos for paid advertising: in-stream video and Facebook video.
Paid Facebook video ads show up in a user’s newsfeed. These are standalone ads that start playing as a user scrolls through their feed. They’re also displayed as being promoted by your brand’s page.
In-stream video ads play within another brand or creator’s video, either pre-roll or mid-roll. They’re also much shorter in length, usually lasting 5-15 seconds. By comparison, news feed video ads might last up to 240 minutes!
Last but not least, in-stream videos and newsfeed videos usually serve different purposes. In-stream videos offer fewer campaign objectives: audience reach, engagement, views, and brand awareness. Newsfeed videos give you more options, such as lead gen or website click-throughs, but marketers know that more isn’t always better. In fact, you might say that the “limitations” of in-stream video ads are what makes them so powerful.
What Can In-Stream Video Ads Do?
As an advertiser, creating unique video content that’s personalized to a user’s interest makes it easier to connect and convert. Our video formula is pretty simple:
- Long-Form = Deeper Connections
- Short-Form = Instant Entertainment
Facebook users approach the platform with a discovery mindset. They want to learn about new brands, products, and ideas. And when these things are presented in a visual, easily digestible format, in-stream videos have staying power.
Investing in short-form video content like in-stream video ads directly ties to your upper-funnel objectives. Your goal is to plant your brand, product, or idea into the minds of as many viewers as possible. Then, when you repurpose those videos in the feed and via Stories, your lower funnel also gets a boost.
We’ve put this exact strategy to work for other brands and have seen amazing results, like in this Facebook in-stream video case study.
Getting Started with In-Stream Video Advertising
The video marketing landscape has seen magnanimous shifts in the last several years, and we’re helping brands evolve with it. Reach out to Code3 to start infusing in-stream video advertising into your strategy, or check out our new In-Stream Video Guide to learn more.
