No Videos? No Problem: Facebook Turns Still Images into Video Ads

Facebook wants advertisers to know they can run mobile video ads even if they don't have video. How's that work? Simple: Still images can become engaging video ads. No videos? No problem.

If it sounds like some kind of Ken Burns pan-and-scan effect, it's not. Facebook's Creative Shop has come up with an approach called Create to Convert that lets brands turn static ads into far-more-compelling video ads for mobile viewers. The video below shows how Creative Shop can combine a few still images with animation and a call-to-action to make highly effective video ads.

Facebook describes four ways it can turn images into animations: by adding basic motion (animated images with one or two elements of motion), brand in motion (building brand recognition by animating a brand or logo), benefit in motion (animating a product benefit or discount), and demo in motion (explaining how a product, service, or site works).

How effective are these ads? Facebook did studies with 49 brands using basic motion effects, and saw positive improvements for 69 percent of them. In one test, Shopback used a Create to Convert video and saw a 5.5x improvement to conversions and a 5.7x lower cost for registrations as compared to still ads. When brands ran both still ads and video ads, they got a 17 percent lift in conversions compared to using only still ads and no videos.

"We need to design mobile-first ad creative, however, one size does not fit all," says Kim Weiner, Shuttlerock's vice president of North America. "Finding the balance between speed, quality, and scale of video production can be extraordinarily difficult. We've found that by partnering with Facebook on creative considerations for lightweight video we can eliminate some of those barriers to deliver value for both people and businesses."

View Facebook's blog post for more examples of how Convert to Create can turn display images into attractive mobile video ads.

https://www.facebook.com/marketing/videos/1664241670370506/

Troy Dreier's article first appeared on OnlineVideo.net