A cord cutter is one of 7.6 million households in the U.S. that has chosen to sever relationships with cable and satellite TV services in favor of online offerings. This is the new normal. Traditional media is seeing a decline in subscribers as digital media offers more of what viewers and readers are looking for, in a much more convenient, interactive format.
By some accounts, we spend as much as half our waking hours interacting with media of some kind. While the majority of that time used to be television, recent studies show that a combination of desktop computers, smart phones and tablets have become the leader in time spent with media. A lot of that time is spent watching videos.
YouTube is the fourth-most-visited website in the world, with more than four billion views per day. From how-to videos to product research, people are using YouTube to enrich their lives. Knowing that this is what your YouTube audience expects, plan your video content accordingly. Entertain, inform, and educate.
That’s great, right? In the case of a dealership, it allows us to be more competitive because we can take the power of commercials and video to the people. We no longer have to hope that next Monday at 8:16pm our commercial will be watched instead of used as an opportunity to grab another soda.
The beauty of shifting our TV dollars to video pre-roll is, compared to its traditional video counterpart TV, pre-roll allows us to have confirmed targeting methods, viewership analytics, and is more cost effective for a dealership of any size.
Even if you have a small ad budget, pre-roll can allow you to compete with all the noise created by larger dealers because you don’t have to worry that your TV frequency isn’t high enough to compete without thousands of dollars.
Video advances brand discovery and consideration. If you need a Hard Fact to be able to make the switch, how about these:
- Online video was the #1 format for encouraging brand consideration;
- 57% watching videos online helped introduce audiences to new brands;
- 47% first heard about cars/trucks by watching online videos;
- 65% were able to narrow down options after watching a video.
You already know that the research process kicks off online. That’s why your dealership is consistently trying to dominate through website content, paid search and social media. But when reviewing the ad types that prompted consumers to start researching, video ads place second only to direct mail. Google found that shoppers took action, using a computer to find out more information, visiting the dealership or searching a store’s inventory. All things we attribute to TV today. Digital isn’t replacing your lot ups: It’s driving traffic to your digital showroom and to your lot.
You know the why but here are the Cardinal Rules for Success:
- Define your goal and audience;
- A good TV commercial is not a good pre-roll video;
- Don’t make a commercial, make a video that has one message, one call to action;
- Your first five seconds should captivate the audience;
- Do something interesting and different; don’t aim to make a viral video — it doesn’t work that way;
- Your graphics should match your voiceover but each should be able to stand alone;
- Tell them, tell them what you told them and tell them again.
An additional recommendation would be to run a companion ad with any pre-roll video. This will allow you to serve an ad to the user once they have watched or skipped your video, increasing your opportunity to convert.
HOW TO RUN IT?
Options here are your friend. You can run video pre-roll through Google or through third parties who integrate with streaming TV networks. Both of these options allow for highly targeted campaigns, allowing us to ensure we are targeting users based on their digital body language, third party data, demographic and location.
Again, if you have a small ad budget, pre-roll allows you to compete with larger dealers at a fraction of the cost of traditional TV commercials because the level of TV frequency isn’t a consideration.
So, run pre-roll all the time. I can say this confidently because we can segment each campaign and create unique goals and audiences allowing for success with video. If your goal is to drive more brand awareness — great! You can raise awareness by running a campaign targeting users who have an interest in new vehicles and have shopped competitors through interest and contextual targeting. Looking to get those users who visited your SRP page but haven’t converted? No problem. You can create segmented retargeting lists and serve pre-roll ads to drive traffic back to your website.
Now do it. Cut the cord and begin a video pre-roll campaign today. Shift your dollars to a more targeted medium and drive traffic into your showroom.
