Video Marketing: Create an Effective Ad for TV Advertising

GoDRTV is a Video Marketing company in LA and our specialty is producing marketing videos for products and services and placing ads on national TV. With streaming services such as Netflix, some might say that TV advertising is becoming less relevant. However, national TV is still considered a mega phone from the highest mountain as our friend Jeffery Goddard from TVA says and can be an incredibly effective way to reach a large audience.

Creating Effective Ads

There is a method to the madness or rather the EFFECTIVENESS of a national television campaign. Below, we have put together some tips to consider when you’re getting to ready to advertise on Television.

Know Your Audience

Understand your audience. That is key to creating an effective ad. Here are some questions to consider as you outline the perfect audience for your campaign. Answering these questions will help you create an ad that resonates with your target audience.

• Who are you trying to reach?
• What are their needs and wants?
• What motivates them?Answering these questions will help you create an ad that resonates with your target audience.

Keep your Ad Short & Sweet

• Television ads are typically only 30 seconds to a minute long.
• In this short amount of time, you need to grab the viewer’s attention and convey your message.
• Keep it simple and focused.

Make It Memorable

• Strong Video Marketing should make an impression and be memorable
• Infuse your marketing video with creativity, humor, or a catchy tagline to help your ad stand out.

Showcase Your Product or Service

• After your initial hook, your Marketing Video should kick it into high gear as it reviews your product’s benefits and features and all the ways it will make your audience’s quality of life.
• Answer this important question: How is your product unique?
• Have an irresistible offer! Or don’t mention money at all. We had a client who was selling a high-priced BBQ grill shaped like a race car engine. Leaving the price point on the marketing video resulted in disappointing leads. After removing the price from the ad, their number of calls increased to 3,500 per week!

Placing Your Ads on TV

Once you have your Marketing Ads are ready to go, the next step is to buy media and place them on TV! But where do you start? Here are some tips to consider before you buy media:

Tip #1 – Test with Online Marketing!

• Placing ads on national TV can be expensive, and you don’t want to figure out what works and doesn’t in the TV arena. For this reason, we recommend that you start with some online marketing. This could include Social Media, Google Adwords, Youtube, etc. The reason is multifold! Online Marketing will help you refine your messaging, your offer and also your website landing page! You will also get a much better understanding of your target audience and the buyers that are most responsive to your product. Once you are equipped with a polished ad, offer and bug-free landing page, you are ready for primetime!

Tip #2 – Do a Two-Week Test on National TV

We take a crawl, walk, run approach to media buying. We recommend a 2-week national test to gauge the viability of the product for Television and the networks that have been chosen for the campaign. This 2-week test will generally cost $25,000-$50,000 for 100-150 National TV spots.

Case Study: For one of our clients, we kept testing for an entire year. Their return on ad spend averaged about $2-$5. In other words, they would gross $2-$5 for every $1 spent on advertising. During the testing, we discovered a lot of networks that delivered a lot of sales but other networks didn’t. Once we had a long list of bullet-proof networks that had historically brought in sales, our client rolled out and is now averaging a ROAS of $7.

Tip #2 – Effective Ads Choose Effective Channels

• As mentioned above, it’s integral to choose the right networks to reach your target audience.  We work with all of the TV networks that you know and love and much more. Here are just a few examples of the TV networks that we work with.
• Do some research on which channels have the highest viewership for your target demographic. At GoDRTV, not only do we research the networks by demographic, but we also have tools that tell us about similar brands and their TV campaigns. In other words, it’s not a guessing game! We can piggy-back on competitors’ trials-and-error to know what networks work for them and test those networks for your ad.

Tip #3 – Schedule Your Ads

As you can see, there are a lot of pieces that have to come together to create a successful TV campaign. One of those elements is TIMING. Determine the best times to air your video ads based on your audience’s viewing habits.

For example, if your target audience consists of stay-at-home parents, you might want to air your ads during the day. If your product is a sleeping pill, you may want to air between midnight and 6am.

Our team of expert media buyers can help you develop a strong TV campaign.

Tip #4 – Monitor Your Results

This goes without saying, but it’s important to analyze your results! How di your ads perform, which dayparts and networks did best? There are plenty of methods to figure out which networks and times or even offers brought the most calls or visits to the website.

If your call-to-action is an 800 number, you can associate a specific  number to a network and you can get as granular as you’d like. Some campaigns have dozens if not hundreds of 800 numbers. Or your sales rep can simply ask the caller which network the ad appeared on.

Then there is web attribution! Sure, you can promote different landing pages on different ad variations, but there are two easier ways to do attribution for web leads. The first is PROMO CODES. For example, an that appears on Fox could offer FOX911 as a promo code to receive 10% off. Another method of attribution and probably the most accurate is using an attribution tool which monitors the level of activity on your website and associates it with the exact times your ads are schedule to air on Television.

Use this information to make tweaks to your media buy and improve your ads’ performance during the next round.

Examples of Effective Video Marketing Ad Campaigns

As you know, Video can be an incredibly effective tool in reaching large audiences and driving sales! Here are some fun video campaigns that used humor and creativity to make for very successful campaigns:

1. Dollar Shave Club:
   In 2012, Dollar Shave Club launched a video marketing ad on that quickly went viral on youtube and was viewed by millions. The video features Michael Dubin who is the CEO of the company as he walks through the warehouse and delivering a fun pitch for the company’s subscription service. Within just 48 hours, Dollar Shave Club’s video marketing had garnered 12,000 online orders! Eventually, the company would be bought out for $1 billion.

2. Old Spice:
   I’m sure you have seen this Old Spice commercial that aired in 2010 pushing the company’s sales through the roof! Featuring Isaiah Mustafa, this series of humorous and quirky videos went viral overnight contributing to one of the most successful campaigns ever!  The result was an instant 107% sales increase and a 55% boost to the web traffic.

3. Blendtec:
   “Will it blend?” was the theme of a series of videos released by Blendtec in 2006! You could not tear your eyes away from the company’s founder blending various objects to see if the Blendtec blender would, well… blend them! The videos kick started a massive success streak for the brand resulting in a 700% in sales!

What are types of TV advertising?

Here are some of the most common types of TV Video Marketing:

• Traditional short-form commercials:
  These are the types of Video Marketing ads that you will see most often. They range from 15 to 120 seconds and introduce a brand new product to audiences. At GoDRTV, we generally produce a :120 second infomercial, then cut it down to a :60 sec and :30 sec ads that we add into the rotation after one month to increase frequency.
• Long-Form Infomercial video ads:
  Long-form infomercials typically run 28.5 minutes and are used to sell more complex products that may need 3D animation or a series of testimonials.
• Product placement ad:
  If you have ever seen a product in a film or TV show, that is most likely a product placement that the brand paid the producers for. You will see the product integrated into the story and is often clearly featured.

• Sponsorship ad:
  “This programming is brought to you by…” is what you will hear as these types of ads appear, generally right before or at the end of a commercial break.

How much does TV advertising cost?

When you’re doing Video Marketing, the cost of TV advertising varies depending a few factors, including the following:

1. Daypart:
   That’s another way of saying the time your ads will air. Ads that are scheduled during primetime are generally more expensive than those ads that air in the wee hours of the night. However, Prime time isn’t always the best time depending on your product. If you’re selling a sleeping pill, you would probably consider overnight placements to reach an audience who is still awake.
2. The Length of your ad:
   Longer ads are generally more expensive than shorter ads. The cost of a :60 second ad is generally half of a :120 sec ad. The cost of a :30 is half of a :60, and so on and so forth.
3. TV Network:
   NBC, CBS and ABC are broadcast networks and are a lot more expensive than Cable Networks such as Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, E! Entertainment, DIY, etc.
4. Audience reach:
   Ad campaigns with a bigger reach cost more! Targeting a bigger audience is generally more expensive than a campaign that targets a smaller audience. Cable TV can cost as low as $25 in a small city with 40,000 households or $250 per spot on a national Cable network. The cost of a TV ad on a Broadcast network could range from a few thousand and up. Of course, placing an ad during Super Bowl is a different ball game.

Generally, TV advertising can cost anywhere from thousands of dollars  dollars to several million dollars, depending on the items listed above. However, as an agency that has been buying media for over a decade, we will be able to negotiate better rates for you or your clients and most likely even get you bonus ads by leveraging our relationships with TV networks.

How much does it cost to produce a TV Commercial?

The cost of producing a TV commercial can range widely depending on a few factors, including the length of the ad, the complexity of the production, location, and the talent involved. Creating an animation video that was done entirely through a software will likely cost a lot less than a production requiring cast, crew, equipment and location rentals and permits.

Here are some estimates to give you an idea of what to expect:

1. Local TV commercial:
   A 30-sec local TV ad can cost anywhere from $1,500 to $10,000 depending on some of the factors listed above.
2. Regional TV commercial:
   A short-form Regional TV commercial, generally ranging from :30-:60 seconds will typically cost between $10,000 and $50,000 depending on the same factors.
3. National TV commercial:
   A regional TV commercial can typically be used for a National campaign but if you are going to be seen across the nation, you want to make the best impression on your audiences. If you take the animation rate, a National spot could cost between $10,000 and $25,000 whereas a Live Action National Ad could go from $50,000 to $500,000 or more to produce.

All of the estimates above are just that! Estimates! The actual cost of producing a TV commercial can vary greatly depending on your specific Video Marketing needs.

As an experienced video production company, we can work with you to understand you goals and budget and develop a production plan that meets your needs while staying within your budget. Contact us so we can create an effective Video Marketing campaign for you!

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