How to Make an Attention-Grabbing Video Advert

An advert is a great way to get your brand out there and drum up some new business. Video is also one of the most effective ways to engage with an audience in a time when there is more content than ever vying for their attention. Here’s how to make a video advert that will get your brand noticed.

You might be tempted to dive straight in and start shooting your ad as soon as possible, but to make a great video advert, you need to make sure you give enough time to preproduction. This includes all the necessary preparation before any shooting begins.

Having a rough idea of the story you want to tell isn’t enough. You need to write a script, draw up some storyboards, create a shot list, and secure your actors, locations and any props or hires you need.

This will save you time during the shoot and reduces the likelihood of delays and on-set problems that will cost you time and money.

An actor’s performance can be the difference between an advert looking professional or amateurish, and seeing as your brand is what’s being represented, you want to aim for the former.

Your employees might be just the people you need to act in your advert if you are shooting a candid behind the scenes or brand video, but if you are filming a scripted narrative, then it’s best to hire real actors.

Make the first few seconds of your video count. Adverts shouldn’t be very long anyway, but to make a video advert that grabs your audience’s attention, the first few seconds are crucial, otherwise they may well zone out for the rest of the runtime.

This means your advert should begin with something exciting or intriguing, jumping straight into the action. Even if you are building to a big reveal at the end of the advert, the first few seconds need to create enough intrigue to stick around for that reveal.

The platform your video advert will be shown on will likely determine how long it needs to be, and you may get more time on certain channels, but it’s a good rule of thumb to keep the ad short and sweet.

Your audience’s attention is limited and ads already take them away from their primary activity (such as watching a show or scrolling their social feeds). So, you need to make sure that you get your point across as succinctly as possible, and leave a positive, lasting impression that drives them to actively seek you out or follow your call to action to discover more.

A call to action (CTA) guides your audience to the next steps you want them to take. This could be to contact you by phone or email to learn more about your services, visit your website and browse a collection, or sign up to your mailing list.

Whatever your CTA is, make sure it is included in your video advert at least once so that your audience can easily follow it. If it makes sense to show it halfway through the advert, it is worth repeating it at the end.

Just as you need to give plenty of time to preproduction, the postproduction process cannot be rushed either if you want to make an impactful video advert. Postproduction is not just about cutting your footage together. You also need to implement transitions, colour correction and colour grading, sound mixing and music, to name a few.

The editing stage is really where you make your advert look and feel professional, which can be the difference between your audience engaging with you or moving on.  

The simplest way to hit all of the above points is to hire a professional videographer. A videographer can help you to plan your project, put together your script and storyboards, shoot the advert in a sleek, professional manner, and edit the footage so that you have a final advert that stands out among the sea of content that is vying for your audience’s attention.

If you need professional videography or editing services to make your video advert, please get in touch, we’ll be happy to help!