In a recent post, we explained a significant strategy change that the enCOMPASS team has been advocating for all our TV clients. This year, we’re recommending that those who’ve been investing their marketing dollars in TV commercials shift some of that money (as much as 50 percent) to pre-roll advertising—essentially, the little clips that run before a video begins online.

Why Focus on Pre-Roll?

There are many reasons behind this, starting with the fact that, in an election year, buying TV ad space is going to get more expensive—and there’s a high risk that your ad will be pre-empted. Pre-roll offers a better value and also better opportunities for specific targeting and lead capturing. In short, it’s just a superior way to get bang for your buck.

All of this hinges on one important premise, though—simply put, your pre-roll ad strategy has to be good. That doesn’t just mean high-quality ads, either. It also means ads that are targeted, tracked, and measured correctly. Actually constructing an effective pre-roll ad takes some skill and some planning. We’ve got a few tips to share that will hopefully prove helpful to you as you seek to develop an effective pre-roll advertising strategy.

How to Get Results with Pre-Roll?

Consider timing. How long should your pre-roll ad be? What we normally recommend is either 15 or 30 seconds, depending on the messaging; given the realities of online attention spans, exceeding this limit can be risky. Note that enCOMPASS only buys non-skippable ads and therefore we only pay for ads that are watched all the way through—one of the reasons why pre-roll, when done well, can generate such a significant return on investment.

Quality matters. With pre-roll, you’re investing your advertising dollars in a medium that could make or break customers’ first impressions of your brand. The last thing you want to do is come across as amateurish or unprofessional. Investing in high-quality production and visual effects is necessary, and these days can also be surprisingly affordable.

Include a call to action. With written online content, the call to action is integral. You’d never make a landing page or PPC ads that didn’t include a strong, compelling call to action. For some reason, though, people tend to forget about the CTA as they construct video ads. Don’t make that mistake. Have a clear idea of the action you want your viewers to take, and encourage them to take it.

Don’t forget to target. Targeting is one of the things that makes pre-roll advertising so effective, so don’t neglect it! Note that it’s important to target the online user based on more than just demographic data. Instead, users should be targeted on their likelihood to be interested in your product, their online behaviors, and their viewing habits. For example, if your customer is a fanatic sports fan wouldn’t it make sense to make sure your pre-roll ads are showing on sports news websites?

Analyze. Finally, make sure you pair your pre-roll ads with strong analytics. Ideally, you’ll even have tracking codes within your ads, allowing you to follow viewers from the ad to your website to see exactly how they respond to the content. enCOMPASS also prioritizes “post impression” data—people who see your ad and don’t click on it, but do end up on your website. This data is key for gauging the effect of your pre-roll strategy.

By following all these steps, you can develop an effective structure for your pre-roll ads—but all of it is meaningless without strong creative content. To marry creativity and strategy, you’ll need the help of an agency. We’d love to talk with you about that, so don’t hesitate to give us a call today.