By now we know (and see) it, videos are everywhere and are central to web marketing and social media marketing strategies.
Even more so if the videos are for promoting something: institutional videos, advertising and promotional videos in general .
The fundamental premise, which everyone clashes with, is that videos are not created in a few minutes, they require a significant investment of time (and not only) .
This is also why it is important to carefully study this communication channel and understand it thoroughly, so as to give the online video ideation and creation phase the space it deserves in your communication strategy.
If you want to learn more about the importance of videos and the effectiveness of this format in your social strategies, we talked about it here: Social Video: a Must Have for Social Media Marketing .
With the usual pragmatism, in this article we will see some advice and also software and apps to create online videos, promotional and otherwise : the goal is to help you create quality content that attracts your ideal target audience.
You’ll learn how to make engaging, trend-driven videos that capture your audience’s attention while improving your online presence.
Summary [ hide ]
1 How to Create an Attention-Grabbing Video Ad for Social Media (and More)
1.1 1. What message do you want to convey?
1.2 2. Find, understand and connect with your audience
1.3 3. Research the hottest trends
1.4 4. Enhance images and cover of your videos; pay attention to the formats
1.5 5. Light rhythms and short tempos
1.6 6. Pay attention to the rules of advertising channels for video and image content
2 Programs and Apps to create videos of any kind, for social media and beyond
2.1 Professional Video Creation with DaVinci Resolve
2.2 Create Simple Videos Online with Canva
2.3 An app to create videos from your smartphone? Here is Capcut
2.3.1 Conclusions – Creating Advertising, Corporate or Personal Videos for Social Media
How to Create an Attention-Grabbing Video Ad for Social Media (and More)
Before talking about some of the best programs and apps for creating videos, I think it is useful to start from the previous phase, that of ideation .
As in many other areas that concern the world of marketing and digital, also in this case, a careful analysis of data (not only numerical) is essential to create videos that “capture” the user.
To do this, there are some useful tips to keep in mind during the various stages of video creation.
1. What message do you want to convey?
At the first point, think about the message , the concept , the set of values or solutions that you want to convey.
They will need to be summarized in a few seconds or a few minutes of video, so you will need to be very clear about the aspects you want to convey,with which words, with which images and with which underlying style.
2. Find, understand and connect with your audience
On every social platform, you can get data about your followers’ location, age range, gender, and often even information about their jobs, interests, and education.
But don’t stop at the data alone, we are still human beings with a thousand nuances.
If you want to create truly engaging videos , you need to think about the problems people are trying to solve or the goals they have. This advice, while trivial when you think about it, applies to any marketing content.
3. Research the hottest trends
Trend research is one of the key points in the video creation process along with target research.
Why? For two main reasons:
1. Because we understand hot topics , even in specific industries.
2. Because we are also able to capture trending styles and expressive modalities .
There are different ways to do this, such as using tools or social media listening (listening to conversations on social media) .
Some of the most used tools are:
Google Trends : Google’s platform that allows you to observe the past, present and future trends of topics and words.
Exploding Topics : This tool gives you insights into the specific time period and focuses everything on your chosen topic.
SeoZoom, SemRush, UberSuggest: these are all SEO tools that allow you to analyze the trend and searches carried out online and understand the most interesting topics.
Social media listening is another approach to uncovering new trends to use in video creation and can be done in several ways:
# Analysis : you can do it on Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter, Youtube and even on Facebook; just enter a word in the search bar and a search window will appear with the most popular content by topic, with related hashtags. If you want to learn more about the hashtag theme, you can find our article here .
Pinterest Trends : The homepage shows the latest trends on Pinterest divided by sector and country, with the possibility of deepening them in a graph over a period of up to 12 months. Another interesting thing is the visualization of the trends through a collage of images.
pinterest trends – video creation trend research
4. Enhance images and cover of your videos; pay attention to formats
We are human and as such we are visual beings . We are attracted by beauty, we are captured by captivating images and only then we use the focus that the visual impact has generated to get a better idea of the message.
For this reason, creating a cover image that breaks up the sometimes very monotonous social feed will attract users’ attention, guaranteeing a few more seconds of time for the video.
To do this, you can play with high-contrast colors , images of absurd or paradoxical scenes, or by using a clear title that attracts interested parties (obviously staying within the limits of your brand communication).
Also always pay great attention to video formats: keep in mind the formats to respect, based on which channels you want to use to convey the videos.
5. Light rhythms and short tempos
Most people spend time on social media to unplug and take a break from the outside world, so you need to find a light and engaging pace for your communication.
Humor, emotional storytelling, trash, irreverence, it all depends on you and your brand’s tone of voice.
Another issue to consider is the duration . There is nothing absolute, a lot depends on the platform on which the video will go , if you already have a solid fan base or not, if you are thinking of something to approach new potential followers or if you are creating videos for your fans.
For example on Facebook the ideal duration is under a minute. Meta also says that videos around 3 minutes are not penalized by the algorithm, despite this we must consider people and their attention, in the end they are the ones who define the success of the content.
An important aspect, if anything, is to be able to surprise and attract already in the first 3/4 seconds of the video : it is the fundamental moment to hold the user’s attention, inducing him to continue watching.
6. Pay attention to advertising channel rules for video and image content
In ads on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, etc… but also in Google Ads or Bing Ads, there are various rules that limit the start or continuation of advertising campaigns , which focus in particular on videos and images in ads.
Let’s do some easy examples:
Before and afters are usually prohibited in campaigns for aesthetic medicine, cosmetic surgery, diet programs, etc. In general, before and afters are banned from advertising platforms.
Videos and photos containing nudity, even partial.
Videos and photos containing people consuming alcohol.
Etc…
There are so many scenarios: if you want to create an advertising video, make sure you check the rules first.
Read them carefully or you risk finding yourself with a video that is already made but unusable or needs to be heavily modified.
Here are some useful links:
Google Ads Policies
Meta Ads Policy
LinkedIn Ads Guidelines
Pinterest Ads Guidelines
TikTok Branded Content Policy and TikTok Community Guidelines
General Twitter Content Rules
Programs and Apps to create videos of any kind, for social media and beyond
Now that we have seen some concepts to understand and remember to create videos that work, we can look at some programs and apps to create videos, even if you are a novice.
Professional Video Creation with DaVinci Resolve
davinci – video making programs
This is one of the most famous and appreciated programs for creating videos (together with its colleague Premier Pro from Adobe), so much so that the premium version is also used for some Hollywood productions.
There are several reasons why DaVinci Resolve has become famous :
The interface is simple and intuitive (for basic editing functions).
Its phenomenal color correction department .
The dedicated audio section with a mixer for effects and top-notch processing.
The “Fusion” tab to add effects worthy of the best movies.
DaVinci Resolve can be used for both complex projects and simple Instagram Reels, thanks to the many features that this video creation program offers.
Create Simple Videos Online With Canva
Canva – create videos online
If you are looking for something quick to create videos online or if you are a beginner and want to take a step into this world, to see if you like it and if you can produce something decent, Canva might be for you.
Well known for all its graphic creation features, Canva also allows you to edit or create videos from scratch while maintaining the benefits that have made this simple and intuitive web app famous.
First of all, if you don’t have an account you will have to register, the basic version is free and already allows you to create online videos suitable for social media.
Once registered, it will take very little:
Create a new project.
Select one of the templates from Canva’s library.
Upload a video or choose from those already present on the web app.
Make any changes you want / add text, effects and various animations.
Export the video.
An app to create videos from your smartphone? Here is Capcut
capcut – video maker app
Capcut is the official Tik Tok app for creating videos. In fact, it is owned by the same parent company and thanks to this connection, it is also one of the most famous on smartphones for video editing.
Capcut’s main feature is to make it easy to edit short clips in vertical format, with the ability to retouch footage that was recorded in 4K and HDR.
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