$2500 Worth of Tests Demonstrate Better Reach, Reactions, and Views for Video on Instagram over Facebook, and Further Reach, More Clicks, and Lower CPCs on Instagram Videos over Carousel Ads

Ahead of Social Media Marketing World, Animoto, the company that makes it easy for anyone to create powerful and professional marketing videos, announced research that they conducted this month, testing the effectiveness of video ads on Instagram.

On Facebook’s Q4 2017 earnings call, it was announced that there are 2 million active advertisers on Instagram, and the mobile platform saw a 67 percent increase in business profiles between July and November. The announcement inspired Animoto to run a series of tests to learn more about how small businesses can stand out on Instagram.

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“What stood out to us most from the Facebook earnings call was that about two-thirds of visits to Instagram business profiles are from people who aren’t yet following these businesses. It’s clear that there’s an opportunity for small businesses to use Instagram to attract new customers, and we wanted to learn more about how they can succeed on the platform,” said Jason Hsiao, co-founder & Chief Video Officer, Animoto.

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Test Results

Animoto ran $2500 worth of ads aimed at gathering learnings to help their customers succeed with social video. In a $1300 test, they worked with 3 small businesses from different industries to create carousel ads as well as videos using the same photos as the carousel ads. They discovered that the videos consistently outperformed carousel ads in terms of clicks, reach, and cost per click (CPC):

• CPC was nearly 50 percent cheaper for video
• Reach was up to 18X greater for video
• Clicks were up to 60X greater

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Animoto also ran $1200 worth of tests pinning Facebook video ads against Instagram video ads. They found that for the same amount of money they saw further reach, more views, and more post reactions on Instagram:

• 2X reach on Instagram
• 2.3X more 10-second views
• 2.6X more 30-second views
• 10X more post reactions

In addition to testing, in an effort to unlock Instagram advertising opportunities for small businesses that might not have a lot of video marketing know-how or assets, Animoto launched square aspect ratio last March, and a new quote feature this month. Square videos take up 78% more screen space than landscape and have proven to get more engagement than landscape videos. The recently launched quote feature enables businesses to easily create shareworthy inspirational videos, testimonials, and more with minimal assets and input.

Also Read: Animoto Survey Reinforces the Importance of Videos for Brands and Consumers

Small Business Advertising Success Stories on Instagram

“Facebook has continued to disrupt the video advertising landscape. It was only a few years ago that video advertising was cost prohibitive for small businesses as the only way to play used to be television ads with high production value and cost. But social media has changed all that. Since launching our Animoto Marketing video builder in 2016, we have seen thousands of customers proving success with Facebook video advertising. And in the last few months, we’ve seen a rapidly increasing number of customers having big wins on Instagram as well,” said Animoto co-founder & CEO, Brad Jefferson.

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Animoto customer Click N’ Curl saw a 48 percent increase in sales after spending $100 on a square video ad they created. “We are so pleased with the results of Animoto’s Marketing product. During the time of the campaigns, we saw an increase in referrals and sales and were approached to be featured in two major publications. We look forward to creating more videos with Animoto,” said Kim Nimsgern, creator of Click N’ Curl.

Animoto customer Cupcake Market ran an A/B test of landscape video vs. square video on Instagram. The square video received 40% more views. Their Instagram account also got over 400 new followers during the campaign. Running the ad on Facebook and Instagram concurrently, they also attracted the attention of a large distributor, press, and saw a 700% increase in orders.

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