"TikTok-ification" Of Video Advertising

If your video ads have been stinking up the place recently, it's probably because you're still pushing direct response 100%.

I've been through almost every significant change with video ads there has ever been, so these days I can almost smell when a big change is on the horizon.

And every time they switch things up, I adapt and continue to dominate. This time will be no different because I'm already 3 steps ahead.

In the past I've mainly seen these changes affect YouTube ads the most, but this time around it's happening across the entire landscape of digital advertising.

The "TikTok-ification" of social media has disrupted the status quo and it's one of the biggest reasons why these recent digital advertising changes are taking place.

The rapid shift in the way people consume content plus the adoption of A.I., is mainly what's causing the majority of this.

And this is why I tell content creators who have mastered organic social they have ALL THE LEVERAGE. The days of pushing hardcore direct response video ads at the top of funnel is on it's way out (if not already).

To succeed in the future with video advertising, my take is that you'll have to think and operate like a content creator for your creatives to breakthrough.

Based on what I'm seeing now more than ever before, the algorithms are rewarding great content whether it's organic or ads.

My study of the algorithms show that they are treating both ads and organic content the same and no longer look at them through a separate lens.

The reason I believe this is true is because there's a war for attention happening. And my hunch is that every tech company is focused on doing everything in their power to either MAINTAIN or GAIN market share.

The truth is that low quality ads will drive people off their platform, and when that happens they lose money.

I believe they all understand how much leverage the general public has today in terms of options to feed their content consumption habits, so whether is ads or organic they know they gotta serve up what will keep users tapped in.

They all know they can no longer force programming down our throats anymore, which is why you see so many of the traditional media companies struggling right now.

TikTok in my opinon is the catalyst for this. Not the only reason, but I believe it's the thing that accelerated the process and pretty much all of media (both social and traditional) didn't see it playing this way so fast.

I could go on and on about all sorts of things because I really study this stuff deeply. But now I want to shift gears to what I want you to get out of all this.

I believe the next big thing in advertising is content amplification, and I'm already ahead of the curve on this (I actually made a video about this on my YouTube channel).

The feeling I have about content amplification and how much of an impact it will have on digital advertising in the next 5-10 years, is the same feeling I had way back when I realized that video was the next big thing (TV will be on the internet was the aha moment in 2012 that I went all in on).

So you can bet your ass(ets) that my focus now is all about creating ads that are as good as or better than organic content. Then on the back of the audiences that engage with those ads, push a direct response approach to drive action and conversion.

Soon I'm going to go a lot deeper on this and share some of what I've been up to, but for now I do want to share something that you can immediately implement.

Try this is you're already creating organic content...

1. Look at all your organic content that has performed well and make a list of the top 10%.
2. Then analyze the top 10% against the primary reasons your target audience is buying what you're selling.
3. Then once you have narrowed the list down from step 2, analyze them for congruency with the offer you're pushing with ads.
4. Then what you want to do is repurpose the list from step 3 and turn them into ads, then amplify them to your target audience at the top of funnel. When I say top of funnel, I'm referring to cold audiences that never heard of you that are your ideal prospects. But it also works for middle of funnel because many of them either have not seen your best stuff, or even if they have the reminder could trigger a positive reaction.
5. Then from the people who engage with the content you repurposed as ads, push the direct response creatives to that audience and drive them into your sales process.

One quick note...

Yes, you can still push them to your offer with the content that you repurpose and amplify with ads. One of my clients asked me this because she thought I was saying not to do so.

You always want to expose them to your offer when you're running ads, but the goal is not about measuring the performance of repurposed organic content purely based on how great they convert.

The point of why we do it like that is about building a larger audience that we can continue having conversations with over time so that eventually we get them to buy.

The data I have confirms that on average, less than 2% of the people you reach with ads the first time are actually ready to buy right away. Which means, the real money is in the follow up where the focus should be about getting a segment of that other 98% to trust you or your brand.

What we do is look at all of our ads holistically and measure the entire system using blended metrics that account for the full advertising funnel. Those are the metrics we want to use to make sure we're hitting our performance goals and advertising KPIs.

For our top of funnel ads we use for audience building, we still want to measure them for return on investment. But we already know we can afford to have higher acquisition costs at this stage because it's not a pure ROAS play. It's only one piece of a bigger puzzle so to speak.

Which is why repurposing well performing organic content into ads is working so well. Because those ads get much better reach compared to direct response, because the algorithms are getting the signals that tell them its high value content that their users enjoy.

Then of course because there's content being created consistently, a ton of the people who see those ads that aren't ready to buy will go down the rabbit hole of the organic content (if the content is any good).

With consistent organic content that delivers value to the audience, you can build a lot of trust. Which goes back to my original point about content creators who have figured out organic having all the leverage.

Once we build trust and they are ready to buy, those direct response ads convert like gangbusters and the ROI lifts up the entire thing such that our blended metrics hit our goals.

And when I say gangbusters, I'm seeing ROAS numbers that are mind numbing using this process. So in the background, I'm working towards becoming a better content creator myself so that I can sit that right on top of the foundation I've built over the years for what it takes to convert with ads.

If you were ever any good at consistently converting cold traffic, those skills still have a ton of value. You just gotta sit organic content creation on top of it and amplify the good stuff.

This is why you will see lots of brands lately bringing creators on to their teams and paying them handsomely. Because they already know what time it is.

Tommie

P.S. I have some new training coming soon, so signup here if you're interested: https://videoadsacademy.com/subscribe

And if you're so inclined, hit the comments or the DM and let me know what kind of training you need. It could help me better plan what I'm working on.