Anyone wanting to experiment with video ads should take a look at YouTube’s Video Builder, a neat tool designed expressly for this purpose. It’s been around for a while, but hasn’t been publicised that widely, and you need to apply to use it.
YouTube describes it as: “An easy, fast and free way to turn your images and marketing messages into compelling, high impact video ads. Each video created through video builder has been designed to meet a high bar for creative quality. We also make it easy for you to follow YouTube’s guidelines for effective ads.”
After selecting a layout and adding your brand colour and logo, “the fun begins”. A storyboard panel helps construct your story and shows how your images and text will map to different points in the video. When entering images it will recommend the right style size and orientation, and for text it will recommend the right amount for each field, all based on YouTube’s creative guidelines “and your layout’s pacing and structure”. Choose a font and some music, and you’re done.
It makes sense for Google/YouTube to put resources into making it easy to create simple ads, and they appear to have done so here. It’s an increasingly worthwhile medium to be investigating, even in professional business marketing.