Three Common Mistakes Video Advertisers Make
Plus: Some fun (and funny) ways to fix them
If there were a board that certified professionals to diagnose and ‘cure’ video ads, I might have a “Dr.” in front of my name. That’s because in my career, I’ve easily analyzed and fixed dozens of commercials.
In many of these cases, I was asked by DR dilettantes to tell them why their commercial wasn’t delivering the performance metrics they were hoping it would. The answers weren’t always the same, but I have noticed a few common mistakes advertisers tend to make. Here are three of them.
1. Boring Openings
TikTok experts and other social media gurus might like to pretend they invented the “hook,” but the concept is much older than TikTok — or social media itself. In my basic formula for scripts that sell, I talk about starting commercials with a “painful problem.” Well, that’s just one form of hook that happens to work really well for direct marketers.
In general advertising, other forms of ‘hooking’ TV viewers are preferred. One of my favorite approaches is exemplified by Vonage’s “People Do Stupid Things” campaign, which won a Bronze Effie Award from the New York American Marketing Association in 2006. Here’s one of the commercials:
Other spots in the campaign featured a clumsy photographer and a rooftop skier. What I love about these ads is that they leveraged the decades-long success of America’s Funniest Home Videos (AFV). People were already primed to notice and enjoy “funny fail” videos. Indeed, the genre is still going strong. AFV is now in its 34th season, MTV has its own long-running version of the concept (Ridiculousness) and YouTube is replete with channels such as FailArmy.
Of course, GEICO has had the most success with this format. It actually has three key elements, all of which are worth noting:
Start with a funny, attention-grabbing opening (e.g. a fail video, a talking animal)
Promote a simple offer (e.g. $24.99 per month, save 15% on car insurance)
End with a memorable catch-phrase/tag line (see below)
If you’re like me, you’ve probably cracked a joke or two using a popular GEICO catch-phrase. Here’s one of my favorites from 2014:
Hooks go back even further than TV if consider the principle underlying them. For instance, DR print advertisers have known for a hundred years that if you don’t grab people with your headline,1 you’ll never get them started down what Joseph Sugarman called the “slippery slide” that ends in a sale.
“The headline is the most important element in most advertisements.
It is the telegram which decides the reader to go on reading.”
- David Ogilvy
A strong opening is to a video ad what a strong headline is to a print advertisement. When I diagnose underperforming ads, this is where I start.
On a related note, the #1 reason I have found for boring openings in longer formats (e.g. 120-second DRTV commercials) is too much build-up — i.e., taking too long to get to the point. For instance, if you’re doing a problem opening, over-explaining the problem or articulating too many problems at once is a mistake.
What if your product solves multiple problems and you can’t choose just one? The best content creators I know lead with the problem-solution combo that creates the strongest hook. Then, they feature secondary or tertiary combos later in the video. There is no rule that says such combos can only be used in an opening sequence. Indeed, I’ve found they also make excellent transitions.
2. Weak/Missing CTAs
Now let’s jump to the end of a video ad. It’s crazy how many times I’ve watched what was otherwise a pretty solid commercial only to notice that at the end, the advertiser didn’t include a proper call to action (CTA). In the past, I’ve compared this to making a great live sales pitch and then just walking away without telling your audience how to order.
Apparently, this isn’t something only TV advertisers do. On a recent episode of his eCommerce Evolution podcast,2 YouTube expert Brett Curry complained about the same thing:
I want to talk about the call to action, just really quickly, because I think this is a place where people fall short. If you don’t ask someone to take a specific action, guess what? They will not take it, right?
I think we assume too much. We think, well, I just showed this awesome product, or I showed this awesome training. And so they’ll just click and they’ll go consume it, right?
But really we need to spell it out.Click here, get the free trial, order the sample pack, watch this video so you can see this product in action, sign up for a free whatever. And so anything you teach or help people, one thing we actually just did recently, we do quite a bit of YouTube for retail support.
So hey, this product available in Walmart near you, it’ll be the best price you can find, right? So what do you specifically want them to do? You want them to click and buy, you want them to go to Walmart, you want them to go to Target, what do you want them to do?
It’s the most obvious thing in the world, isn’t it? People won’t take action unless you tell them to take action. Yet marketers routinely fall to do this. That’s why I made “ask for the order” part of my formula for scripts that sell and called it the “simple secret to closing more sales.” Fixing a CTA can deliver immediate results.
3. Ignoring SOPs
In the military, there’s something called a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). These are procedures that have been battle-tested and shown to deliver optimal results. In advertising, there are also SOPs — they just aren’t called that and no one authority is responsible for writing them down or disseminating them. I guess “best practices” would come closest, but sometimes they are even more firm than that. I’ll give you two examples from my particular niche and career history. Both regard end tags.
An “end tag” is the final screen of every DRTV commercial (and infomercial CTA). It’s when the methods for ordering the product are front and center, both shown and read. Here’s an example from my own work, a hit from last year’s True Top 50.
If you paid careful attention, you noticed that this end tag lasts quite a while (about 12 seconds) and the phone number is repeated three times. Those weren’t arbitrary decisions. Both are SOPs. As for why, recall that a unique feature of direct response is that only commercials that sell survive. These SOPs are in place because they deliver the goods (i.e. maximize response).
Now, I won’t pretend that I’ve done specific A/B testing to isolate whether repeating a phone number three times has a significant impact on calls and orders. On the other hand, I can tell you that I have seen dramatic improvements in results from lengthening end tags that were too short. At some point in recent years, evidence mounted that certain creatives could get away with shorter end tags. But one of the simplest things to try when faced with a sub-par performer is lengthening your end tag (or whatever you call your end screen).3
This just makes logical sense for certain demographics. As I recently reported, the median age of linear TV watchers is 55 years old and cable news watchers skew even older (64-68). These viewers also happen to buy the most off TV. That means if you want to direct them to take an action in the manner Brett describes above, you’d better take your time. Go fast and you’ll lose them at the moment of truth.
It’s not quite like walking away after giving a great live sales pitch. It’s more like giving a great pitch, then talking really fast about how to order, and then walking away.
Exciting New Offer!
The mistakes above are just the three most common ones that video advertisers make. There are several others, and many less common mistakes as well. If you have an ad that is underperforming and would like a thorough diagnosis, the SciMark Video Doctor is in! That’s right, I’m open to reviewing your ad and providing a detailed analysis with suggestions for possible ‘cures.’
Even if you’re a ‘DR doctor’ in your own right, it couldn’t hurt to get a second opinion. As of right now, I’m going to price this service (that I just made up) at $199 a pop and give any supporter of this newsletter (i.e. premium subscribers) 50% off that price.
If you aren’t yet a premium subscriber and also happen to be good at math, you should go ahead and click the button now to upgrade. 👇
News(letters) You Can Use 📰
I’ve written before about left-digit bias and the psychology of prices that end in 95 or 99. I even shared a study that quantified the positive impact of such pricing. But are there times when it doesn’t make sense? The answer is yes, according to a recent edition of the Psychology of Marketing newsletter:
In a 2022 study, researchers sold coffee to college students. They priced the small coffee at $0.95 and the large one at $1.20.
With this pricing structure, 28.95% of customers were willing to upgrade from the small one to larger one.
Then, they increased both prices by $0.05. They sold the small coffee for $1.00 and the large one for $1.25. In this case, 55.56% of buyers were willing to upgrade.
That’s almost double the conversion rate on the upgrade.
And the reason is, once you go above the round number, upgrading feels cheaper.
So if you’re currently pricing something at $49.99 and want to increase the take rate of your upgraded version, test a $50 or $51 price for the basic product, and see if more people pick the upgrade.
The study can be found here.
Today you get a twofer! Over at the Why We Buy newsletter, Katelyn Bourgoin has an excellent writeup on Squatty Potty, a toilet stool that sold for $24.1 million in 2021. I remember reviewing this product when it first launched because it started off on DRTV. Here are my original comments:
A bizarre choice for our medium. I’m going to have to go with my “s**t solutions don’t sell” theory here. I think it applies even if you make your commercial super-serious and boring to downplay the topic (which of course is the opposite of what we try to do in DR).
That DRTV commercial did not roll out, and they went in a totally different direction after that. Bourgoin tells the whole story of how they found the right marketing approach here. (Interesting side note: She, or perhaps the company, claims the product was invented in 2016. But I have the above entry and a screenshot proving it was tested on DRTV in 2013. 🤔)
Bourgoin also makes some really interesting points about the use of humor, which was a big part of the Squatty Potty strategy. Check out their crazy YouTube ad, which has 41 million views.
I have always argued (quoting Claude Hopkins) that “people don’t buy from clowns.” But Bourgoin insists humor can work so long as you follow a few rules:
Don’t force the humor. Sprinkle it in.
Being clear is better than being clever.
Make sure you’re also credible (e.g. leverage authority).
I’m still skeptical it’s the right approach for the older audiences who watch and buy from our direct-selling video ads. However, it does seem to work with younger audiences on social media — and thinking about the Vonage and GEICO creatives above, it does seem to work for branding campaigns, too.
Bonus Knowledge 🧠
If you’re a premium subscriber, and it has been a while since you visited The Library of DRTV, now is a good time to check in. This month, I archived six new commercials. Watch how today’s top direct marketers try to sell consumers a shower filter, a massaging mat, an innovative rice cooker and more!
Don’t have access yet? Upgrade below.
For more on this topic, check out: “The Art of the Headline: Some Tips from Old Masters”
Pro tip: This can be as simple as adding a few silent seconds to the end of a CTA.