Brands are optimizing video production to drive user acquisition

Especially urgent in an uncertain economic climate, brands must minimize production costs while creating a high enough volume of social media videos to identify the creative elements that resonate most with target audiences.

“Budgets are being heavily scrutinized, and people are looking very closely at what they’re spending their dollars on,” said Catharine Meketa, managing vice president at QuickFrame by MNTN. “Social media generates the greatest ROI, but how do we figure out what’s going to resonate the most with the target audience? From a production standpoint, by capturing as much content as possible, you’re later able to look at different variables to determine the overall campaign effectiveness.”

To maximize their budgets and hit those volume goals, brands are enlisting partners to support their video production. They are working with creator marketplaces to take pressure off in-house teams and freelance video production partners to create low-cost UGC-style videos.

As brands and their partners create their libraries of social media videos, they’re then implementing advanced testing strategies to determine which creative variables perform best at meeting the brand’s goals. One example of this approach comes from a video campaign with the fintech company Self.

Thorough pre-production planning minimizes costly reshoots

Facing a quick turnaround time to produce OTT assets and strict guidelines on location, Self partnered with QuickFrame by MNTN to help streamline the process around their messaging to fintech buyers.

With only three weeks to produce multiple commercials, QuickFrame enlisted a production company local to Austin, Texas, so Self could be on set for the production. Since this was Self’s first time utilizing OTT advertising, the company wanted to use this shoot to fuel a testing strategy. Keeping this in mind, the production company was tasked with creating eight commercials based on two creative concepts developed by QuickFrame.

“From a production standpoint, you need multiple concepts; you need multiple lengths; you need multiple opening hooks. That means you need to create a larger volume of content than you’re likely creating today,” Meketa explained. “There’s a big myth that you can’t do this without blowing your budget, but, in fact, it can be more efficient.”

A thorough storyboard helps teams be realistic about production timelines and budgets, but brands must recognize that the more complex a concept is, the more costly it is likely to be. Further, a comprehensive shot list helps reduce the likelihood of expensive reshoots.

“You want a wide variety of footage. Think things like shooting vertical versus horizontal, different talent depending on your audience reading different scripts and possibly different locations,” Meketa said. “The goal is to have multiple intelligent ways to remix or repurpose the footage for all of your different priority platforms, placements and creative approaches.”

In addition to the different concepts, the videos for Self featured diverse talent, value propositions, shot order and even video styles. Following the production for Self, four hero videos were edited into two lengths for further media optimization, all with an eye on ensuring the creative was on brand and complied with banking regulations and restrictions. 

Multivariate testing strategies expand brands’ video libraries and audience insights

Self and QuickFrame implemented a testing strategy to determine which creative variables performed best at reducing the brand’s user acquisition cost and improving app installs.

Meketa recommends multivariate testing as an effective way for brands to optimize their creative budget, especially for performance marketing campaigns. Unlike A/B testing, which contrasts two variables, multivariate testing allows marketers to examine numerous variables simultaneously. 

The first sets of creative should test high-level concepts before getting more granular as testing progresses, Meketa explained. For each subsequent round of testing, teams identify the highest-performing ads and further optimize those videos by testing new creative variables.

“Throughout the multivariate testing strategy, where we’re consistently deploying new creative, we’re monitoring it, we’re iterating on that new creative, and then we’re repeating it, but always leaving behind what doesn’t work, and introducing new variables,” Meketa said. “So not only are you growing your library of content because, with each round, you’re producing new content from that original footage that you captured. But you’re also growing your library of data, ultimately honing in on what’s resonating most with your audience.” 

For Self, the campaign with QuickFrame helped the brand scale creative production to drive increased user acquisition. Cost per app install also fell 28% compared to Self’s average. 

Further, the pre-production and testing plan combined for an effective strategy for Self to create and test a high volume of videos — generating insights and further maximizing budgets for future campaigns.

“You’re going to want to take all of those insights and learnings and apply them to the next round of production that you do,” Meketa said. “For each round of production, you want to get smarter and smarter.”

Sponsored by QuickFrame by MNTN