The problem with grabbing attention on scroll-heavy social medias like TikTok and Instagram is that businesses aren't only competing with other businesses; they're competing with everything for attention. The solution to capturing users' attention is in ensuring that the elements of your videos are based on the tried and tested foundations of popular profiles that demand attention and and stop a user in their tracks.
Copy attention-grabbing hooks
Start your videos with a strong hook that immediately captures the viewer's interest. This should be a pressing question derived from deep keyword research, insight and empathy for a customer's pain point, or an unexpected reveal which you develop upon later in the video; that could also be a part-answer to a burning question you 've posed that you'll later answer in full, forcing them to commit to watching.
Pro Tip: Study successful video ads on TikTok or Instagram to identify the types of hooks that resonate most with your target audience.
Use attention-magnet editing to retain attention
Producing a product video without any dynamic camera variation in how or where the subject appears is going to lose attention fast. You need to implement frequent jump cuts and scene changes to keep them hooked. For example, if your product video is 20 seconds long, break it into x10 2 second long clips and ask yourself if each clip, isolated, stands out from the last.
Pro Tip: Look at the king of YouTube, Mr. Beast, and see how he edits his content. Consume his style and apply elements to your product video.
Separate your videos from the competition
Research what type of product videos your industry is producing and take note of their style. Does the industry produce overwhelmingly simple, informative videos? Does their content tend to be long or short? Do they opt for a clean, uncluttered aesthetic and avoid busy backgrounds or excessive on-screen text that can distract from their product? Do the opposite. For example, if a social media scheduling tool is using animation in their videos, deliver your content using real people or AI avatars to stand out and stop your audience's scrolling. This guide touches upon some composition tips to help you format correctly - whether your style is minimalist ore maximalist.
Pro Tip: Consider using motion graphics or subtle animations to add visual interest without overwhelming the viewer.
Use optimal aspect ratios across each social media platform
Design your videos with the social media platforms you'll be marketing on in mind. There are exceptions but generally, an Instagram user will immediately scroll past your product video if it's in landscape. In Instagram's case, ensure that your video is in either 1:1 or 4:5;, clearly visible, the text is legible, and any calls-to-action are easy to interact with on a smartphone.
Pro Tip: Whilst Instagram recommends either 1:1 or 4:5 when uploading video, opt for 4:5 in order to take up more real estate on the feed. Centimeters matter in the scroll-stopping competitive game, and 4:5 takes up the most room.
Entice engagement with interactive experiences in your product video
Go beyond traditional video formats and incorporate interactive elements, such as AR filters or shopping tags, to create a more immersive and engaging experience for your viewers.
By using trending AR filters, you position your content organically, increasing the chances it's perceived as non-promotional. You can go even further, like RyanAir, and use subterfuge, leveraging AR as an opportunity to poke fun at yourself whilst increasing your brand affinity for not taking yourself too seriously.
If you've set up an Instagram shop, shopping tags are an excellent way to encourage interactivity on your content. A user sees a video they like, they click the shopping tag, and are immediately taken to your product page. If you sell product and use Instagram, it's a no-brainer.
You can add a poll to your Instagram ads, something that not only encourages engagement and keeps attention for longer, but something that is generally perceived as an organic piece of content, which opens up your audience for valuable seconds, allowing your product video additional time to retain them.
Pro Tip: Research the latest interactive video features available on various social media platforms and test them to see how they can enhance your product video marketing.
Use AI tools for scroll-stopping product videos
AI avatars' prevalence on social media is nascent, meaning you keep audiences' attention longer as they try to figure out what they're seeing. Use that valuable attention for as long as it lasts and direct your AI avatar to do something unexpected! Furthermore, there are AI tools that can batch create videos, enabling you to test different avatars exhibiting different behaviours to find one that's super scroll-stopping!
Creatify's AI-powered tools enables scaling of product videos, writing scripts, designing ads, and leveraging AI avatars, to create and test multiple variations to find what video commands the most attention, i.e., what mixture of marketing ingredients result in successive scroll-stopping behaviours. Here's a quick guide on how to get started with product videos on Creatify with minimal assets.
Conclusion
Social media users' attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, which means as product video marketers, you have very little time with which to grab attention, and every second thereafter is as critical as the last for retaining that attention. You're not just competing with those in your industry - but with every presence on social media.
Therefore, you need to research best practices of those not only in your niche but outside of it. You need to design compelling hooks, leverage AI to get ahead and support quick iteration, and experiment with dynamic editing styles and multiple sequences in your videos.
