How to Design Video Creative for Social Media Affordably and Fast

I was recently invited to attend the Facebook Creative Connect in Chicago to learn more about creative partners and where digital ads are going. Facebook is trying to make it as easy as possible for marketers to crank out creative content fast and have partnered with specific companies to make this even easier.

The Facebook Marketing Partners include:

• Shakr, that has the capability to create hundreds of ads by uploading your shopping feed in the click of a button
• Vidmob, that creates badass and cutting-edge videos based on their own data-tracking software
• Shuttlerock, whose clients range from Nike to McDonald’s

While the Facebook Marketing Partners are great examples of companies to partner with, they aren’t necessarily the most affordable options. Thankfully, it’s still possible to create social media videos in an affordable way. Below are 5 different tools you can use to create videos for advertising campaigns.

 

Facebook Slideshows

Price: Free!

This is one of the easiest and fastest ways to create videos from images you already have. Slideshows are video-like ads that are easy to create and will load rapidly. If you need to create an experience quickly and only have photo assets to work with, slideshows should be your go-to. 

Tip

Create a cohesive idea or theme with your images instead of throwing together whatever is newest. Have all your images reflect fun outdoor activities or bright colors in the summer, or use multiple product images to advertise a craft you could create with them. 

 

Facebook Video Creation Kit

Price: Free!

Facebook has specific templates for square or vertical videos in their Video Creation Kit. In Facebook Ads Manager there are templates to display and promote a product, to drive product discovery, to show product benefits, and to feature your brand. All the templates are 6-15 seconds using 1-10 images, depending on what you’re wanting to promote. 

 

iMovie 

Price: Free on every Mac

A great freebie for any Mac user, iMovie is good for editing existing video, and adding music, sound, and titles. If all you have to work with are videos that weren’t made to be advertisements, consider throwing them into iMovie. Extract all the important visuals and voiceovers to shorten it to ad length by splitting clips and adding transitions and text overlays.

Tip

Detach audio from the video so you can play around with video and audio separately.

 

Adobe Photoshop

Price: $9.99/month

When you first think of Photoshop, animations and video may not come to mind, but it does have the capabilities. Make sure your Timeline window is open in the bottom bar. Every frame acts as a different visible layer, so keep your animations simple with a quick zoom or fade.

Tip

While tweens can be useful for creating a smoother animation, remember that they will also dramatically increase the size of your final ad. 

 

Bannersnack

Price: $32/month

Bannersnack is the preferred tool for animation at Perfect Search, because it’s a software that is designed specifically for marketers. The templates are up to date on all the latest social media sizes and the drag and drop functionality means anyone can learn it quickly. The content library allows you to create custom asset folders for each client, and the built-in templates and animations make it easy to get your ad running with the click of a button.

The amazing thing about Bannersnack is that animations, images, fonts, shapes, and text are completely customizable, with options to save as HTML5, MP4, web optimized GIF, or just a static JPG or PNG.

With all of these tools it is still important to know what the goal of the ad is. Is it conversions? Reach? Brand awareness? Once you know the goal you can move on to what is going to communicate that goal the best. At the end of the day, no matter what tool you use, make sure you know the specs, keep up with format updates, and stay ahead of the curve.

 

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Interested in learning more about design? Check out our post on designing strong landing pages or read about current web design trends. If you want someone to just handle the heavy lifting, contact us today!