DETERMINING A VIDEO CAMPAIGN BUDGET

Being a growth company, you’re striving to eventually create a predictable engine that helps grow your enterprise, as soon as possible. If money were no object, video would be in the mix, no questions asked. But the term “video” is used so loosely. Are you talking about a video sitting on your website, doing nothing, or a video that is effectively driving traffic to your site to drive conversions and actions? Noble focuses on the latter…so let’s start there.

So how do you budget for a quality video campaign? And how do you make it work within the budget of your marketing mix?

The variables that affect cost of a video are:

Messaging – Does your brand have a clear message that digs into pain points and gain points? Do you have an offer that will truly compel visitors to take action?

Duration– How long will your messaging stay the same? For most scalable companies it may be 12-24 months. The video(s) will be created as part of a 90-day campaign. After that they will be an important tool that continues to drive traffic to your site, from premium publishing sites and other alternative placements, for the rest of the 12-24 months.

Target – Are we reaching a broad or narrow target, or perhaps a bit of both? This will affect the strategy and the number of videos needed to reach your specific customer segments.

The rest of your marketing mix – Do you have a healthy diversification of marketing channels in your arsenal? Video should not be 100% of your marketing budget. In fact, it’s most effective when it reinforces your other marketing activities, like: seasonal offers, launches, PR tie-ins, events, direct response and keywords; although it may very well take over or completely replace aspects of your current mix over time.

Goals that also affect what the cost will be:

Acquiring new customers: Working with an outside team that will provide fresh insights to help hit your quarterly targets is vital. Your KPIs should determine if the campaign is successful, but quantitative values alone can’t tell the full story. Important qualitative data can be achieved through surveys and retargeting campaigns to truly feel the pulse of the campaign. If customers don’t bite right away, but there may be a piece of information that would make “no” into a “yes.” Determining that sales are down based on numbers alone does not give you the entire picture. You need to understand your entire attribution model.

Launching a new product or service: If you have a new product, with no competitors, chances are your target might be a hypothetical a best. Having some accuracy is important in the beginning, and as data comes in from the campaign, you want to make aggressive pivots on a monthly or weekly basis, if need be, to hone in on your target.  So as your “Tribe” discovers you over time, then precision will take over as we begin to focus on segments that have found a definite product-market-fit… that is, until we decide it’s time to explore new segments of your market.   More growth.

Of course, most of us operate on a top-down, fixed budget. We know what we have to spend; we just need to know what we can get for it. The truth is, video campaigns can be quite affordable investments. The trick is to find the right ratio within your marketing mix.

Need help with using videos for marketing and customer acquisition?  Reach out to us here and learn more how we can help you.