3 Ways to Instantly Level Up Your Video Ads in 2021

Today, we're going to talk about the three biggest ways you can quickly level up your video ads in 2021. Let's get right into it!

No iPhone Videos

Number one is going to be a little bit unpopular with some people. It goes against a lot of the advice that you hear, and I'm going to tell you right now, do not shoot videos with your iPhone.

What do you mean? Don't shoot videos of my iPhone. Don't do it. Don't shoot videos with your iPhone. I know there's a lot of advice out there "done is better than perfect." I know you have heard, if you want to just get video going, whip out your iPhone and start making some fricking video. Cause it's better than not making any video at all.

That's not true. Not every video is better than no video at all. In fact, some video sucks. Don't be one of those people that has video that sucks. Now this is not to say that iPhone cameras aren't great. iPhone cameras are awesome. The iPhone 11 pro max that I have, it's got three lenses on the back, including a wide angle. It can shoot in 4k. It can shoot 1080 up to 240 FPS. I can shoot 4k with the front facing camera. That's amazing.

The thing is it's still has a teeny tiny little sensor compared to what you're going to get on a newer mirrorless. With a camera like that, you're going to get such a better image quality because it captures so much more dynamic range.

What does dynamic range? It basically means the amount of information that can be packed in to your image. And a video is just a series of images. So when you're able to pack in more dynamic range, you're able to really get much, much better image and do more with it when you're in post-production, when you're processing your video afterwards, it makes a big difference.

Also, listen, let's just talk about the elephant in the room here... Y'all like bokeh right? If you don't know what bokeh is, it's that blurred background. And even though like image quality is good using these phones, you're not going to get the dynamic range and you're not going to get the bokeh, which makes it so you are able to draw attention to the subject, it just feels more premium. And when it feels more premium, it makes people feel more value.

So if you're shooting video as with products and you're not showing that value visually then you're running into an objection that your customers are going to have, which is that their product could be seen as just another piece of garbage on the internet. You don't want to seem like you're making an ad about a piece of garbage. You want to make it seem like you're making an ad about a piece of whatever the opposite of garbage is...

Also, et me just say lighting is super, super important. If the lighting is not done well, it's going to look like trash. So make sure that you have a great light source. You can get some great cheap stuff on Amazon or you can just shoot videos with that daylight light coming in. Make sure that you diffuse it at the very least some sort of umbrella. I have a soft box on mine. You need to basically replicate a big white soft window.

Tell A Story

I don't mean like a fairy tale or something like that, but I want you to tell a story that takes people from problem to solution, because that's why people will buy. We are hard wired to respond to stories and storytelling. That's just how we are as human beings. So I always talk about leading with empathy, that HEROIC system, the HERO system, my book, all this stuff, it's all about empathy and leading with empathy. You're really able to make a true connection with your potential buyers. And you do that through storytelling.

Hollywood uses this stuff all the time.

Here we are before. Everything's great. Everything's awesome.

Oh no, I can't believe this is happening.

All right. It's time to go to battle. We're going to fight this thing.

There's just one last thing you have to do.

Oh, here we are. We did it.

Can you believe we made it?

You have your before state, what everything was like at the beginning, you have your inciting incident, this is the big thing that happens like, oh man, everything's hitting the fan. You have the climax where you're fighting that war then you have the fallout and you have the transformation and the after state.

And the same thing goes for buying products and services. You're taking somebody from a before state of "I have this problem. It sucks. I need to deal with it" to the after state where all of their problems are solved and they feel like they're on cloud nine. Amazing. So we just need to tell that story. So we can't just have a crazy B roll transitions or just simply say, here is some phone footage of something that I'm going to tell you in the text is amazing. That's not an ad. That's lazy. If you want to really move people, tell a story, talk about the problem that is being faced. Talk about the agitation of that problem, the inciting incident, how the transformation is going to happen and what it's going to feel like afterwards.

Optimize For No Sound

This especially goes for you video producers out there who are making these crazy product ads. And I love sound design. I love mixing and matching those things up. So they feel it's really just like you could almost touch them. The thing is when you're making videos for clients, those clients want to make money with that content by running it in paid advertising. Which let's be honest, that's what they're doing with all of this stuff. So you have to optimize it to be consumed without sound.

So you have got to go listen to your edit, look at it and you got to say to yourself, "okay, are we hooking them in? Are we grabbing them visually?" Whether it's text or whether it's crazy footage. And then "are we actually going through the work to make sure the stories being told without sound? Am I going to be able to pull someone in and tell this story without any sound design or music at all?"

Because at the end of the day, 80% of people are not going to be watching your video with sound. I know, I know. I, I know, I know. That's the reality of it. Unfortunately.

If you use these three tips, it will totally level up your videos. And we go deeper in this, by the way, on the Peak Video Creators program. If you are a video creator or trying to get started in your video creating business, be sure to check it out; it's time that camera started making you some serious money!!

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