"BUY ME" VS "LET ME TELL YOU HOW IT WORKS?" VIDEOS
Examples from the Egyptian market!
August 31st, 2022 by Hussein Farghaly When marketing on social media, audience engagement is probably one of the most important KPIs that marketers look out for. We all would love it if our audience liked the content we post to the extent that they like, comment, or share right?
It also becomes extremely frustrating when you put a lot of effort, money, and time into videos perfecting them and they end up having only a couple of likes. Ever wondered if the “type” of videos you’re making might be the reason why this happens? So should you use educational videos or promotional videos?
The short answer is, videos that educate/entertain your audience perform, 9 times out of 10, WAY much better than regular promotional videos, in terms of engagement. Continue reading for the proof!
Most marketers already know that content marketing or providing value to the audience yields better outcomes than repetitive BUY ME promotional posts. However, most marketers don’t know to what extent the difference is!
We dug deep into research mode and came up with insights from two well-known brands in the Egyptian market that all marketers could use. You won’t believe the results! Check out these insights on Abo Auf and Mobil Egypt:
Mobil Egypt – Case Study
Mobil has invested in a video series called “Mobil Ma3 El Sawee2” which is an episodic series revolving around cars that aims to educate/entertain Mobil’s audience. The series covers various topics such as tips to maintain your car wheels, which engine oil to use for your car and where did the word taxi come from.
What’s interesting in Mobil’s case is that we can PERFECTLY compare between promotional videos and videos that aim to educate/entertain, check this out!
1. Mobil Ma3 el Sawee2 – Car Tyres
In this video, they chose a topic highly relevant to their audience. In addition, the amount of value found in this video is tremendous, they give all the necessary information needed when buying new car tires and they explained it perfectly. Watch the video here! Browse our partner-sponsored Glasses, with a variety of options to suit every taste and budget, available to buy online
Now let’s look at some insights:
- This video was clearly used in Facebook Ads as it has a total of 352k views.
- It has 5.7k likes.
- The engagement rate (Number of likes/Number of views x100) is 1.62%.
- The video was posted on 27th December 2020.
Not sure if these numbers are good/bad? For the sake of comparison, let’s dive into another video that is also from Mobil, is from the same series “Mobile Ma3 el Sawee2 ” and was posted recently to the Car Tyres video.
2. Mobil Ma3 el Sawee2 – Register in a contest
This video is all about a contest announcement but it was disguised to be a part of the Mobil Ma3 el Sawee2 series. Watch the video here! Check out the insights for this video:
Now let’s look at some insights:
- The video was also used in Facebook Ads as it has a total of 362k views.
- It has 1.2k likes.
- The engagement rate is 0.33%
- The video was posted on April 5th, 2021.
What we’re seeing here is pretty remarkable!
Both videos are from the same publisher, they’re on the same platform (Facebook), they are posted recently to each other, they are a part of the same series (same host, quality of video, etc..) and they both have an almost identical number of views!
So with all of these variables almost kept the same, why did one video get 1.2k likes and the other got 5.2k?! Well, if the answer isn’t obvious by now, it’s because educating/entertaining the audience is much more rewarding for them.
In return, the audience gift back their precious likes, comments, and shares. There’s actually more explanation to this but we’ll cover it right after Abo Auf’s insights!
Abo Auf – Case Study
Abo Auf provides a perfect case study as they have invested in both promotional videos as well as video series. Check this out:
1. Dates With Milk
This is a video educating Abo Auf’s audience about a new recipe. It’s a light, short and very informative video that fits perfectly with their target audience.
Now let’s look at some insights:
- It was used two times in two consecutive years during Ramadan.
- It was used on May 21st, 2018 (Watch video). Ramadan this year started on May 17th 2018.
- It was again used 1 year later on April 30th 2019 (Watch video). Ramadan this year started May 5th 2019.
- The 1st one was clearly used in Facebook Ads, has 385k views and 9k likes.
- The 2nd one was clearly used in Facebook Ads, has 158k views and 4.2k likes
- The first one had an ER of 2.33% .
- The second one had an ER of 2,65%.
- The timing of the posts is top notch.
The re-usage of this video is top notch. It shows how videos could become assets that can be re-used to produce similar results.
Now let’s compare this to not one but TWO types of promotional videos that Abo Auf shared recent to the Dates With Milk video.
Insights:
- Used on 23rd May 2019, recent to the 2nd dates with milk video.
- This video was clearly used in Facebook Ads, 156k views and 76 likes.
- ER: 0.04%
It has almost similar views to the 2nd Dates with milk video but look at the difference in likes, this is HUGE. (158k views vs 156k views and 4.2k likes vs 76 likes!). This 8-sec video shows how within the same date, platform, and audience different types of videos perform differently.
Some might say that the difference in quality (not the type of video) between dates with milk and Ramadan tray is the real reason. If so, check this next video out.
2. Mazag Khairat Beih (مزاج خيرت بيه)
This video is a part of a promotional series targeting different personas. It is an excellent piece of content having both a great idea, and execution. Watch video.
Insights:
- Used on April 9th 2018, before Ramadan with 1 month.
- This video was clearly used in Facebook Ads, 254k views and 2.7k likes.
- ER: 1.06%
So here’s a promotional video having high-end execution, posted recently to the first “dates with milk” video and on the same platform. Isn’t the answer obvious so far?
Key Insights
- Video series/content that educates the audience, performs way much better than promotional “BUY ME” videos.
- Good promotional videos such as product demonstrational perform really well too, but 9 times outta 10 when compared to video series they perform worse.
- Brands should incorporate a mixture of promotional and video series.
- Video timing is crucial, know the market trends in regards to your product and adapt to them.
- Investing in high-quality videos (script, quality, sound) yields high returns.
- Bonus tip: You can test this out with any page you see, go to their Facebook page, head to the videos, and see the difference in promotional videos compared to video series.
Conclusion
You now have some data from this little experiment showing the benefits of educational videos vs promotional videos. I highly suggest that this becomes just an eye opener for you and not taking this as a one size fits all rule.
Just try to do the same experiment everytime you encounter such types of videos. See for yourself and decide, what works for other brands might not work for you.
However, as a video production company in Egypt, we’ve been constantly doing this experiment and we’ve seen this trend almost always. It makes sense too, people are usually attracted to content that gives them value, any good marketer knows that.
A good marketer also knows that different types of videos perform better at different stages of the marketing funnel. So use these insights to your advantage, know when to use an educational video and when to use a promotional one. We’ve written an article about the different types of videos and where do they fit in the marketing funnel, defintely check out the article if you want to maximize the efficiency of your content!
