When you want to create compelling video ads for your business, you will make the important decision of choosing how to distribute it. The two primary options that you have are broadcasting these videos as TVCs or uploading these videos as digital video ads. Both of these options have their own advantages and disadvantages and come with their own specific requirements. It is important to know what makes these two options suitable for the video you want to make. This article will cover the differences these two have and to help you determine which one is the best for you.
Reach
TVCs
When it comes to reach, TVCs will only reach the people included in the scope of the TV station that provided the commercial spot and those who are watching that station when your TVC airs.
You can have more opportunities to reach a higher number of audiences by occupying more commercial spots but this may become too costly, especially for smaller businesses.
However, what makes TVCs a viable option for reach is that airing your TVCs even just for one spot can immediately allow you to reach a larger number of people all at the same time.
Digital Video Ads
When done right, you have a much higher potential in terms of reaching a large number of audiences around the world when you create great online video ads. Uploading this online means that anyone around the world can view your video.
More and more people have access to the internet and as of 2022, there are more than 5 billion people who use it. Most of them are also using social media which makes it easier to share and spread these online video ads to their community.
Targeting
TVCs
Since TV is still mainly a mass marketing platform, you will have the opportunity to communicate with millions of people. However, you are not able to be too detailed in terms of what specific type of audience you want to target. If you are planning to target an older audience, it is still your best bet to broadcast your video as TVCs since this is the platform they are used to consuming.
The amount of information you have about a TV audience is not as in-depth compared to information about online audiences and users. You can only choose to target customers based on certain demographics like their age, gender, and location.
Digital Video Ads
When you want to upload your videos as digital video ads online, you will have a lot more options in terms of targeting. You can immediately show your ad to consumers who are more likely to be interested unlike with TVCs.
Your targeting will be more narrow and efficient when you create digital video ads. You will have more information about these audiences which gives you more options for targeting.
When you post online, you will be able to view audiences in a deeper way. You get to know their psychographics like their opinions, attitudes, personality, and lifestyle along with how they behave with brands.
Costs
TVCs
TVCs can be a much more costly operation because you will not just think about your production costs. You will also have to worry about setting aside a large amount of your budget for your distribution costs as well. Ad spots aren’t cheap, and getting spots for national audiences and at peak watching times will make it even more expensive.
In the US, TV ad prices for daytime programs can range from $500 to $4 per second on the air, and primetime programs can range from $1,000 to $10,000 per airing. If you want your TVCs to be successful, you should consider what time slots and what programs you should broadcast in to reach the best audiences.
Digital Video Ads
When it comes to production costs, TVCs and digital video ads will roughly have the same average amount since they both have similar video production costs like the production team, equipment, sets, locations, and talents. However, with digital video ads, there are a lot more affordable distribution costs for websites.
If you want to broadcast your online video ads on YouTube, you are looking at a $0.10-$0.30 cost per view depending on the format, placement, and industry. This means it can cost around $2,000 to reach 100,000 viewers. This can be seen as a more cost-effective option since you have the ability to target your digital video ads to the specific audience you want to approach.
Creativity
TVCs
When you have the budget to buy up ad spots for TV, this means you probably have a high production budget which allows you to showcase your creativity in your TVCs. TVCs give you the opportunity to display how creative your story and message is in just a short amount of time.
Even though you may be limited to certain time restrictions like 15 seconds, 30 seconds, or 1 minute, this will give you enough time to hook the viewer and keep them engaged until the end of your video.
You can even repurpose your TVCs so that you can accommodate different ad spot lengths. You can create a 1 minute video and use a trimmed down version so you can still broadcast it for 15 second ad spots and 30 second ad spots.
Another important thing you have to remember when you want to broadcast TVCs is that it should be reviewed and approved by an advertising council and the station itself. This means that there still could be some tweaks or edits that these external agencies need to make before you get to broadcast your TVCs.
Digital Video Ads
You have a lot more freedom to reveal the creativity that you and your video team has through digital video ads. This is because there are less external approvals that you will need and less time restrictions compared to broadcasting TVCs.
While you can buy online ad spots on websites like YouTube which have time limits for their ads, you can also just upload the original and longer versions on your own channel. With lesser costs to deal with in terms of broadcasting, you can have a larger budget that can realise the creativity you want to display in your video.
Posting the original video and buying online ad spots to feature it is a good mix that you can use so that people who see your video as an ad can visit your channel and watch the longer version.
This means you have the opportunity to create longer videos which can feature more emotional and more engaging storytelling so that viewers stay engaged for the whole 3-5 minutes or maybe even longer.
Conclusion: Which One Should You Choose?
Deciding between TVCs and digital video ads will boil down to a lot of different factors since they can help you achieve different types of goals for your business.
If you have a larger budget, have a product or service that is for the general public, want to target older audiences, and want to communicate to them all at the same time, then TVCs are still your best choice since they can help you achieve all of these.
If you are a smaller business that has to work with a tighter budget, are targeting younger and more niche audiences, and have a product or service that is made specifically for a group of people, then you should focus more on creating digital video ads to help your business.
Whether you want to create TVCs or digital video ads, our team at fewStones can help you out with both. When you work with fewStones, you will have access to experienced video professionals who possess all of the knowledge and skills to help you create great videos that you can broadcast as TVCs and digital video ads.
Our video production services include live action videos, 2D animation videos, and 3D animation videos. You can get a free instant quote on all of our video production services by clicking here.
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