How to Stop the Scroll

Here at Fraggell, we believe that the most important design aspect to video making for pay media is to build in a scroll stopper. In short, something in the video that stops people from endlessly scrolling on their feed and watch your video ad instead. This is easier said than done, as on social media, ads are literally competing with friends, family, influencers and anyone or anything else customers care about, on their feed.

The first two to three seconds of a video are easily the most crucial to get right. Because if they are done wrong, people will just scroll past it and the brand will have wasted its money. Something that is easily measured via click-through rate.

When done successfully, brands will find their average views going up, because they will have undoubtedly captured users’ attention within the first two to three seconds. Some of the best ways that we found to stop scrolling to Facebook and Instagram ad is utilizing humour, shock and intrigue.

What we are describing, is essentially clickbait, and despite any negative connotations that come with it, it undeniably works. Utilizing shock to instantly stop the scroll and get a user at least to remember the brand, if not clicking through to see what the video is all about, is a winning formula.

Psychology is key, demonstrated by how effective videos can be if they can be seen to be addressing a relatable problem or situation that a lot of potential customers face themselves, or a passion that they identify with. If the first three seconds of an ad seems to be speaking directly to a user by addressing a problem they too are having, they are far more likely to click.

In order to actually make good scroll stoppers that do their job, brands need to go the extra mile and get to know their audience inside and out. Find out the most relatable problems that their demographic share, what issues the product addresses and where it corresponds with the audience’s concerns. Once they know this, they have the data to create truly relevant scroll stoppers that their target audience will want to stop to see. All they need at this point is the creativity and skill to make it.

Video ads need to show people a problem and then a solution in the form of a product, and they ideally need to do it with humour or shock. All in just one to three seconds.

Learn how to avoid creative burnout by clicking here.