Your Digital Marketing Coach with Neal Schaffer

Why Video Ads in Social Media Convert Better Than Anything Else [Lauren Schwartz Interview]

December 22, 2021 Neal Schaffer Episode 240
Your Digital Marketing Coach with Neal Schaffer
Why Video Ads in Social Media Convert Better Than Anything Else [Lauren Schwartz Interview]
Show Notes Transcript

Paid Social is a mainstream form of social media marketing, and while many focus on fine-tuning targeting, have you thought about the impact that different ad formats can have on your cost and ultimate ROI?

This episode features an interview with Lauren Schwartz, founder of the Creative Marketing Agency The Loft 325.  Lauren is a design professional with over 15 years of experience, including 8 years working in digital marketing.

More importantly for us, her special power is in creating profitable creative strategies and creatives for e-commerce brands. and she is especially passionate about creating top-performing ad campaigns and creatives.

Listen in for her advice on:

  1. Understanding the different ad formats and advantages and disadvantages of each
  2. Why video ads are the best
  3. Tips and tricks to create them and optimize them for maximum conversion

Key Highlights

[00:01] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Lauren Schwartz

[02:58] Changes In Paid Social Over The Years

[04:41] Lauren's Journey To Paid Social Marketing

[07:09] How To Make Creative Branding And Creativity Organic And Authentic?

[09:57] Is Paid Social Beneficial For Businesses?

[11:18] Focus On Your Audience First

[11:59] Different Ad Formats

[14:55] The Trends In Different Story Formats

[16:19] Why Video Ads Perform The Best

[17:32] Navigating Video ROI

[20:25] TikTok Ads

[23:02] TikTok Ad Platform vs Facebook/Pinterest Ad

[23:38] Ad Targeting and Guidelines

[26:26] Tips And Tricks In Creating Ads

[30:19] Connect With Lauren

Notable Quotes

  • I think the biggest thing is really trying to focus in on creators who just genuinely do give really good testimonials, and really do kind of show that authentic side.
  • I'm making sure that the creators that we choose that if they do shoot content, that it doesn't seem sales, pitchy like I don't want them to seem like they're selling you something, I want them to talk to you I want them to make it seem like like they are really reviewing this product and talking about it.
  • I think really just making sure that you have audiences to even talk to is probably the biggest thing that I would say that you need to focus on first.
  • Now I kind of feel like more people are moving towards just different platforms really, like I don't necessarily think it's I mean, there's, there's so many trends and all the platforms. But I think the biggest thing is just, you know, making sure that it looks very organic.
  • The biggest thing with creating the creative is, you don't have to have like a super high end production. Like you really just have your iPhone and shoot the content. And again, just make it very organic, make it very conversational.

Connect with Lauren Schwartz

Learn More:

Neal Schaffer:

Hey everyone. Hopefully you enjoyed this week's interview with Lauren Schwartz, founder of the loft three to five. If you haven't listened to it yet, make sure you listen and not only learn why video ads in social convert better than anything else, but really tips and tricks and everything you need to know about paid social media today in 2022. Lauren has been incredibly kind enough to offer listeners of the your digital marketing coach podcast, a free one hour creative strategy consultation, on branding and ad creative, incredible offer. Totally free Lauren's cool member she word the Nirvana shirt, just email Lauren at Lauren at the loft three to five.com l au arienne at the loft th e ello. F T the numbers 325 dot com to set up your call. You need to make sure you add in quotes Neil podcast to the subject line. Remember I am the real Neil that's any al add Neil podcast to the subject line once again. That's Liu arienne at the loft three to five one word.com. And make sure you include Neil podcast in the subject line. So let's say you're investing in paid social. If you're a consumer facing brand, you're probably doing the Facebook ads, probably the Instagram ads, maybe Pinterest ads, but are you doing tick tock ads yet? And are you treating tick tock ads the same that you would treat Facebook and Instagram ads regardless of how old or young your demographic is? Wake up folks, it's 2020 to learn about the state of paid social today in this next episode of The your digital marketing coach podcast. Digital social media content influencer marketing blogging, podcasting, blogging, tick tocking, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, SEO, SEM, PPC, email marketing, who there's a lot to cover, whether you're a marketing professional entrepreneur, or business owner, you need someone you can rely on for expert advice. Good thing you've got Neil, on your side, because Neal Schaffer is your your digital digital marketing marketing coach, helping you grow your business with digital first marketing one episode at a time. This is your digital marketing coach. And this is Neal Schaffer. Hey, everybody. This is Neal Schaffer, your digital marketing coach, and welcome to my podcast, paid social. As much as we may want to be successful with our organic social media efforts. As well as working together with influencers to influencer marketing, there obviously is still a role for paid social to help complement everything else that your company is doing in social media. Now, paid social has really changed over the years, I'd say back in the day paid social equal Facebook ads, maybe a year or two ago, paid social would equal Facebook and Instagram ads. Today, paid social equals Facebook and Instagram and Tik Tok, and YouTube, and Pinterest and obviously, Twitter, LinkedIn, depending on your industry. So things have really changed. It's not just about a static image. It's about stories. And it's not about renting a studio to create really slick looking ads. It's about taking your iPhone without a ring light without a plug in microphone. And creating an advertisement looks as organic as possible. The rules for paid social have truly changed. And that's why I'm really excited for this week to introduce you to Lauren Schwartz. Lauren is the founder and CEO of the loft 325, a creative agency that focuses solely on paid social, we talk a lot about the art, and this paid social, I think you're really gonna enjoy this interview. So without further ado, here's my interview with Lauren. You're listening to your digital marketing coach. This is Neal Schaffer. Lauren Schwartz, welcome to the digital marketing coach podcast. I thank you for having me. Anybody who wears in Nirvana t shirt to a podcast. I have tremendous respect for so thank you. Lauren, before we get into our topic, I think you know you have your own agency, correct me if I'm wrong, the law 325. And I think that a lot of people would be interested. I mean, how did you get to be where you are today and launch your own agency?

Lauren Schwartz:

Yeah, so it's been a long journey to kind of get here. I first started in the design space really working on building websites. So I worked a lot on landing pages and really just kind of like the backend of E commerce and then I kind of started to go more into email marketing and the design for email. And figuring that out. And it wasn't until I started working at an agency when I really just kind of fell in love with like the paid social side of things. It was just really fascinating to me to try to figure out what works, what doesn't work, how do things convert. And really, I just, I fell in love with it. And so I was there for a couple of years, and just decided that I really just wanted to focus on my own business, and just wanted to offer just creative and creative strategy to clients. Because I feel like that's a big piece that a lot of I mean, agencies habit, but at the same time, like it's also really focused on the paid media side of things. And so I really just wanted to create a space for clients that just focus specifically on ad freedoms and really giving them the best creative they could have for their accounts. So that's yeah, I mean, really, that's kind of how it came to be really simple. I

Neal Schaffer:

mean, it's funny, because, you know, I'd say over the last seven, eight years, when paid social emerged became very popular. And there were some social media marketers who are like you, they fell in love with it, they fell in love with the challenge, always trying to get you know, high ROI, what creatives work, what what placements work. And it's always a challenge that you always want to defeat the enemy, which in this case, yeah, platform. And there's others who have been like, I'll never do paid social, I want to steal. But it's good to know that because today, we are going to be talking about paid social specifically about video ads. So it's good to know that we have someone that geeks out on on paid social that is on our side. So agree 100%, most small businesses that are listening entrepreneurs, they don't have access to that creative. And that's one of the big things that obviously large agencies provide you is that creative. So I think that's, that's a really great niche that you have there. Let's start with before we get into more of the paid social, let's talk about that creative side. So I've written a book about influencer marketing, which I published last year, and over time, there's been this big push with, we want to see the authentic, we want to see the real. So there's some that might be listening, thinking, well, first of all, paid social is an advertisement. And then a creative is sort of this artificial look at how we display, how would you sort of respond to that? How, how do you make, you know, creative branding and creativity? In not just ads, but in organic? How do you make that seem more authentic?

Lauren Schwartz:

Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing is really trying to focus in on creators who just genuinely do give really good testimonials, and really do kind of show that authentic side. I mean, obviously, there are a lot of influencers, where guests, and you do pay them a lot of money to make it look that way. But I think you can actually really tell like more of the influencers, who really can bring it to life and just make it seem more authentic, I personally tend to gravitate more towards the micro influencers, because I feel like the micro influencers actually give you a better reaction, they give you a better, more organic feel. And I think it's just they're trying to kind of find their way also and trying to grow as you know, an influencer. And I think if you kind of go more towards those smaller people, they tend to just be more genuine and authentic. And it is hard to kind of get that genuine feel in creatives. So for me, there is a lot of coaching on my side, I'm making sure that the creators that we choose that if they do shoot content, that it doesn't seem sales, pitchy, like I don't want them to seem like they're selling you something, I want them to talk to you I want them to make it seem like like, again, like they are really reviewing this product and talking about it. So I think it's just a lot of just honestly just trying to find those smaller micro influencers who really are excited about getting this product to really try and talk about it. So, but it is a lot of coaching, I will admit for any influencer. So it

Neal Schaffer:

sounds like for your paid social as well. You some of the content and creative is leveraging influencers. Is that correct?

Lauren Schwartz:

Yes. Yes, for sure. Yeah. So we definitely yeah, we do both. Yeah, obviously leverage influencers but then obviously also get the creatives that they are creatives that they already have and just kind of rework them.

Neal Schaffer:

Yeah. And I think you make an excellent point on sort of size, and their genuine excitement. You know, I don't know about you, but I get pitched a lot of brands work with us. And they never asked do I actually use the product or do X ray, they just sort of assume right? Yeah, difference. I also like the idea of coaching just like if you're going to have a CEO do an interview, or I've had podcast interviews with executives where their PR team was together with us in the podcast, just to make sure that they answer the questions in the best way to put their best foot forward. So I think that makes a lot of sense to be influencers as well as your clients as well. So paid social we all know that it can be effective I love the idea of leveraging you know influencers and customer testimonials and making it more more authentic, like give us like an ad would you say with the clients you work with that paid social is going to be beneficial for every business? Is it more beneficial for some businesses? Do you tend to see some businesses that tend to want to invest more in paid social? You know, what have you seen in the market?

Lauren Schwartz:

Yeah, I mean, it's one of those things where I think it depends, it obviously depends on the product, it depends on what you're selling. I think that I think a lot of brands, what they tend to do is that they make this product, they get it out there, and then automatically they think, Okay, well, I have to be on Facebook, and I have to start marketing. But then they kind of neglect everything else on the organic side. And they don't necessarily build up their organic following. And they just tried to invest so much money into Facebook and Instagram and any other platform where they like, they don't really have a presence. So it's hard to really, if you don't have that organic side of your business, then you kind of don't know who you're even marketing to, like you're kind of throwing money at the wall. And just hoping that it sticks where I think if you start to start small, build up your organic following making sure that you actually have people to talk to, then you can kind of work into Facebook advertising and paid social and really start to test and figure out okay, well, who is the broader audience? Like, how do I get more people into the funnel? And so I think, I think it just depends, like, there's just there's so many areas of paid social. And I think really just making sure that you have audiences to even talk to is probably the biggest thing that I would say that you need to focus on first,

Neal Schaffer:

then obviously, once you have that audience, you get some demographic data. And then you're right, right, look alike audiences. So it's also going to help you as well, so yes, yeah. Organic first. Cool. So let's talk now about so we're investing in paid social, and I'm assuming that most of our listeners have or are invested in paid social, but let's just take a step back for those that maybe aren't as invested. And also, because the ad platforms change so rapidly, there's new ad formats that, you know, that come across almost every month. So what are the different ad formats? When you're talking to a client? How would you describe the different ad formats, and the advantages and disadvantages of each one?

Lauren Schwartz:

Yeah, so I mean, there again, like there's different ad formats and different plots. And I mean, first things first is that there's always that sort of native kind of nine by 16, which is vertical. So any sort of like Instagram Stories, Tik Tok, that kind of video format. Usually, with that sort of format, I tend to have creatives that, again, are more user generated content, more kind of that organic feeling, really making sure that it looks like it's native to the feed. So that's my biggest thing is just always making sure that something looks very native to the feed. Because once people know that it's an ad, they go right past it. So if you can make it look authentic and genuine, I think people are going to actually gravitate towards it and want to listen to it. And then there's obviously in feed, which is the square one by one or four by five formats, where it's in your Instagram feed or your Facebook feed. And again, those ones, those I kind of tend to test a little bit more like we obviously will try the user generated content. But for most of those, it's usually statics, any sort of gifts that you could use, and just trying to test those different formats within the feed. But truthfully, so many people are on the vertical side of things that that's what we really tend to kind of focus on. So more video assets, more, making sure that again, it looks really needed in organic to the feed. So those are those are kind of the ones that I tend to gravitate towards and talk to my clients about. And then again, with the platforms, designing for Facebook and Instagram, and designing for tic tock or Pinterest or YouTube like it's all very different in the way that you talk to your audiences. And so making sure that if you're going to create a tick tock ad, it has to look like it came from tick tock like you can't post something from Instagram and posted to Tik Tok like people in Tik Tok know that it's that it's from Instagram, and they won't listen to it. So it's just again, like knowing the formats and knowing the platform that you're also talking to as well is super important when making ad creatives.

Neal Schaffer:

I like how you simplify that to stories and in feed. And it's I find it really interesting that there is more investment these days going into stories ads and in feed ads. Have you seen in terms of I know that ROI is going to be different for every customer, every product every ad every creative? Are there any trends and obviously this changes over time I once I've man it was a few months ago, I talked to a Facebook ads rep who said you know what people are? People are doing way too many videos, we're finding static, once again, is performing better than video. So it changes over time. And it's always on because it's an auction. Right. But yeah, generally speaking today at the end of 2021 going into 2022 Are there any trends you see in terms of differences between the story format in feed four in terms of in terms of just general average performance?

Lauren Schwartz:

I mean, again, I still imagery again, like I agree with the face But breath like we saw a huge uptick, probably like middle of the year where just statics were a huge trend and everyone was like, Okay, now we got to get back on statics. Now I kind of feel like more people are moving towards just different platforms really, like I don't necessarily think it's I mean, there's, there's so many trends and all the platforms. But I think the biggest thing is just, you know, making sure that it looks very organic. I think if you're gonna pick a trend, just make it look organic, like make it look like you're really actually posting a story to your story feed and talking about something adding in, you know, the native text, the native, you know, neat, like music fonts, whatever, like making, it just looks super native to the feed, I think is probably the biggest trend that I'm seeing.

Neal Schaffer:

And when you talk about stories, ads, these are primarily videos animations that take up the entire 15 seconds. It's not like a five seconds static story.

Lauren Schwartz:

Yes, exactly. Yeah. The whole 15 seconds. Yeah, for the stories.

Neal Schaffer:

Okay, so we've narrowed it down to like a 15 second video story, a static in feed, and then we have the video in feed. I know you're a big fan of video ads. I'm also a big fan of video ads for certain reasons. But I'm curious as to and when we talk about video ads, I guess story ads, or are part video ads, in addition, infeed Why do you think that video ads, and they're obviously the hardest to create? For everyone that's listening? Why do you think they perform the best?

Lauren Schwartz:

I think they just performed the best because there's movement. And as you scroll past something, you know, like, I think because Instagram made that, you know, big switch to say that they're only video now I think everyone kind of jumped on the bandwagon of like, okay, well, I have to make everything video. And so I think more people now just understand that you like videos, or they're like, you have to like you watch them, you gravitate more towards them. They're just, you know, they're constantly in your feed you most the time more people go to stories and then actually go into their Instagram feed. So really, it's like more people are tending to go towards video, because that's kind of what they're being told to do. And so I think it just makes it easier for them to gravitate more towards the video as opposed to like going actually into your feed, and looking at any sort of static imagery.

Neal Schaffer:

So from an ROI perspective, though, video is often a charge per view, which could be a trivial or X number of seconds versus stuck. So the cost of the ROI is going to be different. How do you sort of coach your clients on navigating that?

Lauren Schwartz:

Yeah, I mean, I think like for, for when I first worked with a client, I mean, honestly, we give them everything we make sure to give them videos, we give them statics, we give them carousels, where we could do a static carousel, or even a video carousel, I don't tend to just give a client one thing and say like, Hey, we're just going to do video, like making sure that you have everything in every format. Really the biggest thing is testing. And so I think we can start to test with clients and see, okay, well, what's working with some clients video doesn't work, like it just does not work. So then we kind of tend to pull back on video, and then we just move fully into statics. And then with that, it's obviously cheaper. It's not as expensive as video. But we have to kind of figure out what works for each client and what what works for each brand. So really, it's just more about testing, like really have to test and it is tough sometimes when Yes, you do see how expensive it is. But at the same time, it's like, well, this is what you're investing in, then you you have to invest in it in order to like figure out what's actually going to

Neal Schaffer:

work. And nor does that testing, I assume includes a cross platform. So we've only really talked about like Facebook, Instagram, but I'm assuming that your clients also invest, you know, on tick tock, yeah, maybe some on Pinterest, any on Twitter or any potentially on like a LinkedIn. That's

Lauren Schwartz:

funny, we haven't really been doing too much testing on Twitter or LinkedIn, the biggest ones recently have been YouTube and Tiktok. Those have been the two that people are just really starting to dive into. And again, I think going on tick tock like diversifying your platforms is something I always tell my clients, like, don't put all your eggs in one basket, especially after all of the iOS updates, like Facebook is crazy. And it's not giving us what we want. So like, let's try other platforms. I mean, really, at the end of the day, it's like, we have the content, we can make it work, we can, you know, figure out the different formats, but again, at the same time, it's like you're gonna kind of put money on fire if you're only putting it into one platform.

Neal Schaffer:

I'm curious to companies that are investing in tick tock ads. Do they also have a good organic presence on tick tock? Or are you finding some companies that aren't even on tick tock that want to do tick tock ads?

Lauren Schwartz:

Yes, definitely. Which is definitely been hard because we're kind of like, okay, well, we'll give it a shot. But then at the same time, it's like well, we also need to build this organic search, but it's weird like, I think with tick tock you can because it's such an it's such an it is such an organic platform. that there are so many things that you can do and so many things that you can test like I actually think that going on Tik Tok, and building an organic audience. I think you can do it much quicker than Instagram and Facebook. So, obviously like we're always telling our clients like Yes, go on tick tock make an organic presence, but that's going to that's gonna build up faster than anything on Instagram. I think personally like I feel like it's just it grows faster on Tik Tok

Neal Schaffer:

today. Totally. So with Pinterest and just looking at the different platforms, I know that the the pins, the ads actually remain on the platform, right, even after the advertised and they might be picked up in organic search. Is that the same with tick tock?

Lauren Schwartz:

I don't think so. I don't think it stays on the it hasn't stayed on that I've noticed. Honestly, tick tock is still a pretty new platform for us with testing. So I don't necessarily see a lot of trends or like things that I'm noticing as far as like the ad side of things go, it's kind of still been kind of still been the wild, wild west for me when it comes to like testing and like figuring everything out. So

Neal Schaffer:

I think for a lot of us, but I think what's really cool about tick tock is it's not about I mean, yes, it is about the content creator, but it's more about the content. Right. Right. Exactly. And that's why I think the ads actually might be more effective on tick tock, even if you don't have an organic presence because of the fact that it really is focused on that content.

Lauren Schwartz:

Right, exactly. I think if you can entertain someone in your ad, or your you know, your ad that you've made, I think you're just you're going to do such a great job. Like, I mean, you could scroll on tick tock for hours. I know I do all the time.

Neal Schaffer:

That's what the data shows, right? Yeah. But it's also really good reminder to everybody listening that if you haven't embarked on tick tock, or you're familiar with the Facebook platform, but you're not familiar with the Tick Tock platform, this is really a good time in q4, 2021, q1 of 2022. Obviously, it's it's only getting more mainstream. And the data is actually really amazing, you know, more monthly, I forgot what it's more monthly time on site on, you know, on tick tock versus YouTube. And, obviously, this incredible uptake.

Lauren Schwartz:

Yeah, and they also have now I mean, tick tock is, you know, finally starting to kind of build up data, and they're starting to understand like, Okay, what do people want to see, and they've created this, it's a creative, you know, inspiration side where you can actually click on ads and see what ads are actually performing, which that's been huge, because we obviously have the Facebook ads library where like, I can go in and kind of see what people have. But it's great now to see what other people are are posting on tick tock as far as ads go, because then that helps B kind of figure out okay, well, like this is what's kind of trending right now. So how do I put that into the brands that I'm working with? So that's been a huge game changer for tic tock just having that data to kind of showcase to marketers.

Neal Schaffer:

When did they announce that by the way?

Lauren Schwartz:

I think it's been in the last couple months, but they definitely have a much more robust, it's still like in the works, but they definitely have you can check 30 days back seven days back and kind of go through the different categories and see what's kind of working right now on for ads.

Neal Schaffer:

And for those that haven't invested in tic tock ads yet, how would you describe the TIC tock ad platform in the backend compared to like a Facebook or even a Pinterest?

Lauren Schwartz:

I mean, it definitely is different. I want to say that if you if you've been on Snapchat, and like have build anything on Snapchat, I want to say it's kind of similar to that. It's definitely not not like a Facebook or Instagram, but it still is pretty, like it's intuitive. Like you can definitely build it and it's not complicated.

Neal Schaffer:

Gotcha. So some targeted questions, because there's obviously this impression that Tik Tok obviously skews younger, as does Instagram versus Facebook. Do you have with your clients a, if you're targeting from this age to this age, we should definitely test out tick tock. But if you're over this age, we shouldn't test it out. Or the same with Instagram. Do you have some of those guidelines? Or do you test out all the platforms let the data tell you what works?

Lauren Schwartz:

I do like Tic tock does trend younger, but I actually don't like when people say that because there are a lot of older people on tick tock, they may not be posting and you know, showing the videos but they're watching. And so I think the biggest thing is, you know, as long as you have a brand that could work on Tik Tok, then I say do it because even though these, you know, older this older demographic isn't necessarily posting on Tik Tok feed like they are watching it. And so they do have buying power. And even like the younger generation, I mean, they still have a lot of buying power as well. I don't tend to shy away from any platform. I mean, there's, again, it depends on what your brand is, and like what audience demographic you're trying to go for. But I mean, as far as you know, testing on the different platforms, I would say let's test and figure it out. I mean, if you could put a small budget toward it and it won't, it won't hurt you.

Neal Schaffer:

You also include a Pinterest and or YouTube in that testing or do you treat Pinterest just a little bit differently?

Lauren Schwartz:

I do treat Pinterest a little bit differently because I do Feel like Pinterest is I think Pinterest is still more of a female focused platform. And so I do feel like sometimes, obviously, there, there are men on Pinterest, but it does heavily skew women. And so I think for that, it's definitely figuring out what the brand is. Because I don't think that every brand should be on Pinterest. But I don't again, it's something that you can test because I, you know, you could be wrong, like it could gravitate really well with with the audience. So and then same with YouTube, I think, with YouTube, again, I'm seeing a pretty big uptick in my clients wanting to test on there, because it's just another platform that when if you have like more of a, something that you need to explain more, you can, you can have the longer videos, the 32nd videos, and the 32nd ads, which, you know, there are some people that are still watching the entire 30 seconds on YouTube, because it's more of like a, like a TV platform, but like kind of like you can have that sort of feel to it. And so more people will watch the entire ad,

Neal Schaffer:

ya know, that makes a lot of sense. So let's talk this has been a really great overview of just the state of paid social, in, you know, going into 2022. I love the the refreshing perspective on both the art, which is the creative, but also the science, which is the data and I think that every every company, every person listening needs to do the same. What are and I know this is very general question, but are there any tips and tricks that you recommend to create? I mean, there could be video ads, stories, ads, what you know, whatever sort of ad, what are some recommendations usually make in terms of creation and optimization for maximum conversion?

Lauren Schwartz:

So I think, so we'll stick to video. But I think, again, the biggest thing with creating the creative is, you don't have to have like a super high end production. Like you really just have your iPhone and shoot the content. And again, just make it very organic, make it very conversational. And I think the more you do that, I think the better conversion, you'll see. Because most of the time people want to hear a genuine, you know, a genuine story. And so I think the biggest thing is just making it, take your iPhone shoot something, you can cut a different couple different clips, if you don't have any like crazy Adobe editing software, there's a ton of free ones out there. Cap cut is probably one of the that's one of the ones that I use. If I honestly just need to make a quick ad on the fly like Kafka is a is a great platform, there's, you know, a bunch of other ones. I think splice is another one. But definitely like you can definitely make these things in a pretty quick way. But I want to say just making them very organic is probably the best way.

Neal Schaffer:

So you're not you're just using natural light, no ring lights. And you're not saying you need to plug in a lavalier mic to your iPhone. Just just That's right. I assume the closer you are to your iPhone, the better the audio pickup is. Would that be the only recommendation there? Yeah, I

Lauren Schwartz:

mean, again, like, you have to think of it in the perspective of general people. General people don't have ringlet, it's general, people don't have microphones, you know, so. And I think that's why the ads that are organic looking, look, people just gravitate more towards it. Because when it looks like a high production studio, people know that it's an ad and they go right past it. So I think like, yeah, just making it look very again, native, like there's great lighting everywhere, you know, so yeah, your

Neal Schaffer:

lighting is perfect right now. So cap, cut, splice, these basically allow you to sort of slice and dice and put videos together. Yeah, and then make small edits on them.

Lauren Schwartz:

Yeah, and they have like all of the Instagram copy, like the native text, and you know, everything that looks super native to the feed, so you don't necessarily have to edit in Tik Tok or Instagram, you can actually just edit on these apps, and it looks like it you created it in the platforms.

Neal Schaffer:

That's awesome. Are there any apps that you recommend specifically for adding subtitles or adding captions as you speak?

Lauren Schwartz:

Yeah, I mean, again, Instagram made captions in their feed. So you could obviously record it and then download it. And then there's also another app that's called captions. And you can add in the captions again, it's everything is very native looking. It looks like it came from instinct, but that one's a free one that you can use in and then v.io That's a great one for captions as well. I I use that all the time. It's it's a super easy platform.

Neal Schaffer:

Yeah, it's funny, I just spoke at an event for realtors. And that was the number one question was, can I use my iPhone for video? So and it's funny because for some reason, I went in my Instagram stories and I couldn't find the captions, maybe because I recorded a video without speaking and maybe it only appears intelligently. But anyway, it's good to know they're third party apps that support that.

Lauren Schwartz:

Yeah, definitely. You know, Lauren,

Neal Schaffer:

you've you've offered us so much invaluable information. It's so funny, I think 2021 With the emergence of Tik Tok and with Instagram saying they're no longer photos about video and I do agree Do people are so used to seeing video, if you really want to perform well, you need to go where what people are used to seeing and that story format or the video format. So all this makes sense, I think we really are at a turning point. And it's good to know that there's lots of apps out there, we don't need fancy technology. There are a lot of apps out there that we can use that can definitely help us in this journey. So thank you so much, Lauren, I know that there's a lot of people listening that might want to reach out to you and say, Hey, Lauren, how might you be able to help my company? So tell us how we can find out more about you and your company?

Lauren Schwartz:

Yeah. So again, my company is the loft three to five.com. And my Instagram is at the last three to five. So anything with that handle? You can find me.

Neal Schaffer:

Perfect. Lauren, thank you so much for your time and sharing your wisdom with the audience today.

Lauren Schwartz:

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. All right, everybody.

Neal Schaffer:

I really hope that you enjoyed that interview, I learned a lot, I always get asked a lot of those same types of questions that I was actually asking, Lauren, can I just use an iPhone when I shoot videos, etc, etc, etc. We really are at a turning point. And hopefully you will embrace a lot of the advice that Lauren has given you to further improve your paid social. As always, I thank you, not just for every listen. But for those of you that have gone out of your way to subscribe on your favorite platform, that hitting that subscribe button does send a very, very powerful signal to all the algorithms of all those podcast listening apps, as well as when you review the podcast or take a screenshot and share it with a friend over social media. Really appreciate your support. If there's any topics that you'd like me to cover on the show that you haven't heard me talk about recently. Obviously, feel free to reach out to me, Neil at Neal schaffer.com. And if you're wondering hey Neal, I you know, what, what podcast do you have about subject a or subject be if it's anything related to digital or social media marketing, have probably already done a podcast episode on it. Go over to podcast dot Neal schaffer.com, which is the official website for this podcast. And you'll be able to search using whatever keywords you want to find all those hidden gems of episodes that I've recorded over nearly 10 years, and a few 100 episodes of podcast under different names. Currently, it's your digital marketing coach podcast, not gonna lie. It's gone through evolutions, but guess what? Social media has gone through evolutions how we market has gone through evolution. So I consider it only natural that this podcast has gone through evolutions as well. Hey, that's it for today, everybody. This is your digital marketing coach Neal Schaffer signing out. You've been listening to your digital marketing coach, questions, comments, requests, links, go to podcast dot Neal schaffer.com. Get the show notes to this and 200 plus podcast episodes and Neal schaffer.com to tap into the 400 Plus blog posts that Neil has published to support your business. While you're there, check out Neil's Digital First group coaching membership community if you or your business needs a little helping hand. See you next time on your digital marketing coach.