How to create an animated ad to promote your business?

Table of Contents

Do you want to create an animated ad for your business but aren’t sure how to get started? Video Igniter’s FAQ about animated ads answers everything wanted to know about how to make and use an animated ad.

Content:

1). How to make an animated ad?

2). What does it cost to make an animated ad?

3). How do I find an animator to help me create an animated ad?

4). How do I promote my business with an animated ad?

5). How do I save money on my animated advertisement production budget?

…And more!

Examples of Animated Ads You Can Get From Video Igniter

Video Igniter can create any kind of 2D or 3D animated ad for you. Check out our animation portfolio here. Request access to our demo reels and price sheet here.

Are you looking for an example of a different style of animation? Send us a message to let us know what kind of animation example you want to see and we will follow up with relevant production samples.

How to make an animated ad?

Questionnaire

After you’ve selected an animated video production company for your animated ad, they will send you a questionnaire to learn more about the video you want them to create. This is an opportunity to explain to your animators:

What information you want to convey in your ad.
Who your target audience is, and how to speak to them.
What visual style to use for the ad.
What call to action you want to include at the end of your advertisement.

Include a call to action at the end of your animated ad

Examples of calls to action you can include at the end of your animated ad.

Script

Now that you’ve had a chance to describe the video you want to create, your animation team can write the script for your animated ad. For a ballpark estimate, if you’re creating a 30 second animated ad, your script will be about 75 words long.

When the first draft is ready, give it a detailed review focusing on the ideas being presented and the story that connects them together. Ensure the presentation is delivered in a way that speaks to your target audience.

Collect your feedback, send it to your production team and they’ll incorporate your edits. You’ll get an opportunity to review the updated script and approve it for production or you can send them another round of edits.

Storyboard

After your script is approved, it’s time to create your storyboard. The storyboard is the blueprint for your animated ad. It tells the illustrators and animators what to create.

Your production team will develop the first draft of the storyboard and send it to you to review. Each page includes a sentence from your script, a rough mockup of the scene, directions for the animators and a list of the assets that are needed to create the scene.

When you review the storyboard, focus on the visual ideas that are going to be used to bring your script to life. Do the visuals enhance or detract from the presentation of the key messages in your ad? If you want to make revisions, let the production team know. Otherwise, mark the storyboard as approved so that production can proceed.

VoiceOver

Your video animator will help you procure voiceover auditions for your animated ad. Typically, they will order up 1-3 voiceover auditions for each character/narrator in your video. You get a chance to review the auditions and select your favorite(s). Then, the production team will oversee the production of the full voiceover recording to guide the VO artist through the pacing, tone and energy they should use. You get an opportunity to review the full voiceover and request revisions before approving it for production.

Soundtrack

The animation studio you are working with will also help select some soundtracks that will enhance the presentation of your animated ad.

Give the soundtracks a listen and let your production team know which one you like best so they can purchase the license to use the music in your ad. Can’t decide which soundtrack you like best? Let them know and they will help you preview your favorite options when the first draft of your animated ad is ready to review.

Illustration

Creating illustrations for an animated ad happens in two phases:

Creation of the concept art
Creation of the rest of the art

Illustration begins with the creation of concept art. This way, the production team can develop and refine a unique visual style specifically for your animated ad. Once the concept art is fully developed and approved by your team, the animation studio will create all of the rest of the art for your video to match the style of the concept art.

Concept art is created by reviewing your storyboard, style references and your company’s branding. The art director will select a key scene from your storyboard and develop custom art for that scene using one or more unique visual styles. You get an opportunity to review the concepts and work with the art director to refine the visual style til you are 100% satisfied with it.

After you approve the concept art, the art team will develop the rest of the art for your animated ad. You get an opportunity to review all the illustrations and request revisions before approving the art for animation.

Animation

Now that everything is approved, it’s time to animate your ad! 2D animation takes about 1 week for content under 60 seconds in length. When the first draft is ready, give it a detailed review with your team and members of your target audience. Then, collect everyone’s feedback and share it with your animation team so they can incorporate your edits and render out the final draft.

What does it cost to make an animated ad?

Ballpark budget range for a 30-second 2D animated ad: $1,000-$5,000+.

Ballpark budget range for a 30-second 3D animated ad: $3,000-$25,000+.

Check out this article for a more in depth look at animated video pricing.

How do I find an animator to help me make an animated ad?

Picking the right animated video production company to make your animated ad is a key decision in the animated video production process.

Here are some resources to help you find the right animated video production company to produce your animation’s ideal visual style, on time and within your budget:

9 Things to Look For When Hiring An Animator to create an animated ad.
How do you hire an animator?
How do you outsource an animated video project?
Pros and Cons of Different Animation Styles
What goes into production cost of an animated video?
Learn the different types of online animated video makers.
Interested in 3D animation? Read about 3D animation makers.
What’s the difference between hiring an animation studio, a freelance animator and Video Igniter?
What is Video Igniter Animation?
Need your video fast? Learn about rush delivery.

How do I promote my business with an animated ad?

SEO

The best way to leverage your animated ad is to get your video to appear at the top of Google and YouTube’s search results.

To learn more about Video SEO and how to optimize your videos to appear in search engines, check out our Video SEO guide!

Facebook/Instagram

Facebook and Instagram make it easy to create targeted video advertising campaigns to get your animated ad in front of your target audience. Their built in platform tools make it easy to guide viewers to your site or your social pages if they’re interested in learning more about your company and staying connected with your brand while they determine if they want to become a customer of yours.

TikTok & SnapChat

TikTok & SnapChat also offer self-service ad platforms like Facebook and Instagram. If you have developed your video to play in vertical mode and you want to reach a B2C audience, consider using TikTok or SnapChat to promote your ad.

YouTube Ads

Wanna reach almost any kind of person on the planet with your video message? YouTube is used around the world and offers self-service ad tools that let you promote your animated ad to specific members of your target audience.

If you want to promote a B2B company, Linkedin is the best platform to reach your audience. CPMs and CPCs are higher on Linkedin compared to most platforms but it is one of the few places online that you can reach a business-specific audience with your animated ad at scale.

Traditional PR

If your animated ad can be used to explain and illustrate something that is new and topical, consider including it with your PR outreach. It’s a tall order to expect publications to promote your advertisement for free. However, if your video presents a novel idea or makes it possible for people to understand a new complicated idea, it will be easier for the publication to justify including your animated ad when they write an article about your company.

Honorable Mention: Hulu

Hulu also has a self-service ad platform that you can use to develop large scale TV advertising programs.

Why use animation to create an ad?

Why do people use animation to create animated promotional ads instead of using live action filmed content for their ad?

Get more awareness

Animated ads help marketers gain awareness better than live action videos. Animated ads use colorful thumbnails and eye candy visuals that make the viewer more likely to click play and give the video a few seconds of attention to see if they want to keep watching.

Makes it easy to understand new information

Animated ads visuals that focus the viewer’s attention and a voiceover to explain your key message(s). You could show a photorealistic 3D animated model of brain neurons firing, or you could break the process down into a simple 2D animated diagram that walks the viewer step by step through what is happening when neurons fire. In either case, the animated visuals make it easier to understand what is happening compared to trying to learn that information from a paper book.

Holds attention, boosts memory recall.

Animated ads introduce new colorful movements every few seconds. This appears to be enough to dramatically increase viewer retention rates throughout the course of the video. As a consequence of paying attention to the ‘user friendly’ visuals that make the information easy to understand, the viewer’s ability to retain information goes up.

Makes it easy to share important messages

There are many ways to promote your message to the world. Sharing a video via a link happens to be one of the most useful and scaleable ways to get a mass media message to large audiences or to a specific target market.

What are some good examples of animated ads?

How long does it take to make an animated ad?

It takes 3-5 weeks to produce most 2D animated video ads. 3D animation takes about twice as long to produce. If you need to speed up production, check out our rush delivery animation option.

To learn more about the animated video production process and how long each stage of the production process takes, check out this companion article:

How long should my animated ad be?

That depends on what your goal is for your animated ad…

If your goal is to get awareness

Aim for a length of 5-60 seconds. Most awareness videos are in the 5-30 second range. The purpose isn’t to tell people your whole story. The goal is to get them intrigued enough to want to learn more and share your story. In many cases, the shorter the better.

If your goal is to educate your leads and prospective clients

For leads and prospects that have already heard about you and want to learn more, your videos should be about 1-2 minutes long.

Long videos are usually reserved for customer education and retention. Longer videos can be used to give an in depth look at your product/service to show how it works. You can also make longer, feature-length content (30-90+ minutes) that would be of interest to your target market. Consequently, this feature-length content could be repurposed to gain awareness among new potential customers as well as delighting your existing clients.

Want to promote your animated ad? Click the image below to schedule a call with our production team or use this form to get in touch.

How do I maximize the business outcomes of my animated ad?

If you want to maximize the effectiveness of your animated ad, check out the following resources:

7 Tips to help you write a great script.
Pick the right visual style for your promo video.
6 Tips To Increase Viewer Engagement.
Review the Do’s and Don’ts of Explainer Videos.
7 Tips For Using and Improving Your Businesses’s Video.
Learn how to interpret your video’s viewer data to see if it needs improvement.
A/B Test variations of your promo video to improve its conversion rate.

How do I save money on my animated advertisement production budget?

You can write the script for your animated ad.
You can create the storyboard for your animated ad.
You can use free (legal) music.
You can record the voiceover for your animated video ad.
Consider using stock assets.

For more tips on affordable animation and how to keep your production budget as low as possible, check out this companion article:

Still have questions about animated ads?

Do you have a question about making or using an animated ad that wasn’t answered in this FAQ? Use this form to contact us with your question. We will follow up with an answer and then we’ll post the question and answer to this page.

What is Video Igniter Animation?

Video Igniter Animation is an online animated video production service. By working with our team online, you can get your custom animated video produced faster and for less than hiring a brick and mortar animation studio.

We can help you create any kind of 2D animation or 3D video you can imagine. Check out our animated video portfolio!

Do you want to create an animated cryptocurrency video or an animated blockchain explainer video that explains how your technology works? We can help with that too.

Watch our explainer video to learn more about how we can help you create an animated ad for your business:

Looking For An Animated Ad Production Company In The U.S.A.?

Video Igniter is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

Animated Ad Success Stories & Testimonials

“Video Igniter offered us the critical combination of creative value, clear communication, and patience with stakeholder feedback. We ended up with truly high-quality design assets for our video series largely due to the extra level of commitment — and the right balance of efficiencies with flexibility in the process when called for.”

Larry Schlessinger – Sr. Creative Program Manager, Amazon Web Services

“I am beyond satisfied with my experience with Video Igniter. The first drafts of the work were almost exactly what I had in my head when developing the concept. After that each step along the way was seamless until arriving at a perfect finished product. And all this at a tremendous value. Anyone who has considered creating a marketing video should check out Video Igniter.”

Anonymous Customer Feedback

“Video Igniter came to us with a number of creative and engaging ideas and were able to create an exciting, impactful video in a short period of time. And the best part was that it cost much less than other options of similar quality. The video they made is a great marketing tool for us.”

Alex Raymond – Founder, Kapta Systems

Get in touch about creating your animated ad

Schedule a call with our production team to discuss the production of your animated ad.

Get a quote for us to create your animated advertisement.

Request access to our newest price sheet.

Create your Video Igniter account, fill out a creative brief, and we’ll start creating your animated ad.