How Important is Audio in Video Ads

importance of audio

What is the real impact of audio in a video? Think about this. What makes you start nodding your head when listening to a particular song or beat? Is it the video or the audio? What makes you love a particular movie or character? Is it how they look or how they speak and express themselves verbally? Why does listening to a particular genre of music changes your mood? It’s simple, audio.


Audio elicits emotions. That’s why you can listen to a 2-hour long podcast, but can’t watch a 10 minutes video with no audio. That’s why Hollywood spends millions of dollars on getting the perfect sounds for scenes such as gunshots, car collisions, fistfights, et cetera.


Imagine watching a horror movie with no audio? Would it be as scary, if at all any scary? It is the audio that makes us anticipate certain actions or movements, that creates suspense, and evokes different emotions when we are watching movies and other videos.


Going back to video marketing, imagine what would happen if you were to adopt the Hollywood style of an audio generation when creating a video ad. But even before we go there, let’s think about this question.


What makes up a good advertisement campaign?

While marketing may sound more like just another way to make people buy your products, it is more about arousing emotions in certain aspects of your product. Marketing is about telling a compelling story to make people trust you or your products. And there is no better way to achieve this than with quality audio. Otherwise, how will people understand you?


Think about the great Apple marketing campaign by Steve Jobs.
He didn’t mention anything about apple features or the products they were selling at the time. With just a simple story and the tagline “Think Different”, he was able to capture the emotions of everyone who believes in success, greatness, and hard work, and linked those emotions to the Apple brand as a representation of hard work and success.


Was the video that good?

Absolutely not. I bet you can barely remember what the video was about, yet you can remember most of the words Steve Jobs said. That is how important audio is. No matter how good or high quality your video ad might be, it can be easily killed by the audio you link it with.


But don’t get me wrong.

I’m not saying you focus all your effort on the audio and completely ignore the visual aspect of your ads.

Videos do a great job of helping people link what you’re saying with what they see, and make it easier to remember.


The key determinant, therefore, of how successful your video campaigns will be are solely dependent on you striking a balance between generating high-quality video or visual elements, and linking matching audio elements quality-wise, to help make the story more convincing and arouse emotions you intend.


The key thing here is not to fall into the temptation of spending all your effort on video production and forgetting about the audio. You will be shooting yourself in the foot.


Here are some of the reasons why audio is important

  • It evokes different emotions that you can capitalize on to make your brand or product associated with a certain emotion or feeling
  • Audio can be used to set a certain atmosphere even before the video starts – For example, the sounds of phones ringing, glug, or a water cooler and humming of a copier can be easily associated with an office setting. Sounds of chicken clucking, pigs oinking, and cows mooing can be easily associated with a farm. Honking cars, engines idling and revving randomly, and random shouting can be associated with a city street.
  • Audio quality can make or break your video – How many minutes can you watch a movie whose audio and video patterns are not matching? Can you watch the news when there are background noises of people chatting and laughing? Similarly, make sure your video quality is of the highest quality to attract your audience into listening more to what you’re saying.
  • Audio can’t be ignored- Think of the many times we turn on the tv and continue doing other things. We call it background noise, but exactly why do we do it? Audio has a sneaky way of getting into our brains even when we’re not concentrating. That’s why you find yourself enjoying a piece of background music even when you’re busy working.


Once you understand why you need to focus most of your attention on generating the right audio, the next step is determining how to actually get the audio.


Tips to generate the perfect audio quality for your video ad


Define your goals


Of course, the first thing you need to do before anything else is sit down and come up with a plan. Brainstorm the emotion that you want your ad to evoke, the message you want to pass along, and the effect you want the ad to have on your brand image.


For example, if you sell a digital marketing training course, you want your audience to feel pumped and energized to get started. Consequently, you want to come up with audio that gets your audience’s adrenaline pumping. A high tone with emphasis on high revenue would work great.


On the other hand, if you own a restaurant, you want to come up with audio that evokes the emotions of security, love, peace, and general relaxation. A soft, calm voice complimented with some soft music would work perfectly in this instance.


Get the right tools


Preparation can only take you so far. You need to invest in the right audio and video recording tools to capture everything clearly. If you aren’t that familiar with how video and audio recording works, it would be a better idea to hire a professional to do the work for you.


Another key point to remember here is people speak differently. You need to carefully choose a person that speaks in a manner that matches the emotions you want to evoke. For instance. You can’t ask Kevin Hart to voice over a horror movie. Like, come on, his voice wouldn’t scare anyone.


Choose the filming location wisely


The best place to record the perfect audio is in a studio. You need a quiet place with no background noises or echoes at all.


Make sure your video and audio are in sync.


There is no greater turn-off than a video with audio that doesn’t match. No one will watch it. You need to make sure that each word is properly synced to the exact time it is said or when a particular action occurs.

Take Away


Video marketing requires a lot of effort, both in terms of finance and time. And while it can go a long way in helping you increase sales and boost your brand image; it has to be done perfectly to get you the right results.


It needs to be well thought out, carefully planned, and properly developed for it to be effective, more so the audio aspect of it.

Therefore, if you’re thinking of producing any video marketing campaign, achieving quality audio should be at the top of your list.