Video marketing is a must-have for any business that wants to maximize customer engagement, raise brand awareness, and accelerate web traffic. The secret to revenue-driven video advertising ads is working with any of the best video ad makers.
Videos give your target audience a clear idea of your product/service. The more confident your ideal buyer is, the more likely they will purchase your offering. Effective video marketing ensures that this confidence is built through engaging and informative content.
94% of marketers believe videos increase user understanding of their product/service. And 81% firmly believe video marketing has directly impacted their sales. But that’s not all. Almost 90% of marketers say that videos on social media have significantly helped them increase web traffic.
But where the heck do you start?
Many brands don’t have the time and resources to hire an in-house graphic designer. So, they opt for any of the best video advertisement makers and do it themselves! Yes, it’s just that simple.
We researched and tested the best 13 video ad makers, and found the ultimate five video ad makers that are close to perfect!
Here are the top 13 video ad makers we tested:
I’m sure you’re dying to find out what these video ad makers are and how much they cost!
This detailed review has all those details and the pros and cons of each tool.
Let’s jump into it!
Out of all the great video ad makers we tested, five stood out as the best. Here is a quick comparison:
Best Video Ad makers | Key Features | Pricing | Our P2P Rating |
Wave.video |
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Renderforest |
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Adobe Express |
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Animaker |
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FlexClip |
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Video ads are popular because they offer a range of benefits for businesses. Businesses can optimize brand reputation by educating their target audience. You can also maximize your engagement efforts through a fun, informative clip. But we’re not the only ones who believe in video ads.
Here are the top 10 stats that prove the power of video marketing:
Before you can really test a video ad maker, you need to know what makes for a good video ad (and what to avoid), so, let’s explore the best practices for video ad creation:
While you may want to add humorous bits and pieces to your video, don’t forget to educate your audience. This is pretty much the purpose of using video ads – to educate your audience on your brand and what you offer. Refrain from long, drawn-out information, and keep everything you mention catchy and concise.
This is vital if any viewer wants to check out your business. Now you might think including your website link is a no-brainer. But brands that are new to this game often overlook this. Besides including your website link, make it clear and accessible.
Wyzowl confirms that 83% of video viewers prefer a chatty and informal tone. A shocking 75% of consumers chose not to support a business because the voiceover irritated them. So, in short, use a tone that sounds like you’re casually talking to the viewer.
You don’t need to create a 5-minute video because 2-minute videos get the most engagement. There may be a few exceptions to the rule. However, it’s best to keep your videos short and sweet.
Avoid using CTA’s like “Call Us Today” or “Find Out More Now”. Get creative and use a CTA that’s personal to your brand and your customers. Think about something they may never have heard before or quickly makes them resonate with what you explained in your video.
This is something you should never forget for video marketing. We all know how many internet users use mobile. By forgetting to make your videos mobile-friendly, you’d be saying goodbye to engagement rates from a significant number of internet users.
This is why Dollar Shave Club’s first video broke the internet. It was authentic and raw. No large amounts of money went into producing the video. The entire storyline was simple and original to the brand. This approach is what you want to be inspired by for your video. Refrain from using styles that have been used before and think of a fresh way to engage your audience. Take a look at Dollar Shave Club’s video:
You don’t have to do this through talking only. It’s also a great idea to show your audience how to use your service/product and how it may help them. Doing this allows you to create circumstances that your target buyers can relate to.
When you’ve published your video, you need to check in on it regularly to ensure you’re achieving your desired results. If you’re not, measuring the right metrics can help you better your approach next time around.
These are the metrics you should measure for video marketing:
You should measure these metrics weekly or bi-weekly.
Video advertising rules on search engines like Google and Bing, and social channels (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) have different regulations based on your country. Get clued up with these rules.
You don’t want to invest loads of resources, money, and time in videos that will be banned by search engines and social channels.
For example, social platforms have a lot of strict rules for advertising cannabis products. Brands can’t make certain claims, promote cannabis to kids, or promote cannabis at all, depending on the platform and your country.
Restrictions like these apply to many different products and practices, so make sure you’re compliant before you invest in making your video ads.
Branding is the key to successful video ads. Use consistent branding for all your video ads, like your logo, brand colors, and brand voice.
When targeted buyers interact with your video ads, they should be able to recognize your brand right off the bat. This way, when customers see your branding in any other places, like social media, they can associate you with your video ads.
Because of this, choose a video ad maker that allows ample customization to personalize your video ads to your business and target audience.
Your thumbnail for video ads matters because these are the first visuals users see before clicking on your ad. Ensure your thumbnail reflects your brand. You can use your logo or an image relative to your brand and video ad.
Your thumbnail must be high-quality, so your video ad looks professional. Blurry or poor-quality images won’t entice users to watch your video ad.
Not all your viewers will watch your video with sound. And you also have to consider viewers with hearing impairments. This is why brands must ALWAYS include captions for their video ads.
Many video ad makers have automatic caption features, so you don’t have to worry about adding captions yourself, but you should always check them to be sure they’re accurate.
These are the top 7 video ad-making mistakes to avoid:
“91% of marketers are satisfied with the ROI of video marketing on social media”
Right, now that we know what we need, and what we need to avoid, here is how we tested the top video ad makers to find the best of the best:
To test the top video ad makers, we looked at the practical application of making a video from scratch and the features you need to do it:
The first feature we evaluated for the best video ad-makers is the available templates. Not every marketer, creator, and business owner is a video editing pro. Beginners need professional templates to rely on before creating video ads from scratch. We evaluated not only the quality of templates but the quantity too.
Video ad makers with limited templates make it challenging to create authentic video ads. You don’t want to see your template pop up anywhere else!
There’s nothing more annoying than working with a video ad maker with a busy dashboard and poor interface. We found that many of the best video ad makers with lots of bells and whistles have much more complex dashboards and interfaces than those only offering video-making features.
However, what counts is how easy it is to navigate these interfaces. We prioritized interfaces and dashboards that are fun, easy to use, and don’t require too much learning.
An extensive stock library with high-quality media makes video-making easier. Perhaps you can’t photograph or develop media, so having a stock library eliminates that challenge. We looked at the quality and quantity of each video ad maker’s stock library.
Many video ad makers provide a limited stock library if you’re not on top-tier plans. But even so, we evaluated whether the available stock library is value for money and if it does enhance video ad creation.
Usability was a quick determining factor between the top 5 video ad makers and others that didn’t make the cut. Regardless of how robust a video ad maker is, smooth usability is imperative to get the job done. Some video ad makers have impressive features and look great but lag behind when it comes to usability.
With these factors in mind, we found 13 of the top rated web-based video ad makers and put them to the test. From there, we narrowed it down to the best five, which we’ve reviewed in detail below.
These are the 13 top rated (free and paid) video ad makers that we tested:
The tools we tested all had so many impressive features to make video ad creation quick and easy. However, many missed the mark when it came to usability.
Either the tool’s features took a long time to load, or the editor was clunky and made it a needlessly finicky process.
Many also lacked a decent selection of professional-looking video templates, which limits what you can do and the quality of the video ads you can make.
That said, after testing all the video ad makers, we found five that offered fantastic templates, seamless usability, a clean user interface, and a good stock library:
Wave.video is one of the best video makers because it offers all the features you need.
There are so many rich features Wave.video offers to:
All these features allow you to create the perfect video ad. You can join Wave.video’s free plan for basic video ad making. But if you’re working on a high-level project or need branding, the paid plans are your best bet.
We tested this tool and created a video to demonstrate what you can expect from Wave.video.
After signing up, you’ll find an intuitive dashboard with an overview of your projects. There’s a handy bar on the left to navigate your video streams and recordings, uploaded videos, templates, and resources.
It’s simple to find all your video content through the navigation menu, and you can view past projects and drafts.
You can also add “destinations”, which are social channels for your videos. Scrolling through Wave.video’s endless templates, it doesn’t take time to find what you need.
There are templates for live streams, discounts, video quotes, and customer testimonials, to name a few. These templates are easy to edit, but they are very basic.
When you create a project, you can start with a blank canvas, upload a video, use stock media or begin from a template. I started with a template to test Wave.video’s templates and usability. You have to upgrade to a paid plan to remove Wave.video’s watermark.
Here’s the video I created with Wave.video:
Pros:
Cons:
Website: https://wave.video/
Renderforest and Wave.video are tight competitors because they both have sound video editing features and functions.
The most apparent difference between the two platforms is that Renderforest supports more design tasks, like creating logos and cartoon animation.
Using Renderforest you can access features like:
As you can see, Renderforest has some of high-level design features going beyond video ad creation. You can access some of these features for free or join a paid plan for premium video editing.
The platform makes it easy to navigate between all these functions, through an attractive interface with inspiring colors and elements. The interface may be busier than most, but you can find what you need.
Once you navigate to “Videos”, from the interface above, you’ll land on a page with loads of labels and tags. This could be overwhelming for newbies. It makes it tricky to decide where to start.
You can choose the kind of video you’d like to create, or start with a template. There are loads of different templates to pick from, but it’s not easy to narrow down your options as there aren’t as many filter options.
To find all your video projects, click on your profile photo on the upper right side. When you click on “Videos” under “Projects”, you’ll arrive at a dashboard housing all your current and completed video projects.
From here, you can view your projects for other designs like your website or logo.
The quickest way to create a video with Renderforest is to click on “Create Video” from the interface. Unfortunately, you must be on a paid plan to remove the watermark. Using a template, this is the video I made:
Pros:
Cons:
Website: https://www.renderforest.com/
Biteable is a fun platform to reflect your brand through video ads.
With this platform in your toolkit, you can create video ads through:
One of our favorite aspects of Biteable is the intuitive, fun dashboard. The second I saw Biteable’s colors and layout, I wanted to create a video! And we did (but we’ll cover that shortly).
As you can tell, Biteable is all about customizing your video ad-making experience for your brand. When you first register, you’ll land on a page to customize your dashboard colors. You can tailor your dashboard to your brand, by deleting color combos and creating videos to generate new, tailored ideas. It’s a fun way to incentivize interacting with the dashboard.
After doing that, you can click “Create My First Video”. Once creating your video (or if you exit the page), you’ll land on a dashboard that’s similar to the ones we’ve seen. This is where you’ll work from. You can find your projects, templates, and brands here. Every time you need to create a new brand, not project, you’ll start with color customizing and then head to your home base, AKA, your dashboard.
Biteable has amazing templates to give you limitless capabilities for what video content you can create. There are well-designed templates for social media ads, employee on-boarding, presentations, and so much more. Here’s the video I created with Biteable. Unfortunately, you can’t download videos on the free trial!
Pros:
Cons:
Website: https://biteable.com/
Animaker is a beginner-friendly video ad maker that offers design functions for a wide range of content. This platform is ideal for small businesses and solo marketers.
For video ad creation, Animaker offers a few of these features:
It’s not too expensive to use, and there’s a free plan for basic video editing.
Unlike many other video ad maker tools, Animaker keeps its dashboard simple, with a clean interface. The dashboard itself is easy to navigate.
In front of you, Animaker stores your projects and cartoon characters. You can also use filters to find specific projects once you’ve created loads of content on this platform.
On the left-hand side of your dashboard, you’ll find a navigation menu. Here you can find your projects, any design elements you’ve favorite, and your team/workspace, and you can manage your exports.
To browse through the templates, Animaker has a button on the interface, above your dashboard.
You can look through these templates to start your video ad project or begin with any project types and templates from your dashboard.
While there are loads of templates, the designs are very basic. You can use filters to find the perfect template. But you can’t remove any watermarks unless you’re on a paid plan. Here’s the video I created.
Pros:
Cons:
Website: https://accounts.animaker.com/
FlexClip is a straightforward video ad maker. Most of the video ad platforms we’ve reviewed have all sorts of bells and whistles. But FlexClip provides premium video ad creation and editing features, and nothing more!
These are the features you can expect from this video ad maker:
There are three paid plans for FlexClip. Or, you can opt for the free option if you want to try this tool, or if you need a solution for small-scale video ad creation.
One of the best aspects of FlexClip is the dashboard. It’s clear and intuitive, and you can navigate around this platform through a menu on the left bar.
Users can view their drafts, completed projects, templates, stock library, and fonts. You can also access your cloud storage through this menu.
Because FlexClip doesn’t offer any features beyond video editing, finding the best template isn’t so tricky. You can use filters or keywords to find a template that suits your video ad.
However, the template designs are outdated and basic, so FlexClip isn’t ideal for high-level video ad projects. But the video elements are dynamic, adding professionalism to FlexClip videos.
After choosing your template, click “Customize”. You’ll have two editing options from here. You can edit in 1) timeline mode or 2) storyboard mode. We opted for timeline mode for this video we created with FlexClip.
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Website: https://www.flexclip.com/
Movavi has a lot of credibility and many businesses and marketers opt for this video ad maker. However, the biggest drawback of this platform that pushed it off the “top 5 list” is its usability.
For advanced video ad creation, Movavi offers:
While Movavi has loads of awesome templates and features for video ad-making, it’s a highly complex tool. Users need some understanding of basic video editing to get the hang of it.
For all these premium features, Movavi isn’t affordable for large companies that need loads of users. This is because Movavi charges per user, and this can become expensive for enterprises and big teams.
Pros:
Cons:
Pricing:
Website: https://www.movavi.com/
Adobe Express is ideal for high-level projects and fit for designers with or without experience.
Using Adobe Express for video ad making, you can:
Getting around this tool is easy. Once signing up, you’ll land on a simple dashboard. This is very similar to Wave.video’s dashboard, and you rely on a menu on the left side to navigate between features.
The templates are professionally-designed, and you can find countless different styles to match your brand personality. However, as you can design so much more than just videos, you need to cut through all the noise to find their video ad templates. After testing, we decided that Adobe Express is a great tool for editing video ads but not ideal making them from scratch.
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Pricing:
Website: https://www.adobe.com/express/
Animoto is an affordable video ad maker for marketers and small teams.
With this video ad maker, you can use some of these premium features:
Animoto is a basic tool, but the prices are competitive. The biggest reason Animoto didn’t make it to the top 5 video ad makers, is the lack of customization features.
Branding your video ads is vital to bring users into your brand experience. But Animoto makes it challenging to add your custom colors, fonts, and signature style.
Pros:
Cons:
Pricing:
Website: https://help.animoto.com/
InVideo is a really popular video editing tool, especially if you’re looking for mobile-optimized software.
Using InVideo, you can access video ad creations features such as:
InVideo has a lot to offer, and the dashboard is quite impressive. After registering an account, you’ll land on your dashboard. Here, you’ll find your templates, stock library, text-to-video, and a video editor for existing video ads.
The biggest drawback is how long this tool takes to load, and the video ad maker functions felt a little clunky compared to the other tools we tested. It’s also confusing to add and remove elements from different scenes, so it takes some time to learn these functions.
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Pricing:
Website: https://invideo.io/
SoapBox is a great video ad maker for marketers and small to mid-level teams.
With SoapBox for video ad creation, you can access these features:
SoapBox’s dashboard is basic and clean. It’s a lot more barren than other video ad maker dashboards we’ve reviewed.
You can view all your video projects, and navigate to your content and analytics with the upper-left menu. When hovering over “Content” and “Analytics”, you’ll find more spaces to explore.
However, SoapBox is best for video editing and optimization, not so much for creating videos from scratch.
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Cons:
Pricing:
Website: https://wistia.com/soapbox
Magisto is one of the most popular video ad makers for marketers and businesses of all sizes.
if you opt for Magisto, you can use features to:
Magisto has a similar dashboard and interface to SoapBox. You can create your first video from your dashboard, or navigate to your templates. Magisto also provides options to explore video ad’s by industry.
The biggest drawback that kept Magisto off the top 5 list, is the lack unique aspects and customization options. There isn’t anything that stands out and gives their users a customizable signature style for video ads.
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Cons:
Pricing:
Website: https://www.magisto.com/
Movidmo is a video ad maker for pros that are looking for high-level video ad creation software. It offers complex features and in-depth video editing.
When you start with Movidmo, you’ll notice a simple, clean interface showcasing all the many available templates. You can start with any of these templates, or just with your raw footage.
The drawback of this platform is its lack of usability. Movidmo had a steep learning curve. And, unlike most video ad makers, it works on credits, which quickly add up and make Movidmo a little pricey compared to the other tools we tested. If you’re experienced with video ad creation and editing, this could be a great tool. If you’re starting out and need to play around to figure out whats what, it gets expensive quickly.
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Pricing:
Website: https://www.movidmo.com/
Small to mid-level teams and marketers love Wideo because it’s easy to use and offers a free plan for short videos, however, the paid plans are a little on the pricey side.
These are a few of the features you can expect from Wideo:
The dashboard is fantastic because you can quickly see where all your features are placed.
The drawback was that the overall usability was a bit clunky and there weren’t many templates to choose from, and they were all pretty basic, with no original styles, unique fonts or striking colors.
Pros:
Cons:
Pricing:
Website: https://wideo.co/
To choose the best video ad makers, consider the platform’s usability, templates, stock library, and interface. These factors help choose video ad makers that are fit for beginners and optimize the process of creating branded video ads.
The best video ad makers we tested and found include Wave.video, Renderforest, Animaker, FlexClip and Biteable. These tools meet the criteria for sound video ad makers, and we created several fun videos on these platforms.
More of the best video ad makers include Wideo, SoapBox, Biteable, and Magisto, to name a few. All these tools can work for video ads, but some have more downsides than others, depending on your business. Choose any of these tools to create amazing video ads.
The top 5 free and paid video ad makers are:
1. Wave.video
2. Renderforest
3. Biteable
4. Animaker
5. FlexClip
These are the top five tips to create a video ad:
1. Educate your audience
2. Include your website link
3. Use a conversational tone
4. Consider your video's length
5. Have a powerful CTA
You can use the free plans of these video ad makers to create a short video for free:
1. Wave.video
2. Renderforest
3. Biteable
4. Animaker
5. FlexClip
6. Movavi
7. Adobe Express
8. Animoto
9. InVideo
10. SoapBox
11. Magisto
12. Movidmo
13. Wideo
The best web-based software to make video ads are:
1. Wave.video
2. Renderforest
3. Biteable
4. Animaker
5. FlexClip
Wyzowl: Video Marketing Statistics 2022
Business Insider: US digital video viewership will reach 244.4 million in 2020, driven by increases in the youngest and oldest age groups
Social Media Week: 2020 Video Marketing and Statistics: What Brands Need to Know
Animoto: Social Video Trends: Marketer Insights for 2020 and 2018 State of Social Video: Consumer Trends [Infographic]
MarketingSherpa: Inbound Marketing: How TigerFitness has grown its fan base through high-value video content
Content Marketing Institute: B2B Content Marketing 2020 and B2C Content Marketing 2020
Wistia: How Long Should Your Next Video Be?
Next TV: Mobile Videos Often Watched Without Audio, Study Finds