8 Reasons Why Video Review Campaigns Fail

November 16, 2023

Digital video marketing holds immense potential. But building an effective UGC campaign that yields results is challenging for many brands.

Investing countless hours and resources into a video review campaign only to see it fall flat is devastating.

Especially with over three billion digital video viewers worldwide. The average consumer spends 17 hours per week watching online video content. And getting your brand in front of them is the dream.

If your brand fails to resonate with the target audience, there’s a reason your efforts are not working. Avoid these issues to unlock the true potential of your campaigns and make a lasting impact.

1. Inability to find user-generated content

There are a few reasons user-generated video content (UGC or UGVC) is dominating the Internet. It features real people instead of paid actors, it showcases examples of how people use items in real life, and it offers trustworthiness you can’t fake.

With a comprehensive video review campaign, you’re gathering user-generated video content from your users and fan base. There are a variety of ways to promote your campaign, from QR codes to social media contests to hashtag campaigns.

However, you need to ensure that your marketing team finds the content and leverages it in future marketing efforts.

If your brand is not using the right platforms to identify relevant content, you’re missing out on a gold mine of untapped potential.

Furthermore, if your team is missing out on videos as they’re published, they risk overlooking your brand's most viral videos.

It’s understandably difficult to keep track of everything manually. This shines a light on tools that automate video discovery.

2. Target audience misalignment

A crucial factor that determines success or failure is target audience misalignment.

Without a clear understanding of who the campaign is intended to reach, the most expensive campaigns can fail to catch on with the right viewers.

Brands must invest time and effort in gleaning videos from the right target audience. They must understand their preferences, needs, and pain points, and leverage their input.

Reviews from customers who fall outside of your target audience aren’t likely to help. And promoting UGC that doesn’t match your audience is a fast way to turn off potential customers. A successful video review campaign starts with a solid foundation of audience research and analysis.

By aligning the campaign with the right target audience, marketers can maximize engagement, increase conversions, and achieve key objectives effectively.

3. Poor quality or irrelevant videos

Maintaining a standard of quality and relevance is crucial for success. While UGC brings authenticity and diversity to these campaigns, poor quality or irrelevant videos can undermine their impact and deter potential customers.

User-generated content is known for its genuineness and relatability, but not all UGC meets quality standards.

Brands must curate content carefully, ensuring that the videos chosen are well-shot, clear, and reflect positively on the brand.

Poorly-produced or blurry videos can damage the campaign's credibility and discourage viewers from engaging with the content.

Featuring the highest quality videos, suggesting talking points for reviews, and asking for thorough and honest feedback are critical steps for successful video review campaigns.

You can invest all the time and resources into promoting your video review campaign to the right audiences, but that doesn’t automatically guarantee quality.

Answer these questions to ensure quality:

Is the review clear and to the point?
Is the reviewer authentic and trustworthy?
Are the audio and visual elements high-quality?
When someone watches the video, what is the takeaway?

4. Not leveraging influencers and brand advocates properly

In addition to gathering video reviews from your typical customer base, your campaign should also include collaborations with paid influencers and brand advocates.

Influencer marketing is a multi-billion dollar industry that has more than doubled in size since 2019.

A common error is leaving this component out of your video review campaign entirely. While organic content from everyday customers is a treasure trove, it works well in parallel with sponsored content.

When you partner with the right influencers who match your niche, audience, values, and voice, you amplify your reach to so many more potential customers.

5. Lack of engagement with your audience

Failing to interact with your audience can have big repercussions on your campaign’s efficacy.

The absence of comments, engagement, and overall brand presence demonstrates a lack of customer appreciation and responsiveness. This can seriously ding your brand trust and loyalty.

Without addressing customer feedback and questions, you miss out on valuable opportunities to make connections and leverage real consumer insights.

With video review campaigns, brands are counting on personal investment from their user base. So how does it look if a company asks for reviews but doesn’t give its customers the same time and attention they’re demanding?

Active engagement and a genuine, human touch go a long way in fostering a strong brand-consumer relationship.

6. Insufficient promotion and distribution strategies

You can source excellent UGVC from customers and influencers, but if you don’t promote it properly, it could still flop.

Without a robust plan on how to distribute video content across channels, your campaign may not gain traction or visibility. Cross-channel distribution is key since it amplifies the potential for brand exposure, audience engagement, and social sharing.

YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and - what is now “X” - are the primary platforms for promoting content. Insufficient promotion and distribution strategies in UGC campaigns lead to worrisome results.

When promotional efforts are not adequately targeted, the campaign's reach remains limited, and it fails to attract meaningful engagement. Simply put, neglecting important social media platforms results in missed opportunities.

To optimize the success of UGC content campaigns, brands must develop comprehensive and well-defined promotion and distribution strategies that leverage crucial social media channels.

Brands must also be mindful of communication that creates confusion, disinterest, or hampers motivation to submit their own video reviews.

7. Inadequate budget and resource allocation

Inadequate budget and resource allocation in UGC content campaigns severely impede their effectiveness and overall success.

Insufficient funding limits the reach of the campaign. It reduces exposure to potential viewers and hinders engagement.

This lack of resources leads to a lower reach. Low-budget campaigns also don’t give users good examples to follow or beat, so the UGC tends to suffer.

Constrained budgets prevent the campaign from exploring collaboration opportunities with influencers or other brands—sacrificing impact.

Inadequate resources also limit the ability to monitor and optimize a campaign's performance effectively.

To maximize the potential of UGC content campaigns, brands must prioritize appropriate budget allocation to finding content, invest in strategic marketing efforts, and continuously analyze performance data to make informed adjustments and improvements.

8. Inaccurate measurement and analysis of campaign performance

Inaccurate measurement and analysis of campaign performance in UGC content campaigns hurt their effectiveness and potential for success.

When metrics are not adequately defined or tracked, it’s challenging to gauge the campaign's impact and determine its overall performance.

This lack of precise analysis leads to misinterpretations of data, making it difficult to identify successful strategies and areas that need improvement.

As a result, brands miss valuable insights into audience behavior and content engagement, which are crucial for optimizing the campaign's reach and encouraging user participation.

To ensure the success of UGC content campaigns, brands must implement a well-defined measurement framework, closely monitor relevant performance metrics, and draw actionable conclusions from the data to make informed decisions and refine their strategies accordingly.

Conclusion

Building an effective UGC content campaign requires meticulous attention to various crucial factors.

From targeting the right audience, curating high-quality content, and leveraging influencers, to fostering active engagement and developing robust promotion strategies, each element plays a vital role in achieving success.

However, all these efforts could go in vain without accurate measurement and analysis of campaign performance. Brands must invest in the tools and resources to find valuable insights.

By doing so, they can make informed decisions, optimize their strategies, and unlock the true potential of UGC content campaigns. So, remember to measure, analyze, and refine to ensure your campaign's success.

Here are 6 examples of winning video review campaigns.