The Science of Creating Viral Short Video Ads

In today's digital world, capturing people's attention is extremely valuable. There's so much content being created and shared on social media every day that it's become really hard to get noticed. However, some content creators and brands have figured out how to consistently make short video ads that go viral and spread like crazy. So, what's their secret? It turns out, there's actually a science behind creating viral content.

In this article, we'll take a deep dive into the main principles, strategies, and tactics that top content creators and brands use to consistently make viral short video ads. We'll explain how virality works, break down the algorithms that control how content is distributed on social media platforms, point out common mistakes to avoid, and give you a step-by-step guide for creating viral video ads that reach a lot of people, get them engaged, and deliver business results.

Whether you're a solo entrepreneur, a social media marketer, an affiliate, or a media buyer, the insights in this article will give you the knowledge and tools you need to become an expert at making viral short videos.

Understanding the science of virality

What makes content go viral? It may seem like viral hits happen randomly or by luck, but in reality, there are specific factors that consistently drive people to watch, engage with, and share certain videos. Top creators understand these factors and intentionally use them to make their content go viral.

Here are some key principles of viral content:

Emotional impact: Viral videos evoke strong emotions in viewers, such as joy, surprise, awe, anger, or relatability. Content that elicits an emotional response is more likely to be watched and shared.
Storytelling: Our brains are wired for stories. The best viral ads are like mini-movies with a clear beginning, middle, and end. They have relatable characters and a narrative arc that takes viewers on an emotional journey.
Element of surprise: Viral videos often have unexpected twists, wow factors, or moments that make people think, "I can't believe that just happened!" These surprises compel people to share the content with others.
Social currency: People share content that makes them look good and provides value to their social network. Viral videos are often funny, awe-inspiring, informative, or highly relatable, which reflects positively on the person sharing it.
Simplicity: In a generation of short attention spans, successful viral videos are easy to understand and have a clear, focused message. Overly complicated ads tend to fall flat.
Timeliness: Viral content often taps into what's happening in the world - current events, pop culture, conversations, and trends that are top of mind for people.
Authenticity: Overly polished, fake content is easily detected and ignored. Viral videos usually have a raw, genuine, human element to them, rather than feeling too staged or like typical advertisements.

When you understand these drivers of virality, you'll notice that they consistently appear in viral hits on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and others. While the content may vary, the psychological factors that drive people to consume and share content remain consistent.

Dissecting social media algorithms

To make a video go viral, it needs to reach a large audience through social media algorithms. These algorithms are machine learning systems designed to keep users engaged and spending time on the platform. They consider various factors and signals to determine which content will keep people scrolling and coming back for more.

Here are some important elements that influence social media algorithms:

Early engagement: The algorithms pay close attention to how quickly a video receives likes, comments, and shares in the first few minutes to hours after it's posted. If the engagement is high, the algorithms will show the video to more people to maintain its momentum.
Watch time and completion rate: Videos that hold people's attention for longer periods and have a higher percentage of viewers watching the entire video are favored by the algorithms.
Session starts: If a video prompts users to open the app or platform, it's considered a big positive signal by the algorithms.
Direct shares: When users share a video through direct messages or external platforms like texts or other social media platforms, it indicates that the content is worth sharing, and the algorithms take note of that.
Rewatches and saves: If a video is so captivating that people watch it multiple times or save it to watch later, it signals high value to the algorithms.
Viewer/creator credibility: Algorithms are more likely to promote a creator's future videos to a wider audience if their past content consistently performs well. Building credibility as a content creator is essential in gaining algorithmic support.

The important thing to remember is that the goals of the social media platforms and content creators align. If you create highly engaging content that captures attention, the algorithms actually want to promote it and make it go viral. Their success relies on identifying and amplifying excellent content. Instead of trying to manipulate or outsmart the system, focus on creating content that resonates with the algorithms and keeps viewers engaged.

A framework for creating viral video ads

Now that you understand the science of virality and how social algorithms work at a high level, let's walk through an actionable, step-by-step framework for developing viral video ad creative:

Step 1: Research and insights

Start by understanding your target audience, your brand's voice and perspective, and the social media platform you're working on. Here are some key research points:

Audience: Learn about the people you want to reach. What are their demographics, interests, and needs? Where do they spend time online? What kind of content do they enjoy? Put yourself in their shoes. The simplest way to start with this this, is to see the trending topics on Twitter based on your audience and niche.
Competitor analysis: Analyze your direct and indirect competitors. What video concepts and styles are successful for them? Are there any gaps or opportunities for differentiation?
Platform insights: Understand the specific requirements and preferences of the platform you're using. What video lengths, aspect ratios, storytelling techniques, and editing styles work best? Adjust your strategy accordingly.

Step 2: Format and concept development

Based on your research, start developing potential video formats and concepts that align with your brand and resonate with your audience. Consider the following:

Keep it simple: Can you convey the main message within the first few seconds? Is there a clear hook, request, or takeaway?
Evoke emotions: How can you grab attention and make viewers feel something right from the start? What emotional aspect will you highlight?
Visual appeal: How can you create an eye-catching first frame? What will make people pause their scrolling and watch the video?
Native design: How can you adapt your content to match the specific platform? Add trending sounds, features, text overlays, and other elements that feel natural to the platform.
Uniqueness: What's your unique perspective or approach to the topic? How will your brand's voice and personality shine through authentically? Avoid copying competitors.

Step 3: Script and storyboard

Once you have a great concept, it's time to write a script and create a storyboard. The script outlines the dialogue and narration, while the storyboard is a visual representation of each shot in your video. Here are some tips:

Hook in the first 3 seconds: The beginning of your video is crucial. Find a way to create curiosity and give viewers a reason to keep watching. Start with a powerful shot.
Evoke emotions: Use the first few seconds to establish an emotional connection with the audience. Make them feel something - curiosity, relatability, fear of missing out, wonder, etc.
Deliver on the promise: Your video should follow through on what you promised in the beginning. Build up the story or tension and have a clear climax and resolution.
Add hidden surprises: Include small jokes or references that viewers might catch upon rewatching. These "Easter eggs" make your video more enjoyable and shareable. Reward attentive viewers.
Have a clear call to action (CTA): Every video should have a specific action you want viewers to take, such as liking, commenting, sharing, saving, or visiting a link. Make the CTA relevant to the video.

Step 4: Production and editing

With your script and storyboard ready, it's time to shoot and edit your video. Consider these production tips:

Shoot with editing in mind: Capture multiple takes, angles, and additional footage (b-roll) that you can use during the editing process. The editing stage is where the magic happens.
Use quick cuts: Social media videos, especially Reels, Shorts, and TikToks have a fast-paced style. Cut between shots every 2-4 seconds to maintain visual interest and keep the momentum going.
Optimize for sound-off viewing: Many people watch videos without sound. Ensure your video can be understood and enjoyed even without audio by using captions, graphics, and visual storytelling.
Adapt to platform requirements: Format your video to fit the specific aspect ratios, lengths, and file sizes required by the platform you're using.
Create an eye-catching thumbnail: The thumbnail is the image that represents your video. Choose a compelling still from your video that grabs attention and makes people want to watch.

Step 5: Test, optimize, and replicate winners

Once your video is complete, publish it and pay close attention to its performance. Most videos don't go viral immediately, so it's important to iterate and optimize. Consider these factors:

Analyze audience retention: Look at the points in your video where viewers tend to drop off. Make adjustments to maintain interest and create a more consistent engagement.
A/B test different elements: Create different versions of your video with variations in hooks, thumbnails, and CTAs. Test them to see which version gets the best response and learn from the data.
Learn from successful competitors: Study the top-performing videos in your niche or topic. Identify elements that you can tweak or test in your own videos.
Review viewer comments: Pay attention to the feedback and sentiments expressed in the comments section. Comments can provide valuable insights for improvement and ideas for future videos.

Creating viral videos is both an art and a science. It requires a balance of creative intuition and data-driven optimization. Be patient with the process and commit to continual experimentation and iteration.

Common mistakes to avoid

With the right foundation in place, let's look at some of the most common mistakes brands and creators make when trying to create viral video ads:

Optimizing for vanity metrics over true engagement: It's easy to fall into the trap of designing content that gets a lot of quick views but doesn't hold attention. Clickbait titles and shock-value thumbnails might get clicks, but lead to low watch times and poor downstream performance. Focus on grabbing AND retaining attention.
Trying to appeal to everyone: Watering down your content to appeal to the broadest possible audience is a recipe for creating something bland that deeply resonates with no one. The best viral videos are highly targeted at a specific community, subculture, or psychographic - insider jokes, references, and relatability that make that audience feel seen.
Avoid looking too much like an advertisement: People's guards go up when they feel they're being sold to or marketed to. Overly polished, inauthentic, "ad-like" content tends to be scrolled past and ignored vs. content that feels organic to the platform. Match the UGC look and feel.
Focusing too much on production value over concept: You don't need fancy equipment, sets, graphics, or effects to go viral. In fact, overly produced videos can hurt performance. A low-fi video with an incredible concept will outperform a polished video with a mediocre concept every time. Invest in ideation overproduction.
Jumping on every platform trend: Chasing trending sounds, memes, filters, transitions, etc can provide a temporary bump, but it's not a long-term strategy. Focus on evergreen storytelling techniques vs. fleeting gimmicks.
Inconsistent posting and pivoting too quickly: Building a viral presence takes time and consistency. Don't expect your first video to go viral immediately. Keep publishing content regularly and use audience feedback and data to make improvements and optimize your approach.
Neglecting research and strategy: Too many brands jump straight into ideating and producing videos without doing the necessary upfront research on their audience, competitor landscape, and platform nuances. Always start with research to guide your format and creative decisions.

Q & A with Brendan Kane

To get more insights on the topic we held a Q&A with Brendan Kane, the founder of HookPoint and a master of viral marketing

Q: What are the key elements of your approach to creating viral content?

A: There are three core pillars to the approach I've developed over the past 15+ years of driving billions of views and revenue with social content.

First is research - you have to put in the work to deeply understand the larger social ecosystem and gather data on what storytelling patterns and structures are currently engaging audiences at a high level. That allows you to identify proven formats that will be a good fit for your specific brand, rather than guessing or just going with your subjective creative instincts. The upfront research is what enables you to work smarter and avoid costly mistakes.

Second is single production iteration, meaning you produce one piece of content at a time, publish it, and carefully review the granular results before moving on to the next piece. You're pressure-testing to see if the content lived up to what your research indicated would work. If it fails, it only happens for two reasons - either you focused on the wrong things in the research phase, or you failed to properly execute on what the research showed you. But by playing it out one video at a time, you can course-correct much faster than if you batch produce a ton of content all at once.

Third, and perhaps most important, is committing to mastering a single format. The world's most successful content creators, from Mr. Beast to Vox to Vice, they don't try to do a million different things. They pick a format that works for them and they drill it to perfection, just like how great filmmakers hone their craft by repeatedly using the same fundamental story structures. It's about quality and depth, not quantity and breadth.

When you put it all together - letting data guide your creative choices, pressure-testing each piece of content, and relentlessly iterating on a focused format - you end up with an extremely powerful system that conserves your resources and consistently drives outsized results relative to the competition. That's how we've helped creators and brands of all sizes generate over 60 billion views across platforms.

Q: How do you analyze content formats to extract insights on what makes them go viral?

A: My team and I use a process we call the "Gold, Silver, Bronze" analysis. We'll take a successful content creator and break out their videos in a spreadsheet by level of performance - the top 10% "Gold", the middle 60% "Silver", and bottom 30% "Bronze."

What's fascinating is you'll often have the exact same creator using the same format across all those tiers. So then the question becomes, why did this video get 10M views while this one only got 100K? What are the key differentiators?

To figure it out, we go through the videos and score them across over 50 granular performance drivers - everything from the visual storytelling elements to the delivery to the emotional tonality. And we cross-reference the Gold performers against the Bronze to identify the handful of variables that seem to have an outsized impact for this particular format.

For example, I walked through a case study in my talk of a clinical psychologist on TikTok who frequently uses a "visual metaphor" format. In a Gold video that drove 12M views, we noticed that she was actively manipulating physical objects to demonstrate the concepts, she created immediate tension in the first 3 seconds with an overflowing basket, and she incorporated everyday items that were instantly relatable. Whereas in a Bronze video on the same topic that only got 130K views, she used static toy cars that just sat there, there was no visual problem to hook you in, and the items didn't forge that instant connection.

Those insights become our guide rails as we work to replicate the elements that drive success while avoiding the traps that lead to underperformance. And the beauty is, you can translate those structural learnings to any vertical, because the fundamentals of attention and retention are universal even if the subject matter is different.

It's a hyper-focused, data-driven approach that removes a lot of the guesswork and allows us to engineer content that reliably hits the algorithms' sweet spot. We're not just throwing stuff at the wall, we're using this deep research process to identify the core DNA of high-performing content, and then we use that DNA as our creative North Star.

Q: What are some of the biggest mistakes you see brands making with their content strategy?

A: I see brands falling into the same handful of traps over and over again. Probably the most prevalent is getting tunnel vision on surface-level quantitative data, like view counts and engagements, without digging into the qualitative insights that actually move the needle.

They'll get stuck in this loop of putting out content and then just looking at their own narrow slice of analytics, but if your videos are averaging 10,000 views, your own data is not going to magically show you the path to averaging a million views. You have to look outside yourself at what the outlier top performers are doing differently.

Another big issue is brands often get caught up in arbitrary "best practices" around posting frequency or timing, without recognizing that the platforms have evolved. 5-10 years ago, when competition was thinner, yeah, posting daily or even multiple times per day could help you brute force growth to some degree.

But now, with billions of users and an effectively infinite ocean of content, the platforms are heavily optimizing for retaining attention, not just adding noise. Posting when you have something valuable to add is much more important than hitting some generic target number.

I also see a lot of brands try to use paid media to compensate for underperforming organic content - almost like they're trying to "force" a bad video to go viral. And certainly, paid can be very effective at adding fuel to the fire when you have a piece of content that's already getting strong engagement.

But it can't fix mediocre creative, and in fact, you're likely to torch your budget because the algorithms will detect that people aren't resonating with the content and your costs will skyrocket while your reach plummets. Never use paid as a band-aid.

And then zooming out to the organizational level, I think brands get in trouble when they expect a siloed "social media expert" to come in and have all the answers. The reality is, the platforms are changing so fast that nobody can honestly claim to be an expert at everything.

The skillset you really need is less about any specific domain knowledge, and more about having the humility and adaptability to systematically test and learn what works for your unique situation. It requires a real full-funnel, cross-disciplinary approach.

So those are some of the common failure modes. But the good news is, they're all completely avoidable if you commit to a research-driven model. When you let the data light the path, and you have the structure in place to act on it quickly, you can drive incredible results no matter how much experience you have or what resources you're starting with. It's a super exciting time.

Conclusion

In today's world, where there is an endless amount of content competing for people's limited attention, creating viral short video ads is both challenging and rewarding. It has become easier to reach a large audience using just a smartphone and a great idea, but it has also become harder to stand out and capture people's attention. However, those who understand the science behind virality, work with social media algorithms, and have a process for developing emotionally compelling video concepts that suit each platform can consistently create viral hits.

Here are the key principles to keep in mind:

Evoke emotions: Create content that makes people feel something. Emotionally engaging videos are more likely to be shared and go viral.
Tell simple and surprising stories: Keep your videos concise and deliver unexpected twists or elements that captivate viewers.
Grab attention quickly: The first few seconds of your video are crucial. Find ways to immediately grab attention and entice people to keep watching.
Tailor content to each platform: Understand the unique characteristics and preferences of the platform you're using and design your content accordingly. Each platform has its own native format and style.
Analyze data and iterate: Pay close attention to the performance metrics of your videos. Use the data to make informed decisions and continually improve your content.

Creating viral videos is not a matter of luck; it requires a deliberate process involving research, strategy, and creation. With the framework provided in this article, you now have a roadmap for developing your own viral short-form video ads. It will take practice, persistence, and ongoing optimization, but the rewards of reaching a wide audience and achieving significant business results are well worth it. Here's to your next viral hit!