No matter how captivating the visuals are, a piece of content without engaging audio doesn't hold my attention as effectively. Voiceovers, which appeal to our millennia-old response to language, typically offer the most engaging audio tracks available.
There are studies to back this up:
- A study by Pandora found that audio advertisements inserted between songs in personal music playlists impacted long-term memory 36% better than television advertisements and 29% better than mobile video advertisements. (source: wellsaidlabs.com)
- Another interesting finding is that a voice-over in an ad increases brand recall. This can potentially be explained by the following: Human voices can generate empathy while transmitting emotions and feelings. (source: dvj-insights.com)
Not to mention that if a piece of content is playing and your eyes are distracted for a second, at least your ears can still pick up the message if there’s a voiceover.
UGC is Best
Traditionally, companies have hired professional voice actors for their ads. But now, with the rise of UGC, anyone with a decent microphone can become a voiceover artist. It's like comparing a Michelin-star restaurant to a neighborhood food truck – both have their merits, but the approach and end results are different.
If you’ve already got your UGC sourcing pipeline humming, you have one of the most authentic forms of voiceover already. Unfortunately, UGC can be difficult to source - especially for smaller, newer brands. In a pinch, you may need a faster, more efficient solution for immediate use.
That’s where AI steps in.
AI Voiceovers are Surprisingly Decent
I know, you’re rolling your eyes. We’ve all heard “Jessie” on tiktok, sounding robotic.
But you know exactly what voice I’m talking about - and that voice has taught you a thing or two, hasn’t it?
That’s cause even as robotic as she sounds, Jessie is better than silence.
Jessie’s reign felt like yesterday, and it’s already over. Today, Jessie is a fossil.
I spent 20 minutes today briefing in a new ad for a client. The brief included:
- Text overlays - to convey the meat of the message visually and in cases where the sound is off
- Storyboard - complete with stock video clips to help paint the story
- Script - complete with all the messaging points
- Voiceover audio - lifted straight from the script and generated in ElevenLabs
I won’t get into the specifics for the other pieces of the workflow - but for the voiceover, I knocked my own socks off.
Watch this loom to see what I mean: Demo - ElevenLabs AI voice overs - Watch Video
This is lightning fast and super cool.
- Copying and pasting your script takes a second
- Fiddling with the voice settings takes a few tries to get right - but is weirdly fun
- Adjusting the tonal range gives you options for how engaging the narration sounds (the less monotone the better)
- The ability to cycle through different voice profiles means you always have the right gender, age, and accent for your target audience to relate to
- At around the 6 minute mark - you can see how you may need to finesse the text to get punctuation just right so the voiceover flows organically
In action
This ad is made 100x better with the ElevenLabs voiceover. We wanted to start generating leads fast - but didn’t have any talent ready. So we opted for AI voice and it sounds very much like our target customer.
Welcome to the Future
This isn’t a plug - even though I wish ElevenLabs had an affiliate program.
I was just truly tickled by how awesome this tool was.
It's like having a professional voiceover artist sitting next to you, ready to deliver on-demand. What once took days, now takes literal seconds.
With this in your toolbelt, you can adjust your voiceovers as easily as you do the script in your word doc - perfect for unleashing hook testing.
Extras
- I’m putting together a full creative workflow utilizing AI for creative - including Midjourney. I’ll start rolling it out over the next weeks. Here’s a sample of the process: SOP - creative strategy + briefing - Watch Video
- If you have any questions / thoughts - please let me know in the comments!
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