Why Video Is Now Essential to SEO Strategy for SMBs

Video advertising has always been a costly, resource-intensive undertaking. Even a short digital ad often involves a scriptwriter, a design team, a video crew, a motion graphics editor, and a round of post-production. For small and mid-sized marketing teams, the barrier to entry for consistent video content has remained high.  Recent advances in generative AI are beginning to change that.

The July 2025 announcements from Google, Meta, and Adobe reinforced how aggressively major platforms are integrating generative video tools into the creative workflow. Adobe unveiled enhancements to Firefly, including text-to-video capabilities that enable users to generate animation and transitions directly from scripts or storyboards. Meta previewed AI-assisted ad creation tools designed to customize video variants for different audience segments. Google introduced a suite of generative tools for YouTube advertisers, allowing for versioning, personalization, and voiceover in minutes, not days.

These innovations are not simply about production speed. They create a pathway for advertisers to localize or tailor their video assets at scale. For SMBs, this presents an opportunity to move from occasional video campaigns to a more consistent cadence of visual storytelling.

There are practical limitations. Most current generative tools require human oversight to ensure brand consistency, visual clarity, and compliance. The outputs are improving rapidly, but many still require post-editing, particularly for professional or regulated use cases. Nevertheless, the baseline level of effort required to create a viable video asset is falling fast.

From a marketing operations perspective, SMBs can begin preparing in a few clear ways:

  • Maintain a structured content brief for video creation, including tone, messaging, and usage constraints.

  • Build a small library of video-ready templates and brand elements to ensure output consistency.

  • Explore generative video tools in low-risk campaigns, such as social media or retargeting, before moving upstream to core brand assets.

The goal is not to replace video professionals but to give smaller teams the tools to produce, test, and iterate video content more effectively. SMBs that develop fluency in these emerging capabilities will be better positioned as platforms shift toward video-first ad formats.

Summary Tip: Start building a video production playbook that incorporates generative tools, and begin testing their value in limited-use campaigns.