Let’s face it: those of us in the communications and marketing world are faced with ever-increasing pressure to use video online. As little as five years ago, some business people grumbled it’s faster to skim a written page to see if you really want to take the time to read it than to click on a video, wait for it to load and watch to see what it’s about. However, with ever faster broadband, instantly streaming video takes no time to load. Marketing videos tend to be short and have become ubiquitous online.
When you read these video marketing statistics, it’s obvious why there’s such strong pressure on marketers to use video online.
1. According to MWP Digital Media, 59 percent of senior executives say if both text and video are available, they prefer to watch the video.
2. Social video is shared 12 times more than text and images combined. (Small Biz Trends)
3. The average video holds 37 percent of viewers all the way to the end. With short videos under 90 seconds, this retention rate is an average of 53 percent. But the top 5 percent of videos hold 77 percent of viewers until the end. (Hubspot)
4. According to Ad Age (as of December 2018), YouTube has 1.9 billion monthly viewers who spend 60 billion minutes a day of viewing time. That comes to an average of 32 minutes a day.
5. According to an annual survey of marketers by Wyzowl, in 2017, 63 percent of marketers said they were using video as a promotion tool; in 2018, 81 percent said they were; and in 2019 this number jumped to 87 percent. In 2019, 91 percent said video was important to their marketing strategy, 83 percent said it provided a good return on investment and 99 percent said they’d continue to use it in 2019. Of that 99 percent, 88 percent said they’d spend more budget this year on video than in previous years. Of the minority of marketers surveyed who weren’t using video, 74 percent planned to begin using it in 2019.
6. In a survey of 168 companies conducted for the Aberdeen Group in 2015, companies that used video in at least one marketing channel grew their businesses by 13.3 percent compared to 8.9 percent for companies that did not use video. Video users also grew their annual budgets by 45 percent more than non-users.
7. One of the most interesting observations about the Aberdeen Group survey data was the relationship between video marketing and “multi-touch nurture-based marketing campaigns.” The researchers concluded that use of video in marketing helped marketers become more sophisticated, with the goal of engaging their audiences and not just getting more clicks or viral views. The data showed that video users had higher click-through rates on their emails and higher website conversion rates than non-video users. Researchers also surmised that video users were more proficient with marketing technology than non-users.
8. According to an article in Huffpost, email marketing using videos has a 280 percent higher rate of return than traditional emails.
9. Video increases user understanding of products or services, according to 94 percent of marketers using video in Wyzowl’s survey, and 81 percent said it has helped them generate leads.
10. Live video streaming is growing in popularity. According to Google’s annual YouTube Data report, 60 out of the 100 most popular YouTube live streams took place over the past two years.
There are considerable video marketing statistics about what makes some marketing videos work better than others. Keep the following tips in mind when planning your marketing video content:
• Hooking a video viewer right away is crucial. Twenty percent of viewers turn off a video within the first 10 seconds. (Digital Donut)
• Most marketing videos are between one and four minutes. According to WordStream, videos up to two minutes long get the best engagement. However, the length can vary according to the video’s objectives, subject matter and where viewers are expected to watch the video. But the key to success is the ability to keep people engaged from beginning to end, no matter what the length.
• According to WordStream, 85 percent of Facebook videos are viewed without sound. More and more video producers are using subtitles as a result.
• Virtual reality is not just for gamers. VR videos are the next big thing in marketing videos. Agencies have begun to pop up that specialize in creating VR videos for marketing, and according to Hubspot, 71 percent of consumers believe brands that use VR are forward-thinking.