Video popularity is at an all-time high and this is a trend will continue to grow in the coming years. But how can you as a marketer stand out and make sure your audience is watching your videos? In this article, I’ll be sharing key insights and video marketing tips from a worldwide video consumer survey that was conducted in order to identify when, where, and how people watch videos, as well as their preferences for video length, sound, and formats.
There are two clear facts:
- Video is the most powerful form of marketing; and
- Consumers love watching videos.
Marketers already know videos are essential to the marketing mix. It is proven to be a vital medium and acquisition tool for sales, leads and brand awareness. In addition to the paid strategy, more social networks are allowing more opportunities for video (i.e. Facebook and Instagram Stories, Linkedin Live, etc…). This means brands and consumers have the ability to create more videos than ever before, both native and creative.
Access alone does not give marketers an advantage — especially when your target audience has access to the same exact tools as you. There are several questions left unanswered, like:
- Do marketers know how and where to post videos?
- Where is a brand’s target audience?
- What are their video preferences?
- Do consumers feel like the video ads they see on Facebook are relevant?
Questions like these were the recent premise behind Promo.com’s (the company I work for) consumer-focused video marketing survey. For the second year in a row, we surveyed consumers around the world to gauge their video habits, intents, and preferred channels.
It’s important to take note of opportunities where consumers are willing to share their thoughts and preferences. It allows marketers to do a better job and think like the end-users. You can dig in deeper on these stats and think about where and how they might apply to your own industry.
One of the most important findings we found (see more below) is that consumers are beginning to find more relevant ads in their video content. This means that the average consumer may see ads or sponsored video posts in places, like Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Reddit and more… If they visit those four places alone in a day, that means they may see dozens of video ads (or more!).
While you can read the full report here, here are a few of the key findings, along with video marketing tips for marketers to leverage:
1. People love watching videos
The number of videos people watch per day will continue to rise.
SURVEY SAYS? “49% watch over 5 videos per day (up from 44% in 2018)”.
MARKETER PRO TIP: As a business owner, if you want to increase your customer base and increase your sales, you should create more videos to interact with your users as often as possible. Creating a consistent video strategy might sound like a big commitment, but once you start, you will see that it is easier than you think and can be very rewarding for your business.
2. Facebook remains the most dominant marketing channel,
Unless your target audience is kids and teenagers and then you should probably focus on Snap and Tik Tok.
SURVEY SAYS? “67% of the audience we surveyed said they spend most of their time on Facebook”.
MARKETER PRO TIP: Keep your Facebook page active and up-to-date.
Since people spend most of their time on this social channel, you should publish valuable content on a consistent basis (it can be daily or weekly, depending on your business). Make sure to provide tips, answers to “How To” questions, inspiration and relevant information. People like to learn and be informed and they also appreciate humor and fun facts. It all works better with videos. There are great social media calendars that provide you with ideas and videos for every day of the year.
3. YouTube popularity as a marketing channel is increasing.
If you have decided to create more videos, don’t neglect YouTube as a hub for your videos.
SURVEY SAYS? “67% of the audience we surveyed named YouTube as their go-to resource for watching online video, which is up from 41% from the 2018 study.”
MARKETER PRO TIP: Publishing your marketing videos on YouTube can help you leverage the increasing power of this search engine and also strengthen your SEO ranking.
Remember the people are turning to YouTube to watch videos so you have a captive audience that is interested in videos. In addition, Google is now showcasing video results on its first page, so it can really strengthen your search engine optimization (SEO) and your Google ranking.
4. Stories will get more popular among advertisers.
SURVEY SAYS? “80% of people surveyed watch Stories”.
People clearly prefer the Stories format and many of them rarely scroll down their feed but prefer to browse horizontally with stories.
In addition, A recent finding from the “State of Social 2019,” by Jason Keath of Social Fresh says that Facebook Stories screen real estate is up 30 percent.
MARKETER PRO TIP: Don’t miss the opportunity to get results with Stories. People are in a certain mode when they browse through stories and not many brands take advantage of the situation. Unlike Instagram feed, where people expect a very professional, clean and well designed creative, on Stories you can be more authentic, quick and playful. It requires less time and resources so start posting a daily story out of your business page to engage with your followers.
Format your videos for vertical viewing. 9:16 is the recommended ratio and length should be up to 15 seconds. You can plan an engaging, chronological Story broken up into several short clips of up to 15 seconds each.
5. Video is the dominating ad format.
SURVEY SAYS? “79% of people surveyed find video ads very relevant or somewhat relevant to them.”
Due to an increase in Facebook ad targeting precision, consumers say they like watching video ads that are relevant for them. Not only that, they also take action after watching a video and it means they continue to engage with your brand, they visit your page, website or watch another one of your videos.“61% of respondents will “sometimes” visit the publisher’s social media page after watching a video, while 13% will “very often” click through to the page.”
Videos can also work upstream for brand recognition. 59% of respondents will “sometimes” remember a brand name after watching a video, while a shocking 24% of people will “very often” remember a company’s name after the video.“
MARKETER PRO TIP: Allocate budgets for online advertising. Use video ads. The organic reach on Facebook is very low. Using videos organically slightly increases the reach and engagement levels. However, if you’re looking to drive business results such as traffic, leads, or online sales, you’ll need to use ads. Boost your organic posts and use paid ads to target specific audiences.
6. Consumers prefer sounds on and subtitles.
We have heard for a few years now that people watch videos on mobile with sound off. When we asked 500 people about it, however, we got a surprising result:
SURVEY SAYS? “71% of respondents said they watch videos with the sound on. However, 46% said they prefer to watch videos with subtitles, and 21% said they have no subtitles preference.”
This surprising result is not in line with the statistics shared by Facebook in the last few years, but our assumption is that this might have to do with the ubiquity of wireless earbuds such as Apple Airpods, that became extremely popular around the world. While it’s purely a guess at this point, it’s hard to deny the convenience of these in-ear headphones.
MARKETER PRO TIP: While your videos should work even without sound, they can work even better with the sound on. Go ahead and add a music track or even a voice-over track.
The music track that you choose can make a major impact on the performance of your video. It can add an emotional impact on the viewer’s experience. Videos with voice-over might require a calmer song while videos that put music at the center will need a more dynamic song. To cover all your bases, make sure to add subtitles or captions. It will help to convey your message for both the muted viewer and to those who watch with the sound on. Pay attention to the design of your captions and choose the font and color that represent your brand in the best way. If you can add text animations it is even better.
Now that you better understand the key trends and preferences of consumers, start creating videos to better interact with your customers. Consumers already watch over 5 videos a day, let them engage with your business while they do that and remember that they really appreciate good stories and valuable content.
Utilizing the knowledge at your disposal will help you to develop more effective video marketing strategies, think like your target audience and help you achieve your marketing goals. Video is not going away, this we know. However, it means that marketers, now, more than ever, must be diligent in staying abreast of trends.
Questions about the survey or these video marketing tips? Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter at @Hila_Shitrit
Learn more about what’s in store for video marketing in 2020, in this great infographic from BreadNBeyond.
