What are the most effective video strategies for this year?
We at Next Day Animations have set out to learn what videos have been made, what results organizations and companies have seen, and most importantly, the most successful strategies when it comes to video marketing.
As we gathered research from across the web, the results have spanned over 2,000 professionals, 100,000+ businesses, and over 90 million uploaded videos. Here’s a summary of what we’ve learned:
How are businesses using their videos and seeing success?
- Video marketing can be applied to engaging your entire sales funnel:
- intrigue unaware prospects
- move leads forward
- deepen trust with existing clients
- Both the amount of videos watched and the time spent watching has increased in 2024.
- 80% of the customer journey is likely to start from watching a brand video on YouTube.
- 93% of businesses say that video is a key part of their marketing strategy.
- 80% of companies want to create more videos.
- 60% of companies plan to invest more money in videos.
- Video creates 300x more website traffic compared to other types of marketing.
How to get people to press play
- Use high-quality videos. 62% of viewers will likely change their opinion about a brand if the video is low quality.
- Use a custom thumbnail. They increase play rate by 7%.
We recently created this launch video to introduce the SummerQuest program at the Berks County Library.
- Put shorter videos where you get more traffic.
- Put longer videos where people with high intent go (aka they are searching for the information you’re providing, they are already dedicated to watching your videos, etc.)
How to get people to keep watching
- Use captions! This can:
- Grow viewer affinity by 95%
- Boost recall by 58%
- Improve likability by 31%
- Improve your SEO
- Of all the types of videos created, “How to” instructional explainer videos of 3 to 5 minutes long perform the best with a 74% engagement rate.
- Show your product or service in use and teach people how to use it most effectively.
- What counts as a view?
- YouTube: Watching for at least 30 seconds, regardless of whether it’s embedded on another site or being watched by you. Also rewatching.
- YouTube: Watching for at least 3 seconds. Also rewatching Reels, which replay automatically – another way the algorithm prefers vertical video.
- Instagram: Watching for at least 3 seconds. Also rewatching (with certain limitations to prevent bots from artificially increasing numbers). Satching a reel within stories and self-views do not count.
- TikTok: The second your video plays. Rewatching counts. If you’re running an ad campaign, the platform takes additional measures to help you calculate the accuracy.
Having more content means more touchpoints for audiences to connect. Click to see more from this project created with the Ad Council, US Forest Service, and the Ad Council.
How do you improve ROI?
- Add CTAs, annotation links, and forms to drive traffic
- For videos UNDER five minutes: Put them at the end of your video for conversion rates ranging from 9% to 12%
- For videos OVER five minutes: Put them at the beginning of your video for conversion rates ranging from 20 to 24%
- You can do this on YouTube, Vimeo, and Wistia, among many platforms. NOT available on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, etc.
- Google made an algorithm change in 2023 to prefer videos with their own dedicated page over pages where videos are just one aspect of the content!
Social Media Posting: Best Practices
- Most businesses post 3 to 5 per week.
- Most of these posts are short clips repurposed from longer videos.
- The best days to post vary depending on the platform.
- Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn: Monday
- X: Friday
- YouTube: Saturday
- The average length of video posts also varies depending on the platform.
- Facebook and X: under 30 seconds
- LinkedIn: 30 to 60 seconds
- YouTube: 15 minutes
Whew! That takes us to the end of our report.
But, remember: The most important thing is to track your stats to see what your audience responds to.
These tips are a great jumping-off point. However, your work is unique and you may see different results – or have different goals. Keep the big picture in mind. Ultimately, you’re trying to inspire action, whether that’s buying a product, volunteering, registering to vote, or whatever else you can dream up. Views are great, but just one part of the picture. You want to track your big goal and see how your video helps move the needle.
Bottom line: Quality explainer videos perform the best across platforms. They encourage people to take action and build trust. Create sleek content that is meaningful and authentic to your brand and track the stats that matter most.
Next Day Animations is here to help! Get a quote here or give us a call to learn more.
Get in touch today: (202) 747-0404
Sources: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/state-of-video-marketing-new-data?hubs_content=blog.hubspot.com%2Fmarketing%2Fhow-video-consumption-is-changing&hubs_content-cta=State%20of%20Video%20Marketing%20surveyhttps://www.yumyumvideos.com/blog/what-counts-as-a-view/https://www.enterpriseappstoday.com/stats/video-marketing-statistics.html
