Can short form video really boost your traffic?

Posted on November 25, 2022 in Company Internet Marketing, internet marketing, Internet Marketing Company, Link Building Service, Local Internet Marketing, Marketing, Mobile, Mobile SEO, Online Marketing, Search Engine Marketing Services, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, SEO Services, Social Media, Social Media Management, Social Media Marketing Services, Video Marketing, Video Optimization, Video Search Engine Optimization, Video SEO, VSEO, web video marketing, Web Video Production

For a long time now, video has proven to be one of the most effective weapons in your marketing arsenal. The challenge always seems to be how long a video needs to be for it to be truly effective with regard to driving traffic and making conversions. The latest controversy has surrounded what is known as short form video. These are videos that are anywhere from fifteen seconds to ten or so minutes long and can be versatile in their use. Some recently gathered research published by Soocial, may help to get a handle on the short form and how you can use it for maximum effect. The following is taken directly from that published report:

  • HubSpot’s 2022 Marketing Industry Trends survey found that 54% of marketers were already investing in short-form videos to achieve their promotional goals. What’s more, 85% of the marketers surveyed said they believe short-form videos were the most effective format on social media.  Short-form video content ranked at the top of the list of marketing options for lead generation and engagement, and 47% of marketers said shorter videos were more likely to go viral.
  • HootSuite conducted a study on social media trends in 2022 and found that 39.4% of companies said they were using short-form videos to sell services and products. This made short-form video the most attractive investment option for all companies selling on social media.The second most popular technique leveraged by these companies was social ads at 29%, and a further 29.6% of companies said they were actively investing in user-generated content.
  • In a survey of its customers, Animoto discovered that longer videos actually deter customers from watching. Around 59.9% of respondents said they would avoid watching a video they considered to be too long. When it came to figuring out how long videos should be, Animoto noted that Facebook currently advises businesses to keep video lengths to only 15 seconds. Animoto also noted that 47% of the value in a video is usually shared within the first 3 seconds. Demand for shorter videos was also noted by Animoto on Instagram, where it found videos an average of 26 seconds in length achieved the most comments.

  • Vidyard’s annual Video in Business Benchmark report found the average length of business-related videos did start to rise from six minutes in 2020 to almost ten in 2021. However, the report also noted the majority of videos were less than 2 minutes in length (56%).
  • In a study of the retention and engagement rates of explainer videos, SumoMe found the sweet spot for most explainer clips is one to two minutes. When a video goes over 2 minutes in length, views drop from approximately 77% to 57%. However, there are differences with certain kinds of video. Animated explainer videos, for instance, had the highest audience retention rate at only 60 seconds in length. Audience retention for up 60-second videos was 77%. The report also found the average 60-second video would usually hold a customer’s attention for up to 47 seconds.
  • Analyzing the engagement rates of instructional videos, Techsmith discovered the majority of viewers prefer their instructional content to be between 3 and 6 minutes in length. Content more than 20 minutes long was only chosen as the top choice by 10% of participants in the study. Notably, however, 83% of the respondents in the study said they preferred to watch a video to access informational or instructional content rather than reading an article or listening to audio.
  • The Wyzowl report on video content in 2022 found that 73% of consumers would prefer to watch a short video to learn more about a product or service. Only around 11% of consumers said they would prefer to read a text-based article, and 4% said they would like to see an infographic.
  • Notably, Wyzowl also discovered that 96% of their respondents had watched an explainer video to learn more about a service or product. A further 78% of consumers said they had been encouraged to download or purchase software due to watching a video. Additionally, 88% of consumers said watching a video had convinced them to purchase a product or service from a brand.

-Written by Kevin Sawyer