23rd July 2019
4 Min Read
Online video marketing works, and we know it works.
Creative, engaging, and shareable videos have shot to the fore of e-commerce ad campaigns in the last few years. As more customers use mobile devices and shared content to drive purchases, video marketing offers advertisers the flexibility and content format that customers want.
Better click-through rates, longer session times, reduced bounce rate, enhanced customer engagement, and dramatically improved conversion rates all work together to make video marketing a valuable addition to any e-commerce advertising strategy.
Out With the Old
Text and display advertising manage to eek out a meager click-through rate of 0.05%, a remarkably poor performance.
Users are simply inured to the idea of clickable advertisements – perhaps decades of over-use by over-eager marketers has desensitized the average user to their appeal.
On the other hand, video marketing increases session duration, reduces bounce rate, increases page views, increases conversions, and inspires legitimacy for businesses.
As a point of comparison, including videos in emails leads to a 19% increase in email open rates and a remarkable 65% increase in click-through rates!
Most of all, videos empower customers. Landing pages, product breakdowns, and reviews that make use of video content help customers find the information they need.
These empowered, informed customers are more likely to purchase goods they view as worthwhile – video content is one way of allowing you, the advertiser, to have your message better absorbed.
Why Do They Work?
Humans are naturally visual creatures. As valued as the vaunted written word is, the reality is that visual imagery is processed faster and with more comprehension than text.
This makes videos incredibly powerful.
Humans also have notoriously short attention spans – we switch gears in seconds. Videos, on the other hand, have a seemingly magical ability to make us commit.
Breaking the cycle of ‘page open, click link, read, close’ is what videos excel at, and they do so admirably.
Session Duration and Dwell Time
First and foremost, product videos increase overall session lengths. Users than they do reading text.
Longer time spent on a page means more time for your brand to absorb. Thirty seconds of video content is a lot more brand exposure than a few seconds of text scanning.
With 80% of customers reporting that they remember a video watched in the last 30 days, brand recall becomes paramount. Customers retain the information given to them and those memories transform into 34% higher conversion rates across the board.
Reduce Bounce Rate
The bounce rate for video blogs and video product pages are 34% lower than standard pages. That means users are interested in what you have to offer and find your content useful – engagement is always a plus.
What videos do is create a value proposition for users.
Visitors and future customers have problems that need solutions, and videos showcase those solutions. Customers want to be empowered – the more knowledge they have, the better. And the less overt digital advertising they’re exposed to, the happier they’ll be.
Videos empower the user, not the advertiser. And empowered users reward that content with dramatically lower bounce rates and far higher conversions.
Increase Page Views
Videos consist of the vast majority of web traffic in 2018. Mobile video traffic, in particular, is exceedingly powerful, with some 92% of users actively engaging in some form of video sharing.
With people spending an average of 2.6x more time on pages with video than pages without, customers have more time to find value in your product or service.
Increase Conversions
If there’s one place where the utility of videos shines, it’s conversions. Visitors who view videos are 65% more likely to purchase a product after viewing product videos.
With more than 50% of customers actively searching for videos related to a particular product or service, it’s no surprise that video marketing leads to higher conversion rates.
Giving customers the information they want in a format they actively seek out creates a wider reach for your marketing content.
Inspire Legitimacy for Businesses
Inspiring confidence in a brand or product is at the core of digital marketing. If people are convinced a product is an authentic solution to their problem, they’re more likely to buy.
Videos that utilize staff, business office, sample products, and everything in between are videos that make your brand stand out from the crowd.
Companies that rely on product videos to describe and showcase their goods in lieu of a dedicated store are the real winners. Visitors are able to experience the company’s product line without having to physically handle the material, and that’s a massive boost to credibility.
What About Google?
Google’s debut of its new Showcase Shopping ads is another step in the right direction for digital marketing.
Multi-image Shopping Ads by Google consist of a landing page filled with product information and promotional offerings. The new Video feature means that advertisers can place videos in the featured image location. This drives visitors towards the video content first.
That’s an important change.
When Google gives a new method of advertising preferential treatment, it’s big.
Moving Forward With Video Marketing
Is the use of videos in digital marketing heading the way of display ads? It’s too early to tell.
The evidence available suggests that video marketing is an impressive and creative way to reach out to visitors. Better bounce rates, increased conversions, and more customer engagement indicates that the use of videos is just beginning.
When Google gives a new method of advertising preferential treatment, it’s big.
A content marketing strategy that utilizes video marketing is the right one. Videos are more accessible, visually stimulating, and exponentially more powerful than the written word.
If you’re looking for the future of content marketing, the results are in: video marketing is the path forward.
