How to Squeeze Every Last Drop of Value from your Video Content
TIP 2: SHOULD YOU BE DITCHING YOUTUBE FOR FACEBOOK?
It’s been hard to ignore the recent buzz discussing the rise of Facebook and how it seems to be overtaking YouTube. When we consider the amount of time people spend scrolling down their Facebook news feed it’s obvious that there is incredible potential to leverage video marketing on this social platform. But as a fairly new contender in the world of Internet video, many may still understandably be unsure of how useful Facebook Video can be and how to unlock its full potential to reach new and existing audiences (and maybe even sell your products!)
The Facts
With Facebook announcing that its users now watch 4 billion videos on its service each day, jumping from 3 billion a day in January, it seems to be knocking YouTube right off the top spot for online video viewing. More importantly, it has transformed itself into a serious platform for brand building and is now the favourite for marketers to upload their video content directly.
Facebook, the Contender
A recent report from Mixpo revealed that more and more advertisers and agencies are taking the Facebook plunge when it comes to video advertising. When asked about what platforms they ran video campaigns on last year and what platforms they plan to run video campaigns on in the next year, more respondents reported plans to run video ads on Facebook than any other network, including YouTube.
Social platform specialist, Social Bakers, showed that Native Facebook videos get more reach than any other type of post "Facebook users are hungry for video and incorporating it into your strategy can help your content get in front of more people than if you simply stick to photos, links, and text status updates."
4 Reasons Why Facebook is the ‘new’ place to be for video advertising
- Targeting: The social network makes it really easy for advertisers (large and small) to target very specific groups of consumers. Jonathan Nelson, CEO of Omnicom Digital, says, “When you have that much known information, tied to analytics and an ad server, you can start doing messaging in a way no one’s ever done before. That’s marketing nirvana! and Facebook isn’t only great for advertisers because of targeting — it’s also great because of the engagement factor"
- Auto-Play Video Ads: Facebook has its ‘auto-play video ads’ to thank for most of its new found success, a fairly new feature which automatically begins to play video when a user scrolls past in their news feed. If a video is played for more than 3 seconds, then Facebook counts this as a viewing. This creates new opportunities for marketers to auto-play their video in front of a wider audience, and on a mobile platform used by millions every day.
- Embedding Facebook Videos directly onto other sites: This means users who are excited about your content can share it on their blogs, Tumblr and many other web platforms. It’s a small, but clever move that can increase your audience and interaction by leading other users back to your Facebook business page from other sites.
- Updated plug-in for video comments: This means that any comments on your video and views from other sites, can also appear on the original upload on your Facebook page.
Campaigns that have soared on Facebook include the Christmas ad for John Lewis. According to Unruly Media in the first 24 hours after launch, Facebook had stolen 40% of the online audience for the video when previously there was none (as last year John Lewis only uploaded its video to YouTube.)
More recently, Dove took a camera onto the streets and asked the public “What did you gain with age?” The video was posted on both Facebook and YouTube. The video collected well over half a million views and an impressive amount of interaction on Facebook, compared to just 300 views and 0 comments on YouTube.
So Where Does This Leave YouTube?
With all this newfound success for Facebook, should you be ditching YouTube when it comes to your video marketing plan?
Well not quite yet! Facebook may be on the rise, but there are still lots of benefits to sharing videos on YouTube as well. It may just mean it is time for a video strategy readjustment.
If you want your videos to get discovered by new people via search, YouTube is still the place to be. Google’s video giant still has over 1 billion users watching hundreds of millions of hours of video each day and the number of hours of video watched each month is up 50 percent year over year.
You Tube’s still got a big say in determining what ads go viral. Whilst Facebook appears to have a powerful ability to drive viewership to an ad in short bursts, YouTube is where video ad campaigns seem to mushroom over time.
For example, during its first few weeks of launch, the John Lewis christmas ad had over 6 million views on Facebook. Yet over the past 6 months, the same ad has over 20 million views on YouTube.
“With YouTube, people show up looking for a video experience and are trying to find content they connect with,” said Tara Walpert Levy, who runs Google’s agency sales team in the USA. “And you’ve got this community that is active on the platform, with people riffing on each other and we and our partners have gotten better at connecting one video to the next to the next.”
So who’s coming out on top of this video marketing battle?
The obvious difference between Facebook and YouTube is intent and discovery. People visit YouTube to search for videos and create their own unique viewing experiences where as Facebook determines which videos an individual will be presented with, leaving the user to decide whether to engage with it further and share it with friends. YouTube only counts a view if the viewer clicks 'play'. But Facebook will count a video as being 'viewed' if it plays for more than 3 seconds.
With Facebook's video auto-play feature, viewers will activate a video play in their news feed just by scrolling. If they take their time scrolling then Facebook will count that video as being viewed, even though the Facebook user didn't engage with it in any way.
The truth is, both YouTube and Facebook are vital parts of an effective online video strategy.
The key is to know the strengths of both platforms to expand your video marketing strategy. Reach prospects with YouTube and promote engaging content for your community on Facebook. YouTube is inherently good for search engine optimisation and driving views. However, views have become a less important indicator to marketers and advertisers in recent years.
The Mixpo study revealed that in a ranking of the most important metrics when running video ads on social, views were placed fifth. What was more important? Engagement, shares, conversions, and total time spent watching. Other experts, like VidPow's Jeremy Vest note that video marketers also need to look at subscriber acquisition, social shares, comments, and click-throughs as an indications of a video’s success. Facebook offers a larger opportunity for engagement and shares, which is perhaps why more and more advertisers are turning to the Facebook for their video campaigns. On the other hand, analytics site Gian Fulgoni noted that Facebook’s auto-play function does not reflect the same engagement represented by YouTube, where a video view is user-initiated.
Advertisers use online video for all sorts of reasons, and amassing raw view numbers may not be their number one objective. And of course, many online video ad campaigns are part of larger media campaigns with varying levels of support at different junctures — such as, perhaps, a TV ad in heavy rotation.
Use the strengths of both platforms to maximise the effectiveness of your video marketing strategy. Reach prospects with YouTube, and create and engage with your community on Facebook.
Missed Tip #1 of our Insights series? Read here