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Study: Video Marketing Increases on Social Media

Businesses and brands are ratcheting up their use of video in social media marketing, according to a new study from Wochit.

Study: Video Marketing Increases on Social Media

The company, which provides a video creation platform, revealed in its “Social Performance Index Report” that the average publisher of social videos increased their video production output 65% during the second quarter of 2017 compared to the first quarter.

Furthermore, the data demonstrated that increasing video production to grow overall Facebook engagement is an effective strategy. “Our analysis revealed a strong correlation between the number of videos posted on a Facebook page and the total number of views received,” Wochit wrote in a report on its findings. “According to our data, the ratio (r) between them is 0.56 (r2 = 0.32), meaning 32% of the total views of a Facebook page can be explained just by the number of videos posted to the page.”

In another finding of interest to marketers, the study showed viewers prefer square aspect-ratio videos to vertical and horizontal. Square videos generated significantly more views, shares, comments and likes. Wochit said that square’s advantage is likely down, in large part, to mobile viewing; square video takes up 78% more screen space in the mobile social feed.

Marketers often struggle with how long they should make their videos. Wochit offers a bit of insight, saying the vast majority (77.8%) of videos remain between 30 and 90 seconds long. However, probably because of Facebook mid-roll video ads, there was a 38% increase in the number of videos exceeding 90 seconds in Q2 over Q1. Engagement with longer videos also increased. “While 90+ second videos are now just 15.47% of the total, we expect to see this shift continue,” Wochit said in its report. “Longer videos open monetization opportunity through Facebook’s mid-roll ads.”

While most marketers hope to create a viral video, the likelihood of that happening remains remote. Wochit found only 1.1% of videos go viral, which is defined as receiving more than one million views.

For the Social Performance Index Report, Wochit analyzed more than 5,000 videos from more than 100 publishers that were shared to over 300 Facebook pages in Q2 (between March and May of 2017).