Vidyard Video Benchmark Report for 2019 Review [Film School For Marketers Podcast, Ep. 17]

Vidyard and Demand Metric recently released their video benchmark report for 2019 containing trends in the business community when it came to video.

In this episode, we're diving into what the findings revealed and what it means for your organization.

The stats we are talking about today aren’t general video viewing data either, but rather business video viewing data — if you're using video for sales and marketing purposes — that applies to all of us. 

Make sure to download and review the benchmark along with us. 

Listen to the full episode here (or scroll down to watch the video):

To give you a bit more background on the study, it is first-hand data from a sample of Vidyard customers including more than 324,000 videos over 12-month period.

The study is made up of six chapters which we’ll be diving into one by one to give an overview of our main takeaways.

1. Video Viewing

Desktop vs. mobile views 

Video viewing happens more on desktop at 87% while mobile comes in at 13%. Mobile views are up 25% over the past year.

We were surprised that mobile viewing was so small although we foresee the percent trending upward in the coming year.

Views by day of the week

The highest views happen on Thursdays, followed by Wednesdays.

Consider sending out marketing emails with video on those days of the week to help increase your video views. We talk about why we think those days of the week are the most popular and what it could mean for sales appointments or purchases.

Time of day 

Data shows that 10 AM is the most popular time for people watching video content.

Just as we recommend you take the most popular days of the week into consideration, this is also another great insight to keep in mind as you schedule out your marketing emails or decide when to publish videos on social media platforms. 

2. Video Publishing

Average videos published per company by industry 

The report breaks down the average number of videos per company by industry that were being published:

1. High-Tech - 425
2. Professional Services - 381
3. Media, Entertainment and Communications - 313
4. Financial Services - 214
5. Manufacturing - 150
6. Public Services, Education and Healthcare - 143

This means that those organizations who are in industries that aren’t producing as much video have a leg up when it comes to incorporating video into their marketing and sales. 

Resources used for business video production

Majority of small and medium-sized companies are using internal resources to produce their video content while larger enterprise companies use either internal or a mix of internal and external resources.

We talk about how shocked we are that smaller businesses are using internal resources as it was simply not the case five years ago.

It shows organizations are taking note of the importance of building out a video culture and relying on building out their own teams capabilities rather than choosing to outsource.

3. Video Content

Types of video businesses have already invested in 

The types of videos listed out were webinars, demo videos, social media videos, explainers, product videos, customer videos, how-to/educational, thought leadership, livestreams, cultural videos, vlogs, and one-to-one.

Webinars topped the list of videos companies are investing in with demos following.

The video type that had the lowest investment was one-to-one video. We get into a discussion of why we believe that’s the case and what it means for companies who decide to invest in one-to-one video.

This also leads us to believe that the majority of the companies that made up the study were likely B2B as B2C doesn’t put as much of an emphasis on webinars and demos.

Distribution channels where video content is used

The following is the list from highest to lowest of channels where video content is distributed:

1. Website - 85%
2. Social Media -84%
3. YouTube - 67%
4. Landing Pages - 57%
5. Recorded Webinars -55%
6. Emails - 55%
7. Sales Conversations - 24%
8. Other - 6%

The one that was alarming to us was that only 24% of the organizations are using video in the sales process.

Video is a tool that shortens the sales cycle and improves conversations immensely. This shows there is a big opportunity for people to take advantage of video in their sales process. 

Video length 

The trend is showing business videos are getting shorter and shorter.

Almost 50% of videos that brands are creating are from 0-60 seconds.

The conclusion they came to is that businesses are recognizing that retention rates are better for shorter videos so companies are creating them shorter in length to get viewers to watch until the end. 

We give our thoughts around video length, what this data means and what best practice tips we recommend you go by. 

Video engagement for different lengths of videos

The average engagement for 0-60 second video is 68% viewers by the time the video is over.

The videos that are 20 minutes long have typically a 25% engagement rate at the end of the video.

We talk about why these stats should be encouraging and how they compare to engagement on platforms like YouTube.

Video analytics

Vidyard took a look at all the organizations who are using their tool and at what level they are measuring their analytics. They break it down by basic which means looking at views or shares, intermediate which is average viewing duration and viewing behavior and advanced would be views by location, drop off rates, attribution of the sales pipeline.

We talk about how alarmed we were that only 11% of users are using the advanced form of measuring video effectiveness as the largest percentage at 42% are using basic measurement. We discuss the importance of ROI, why we think the percent is so low, and why it should be one of the first things you setup when you get started with video. 

Surprised by any of the stats? Let us know!

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