Video marketing strategy: Statistics for 2023 

Cisco predicts that video (both business and consumer video), will account for 82% of total IP traffic by 2022. In recent research, Oberlo revealed that people watching video content are constantly increasing, asserting the credibility of video as a source of content. 

The most recent YouTube statistics show that over a billion hours of video are watched on the platform daily. On Facebook, people are interacting with video posts more than other types of content. On the platform, the engagement rates for video are 59% higher than other types of posts (according to Buzzsumo, video even outperformed photo posts by more than 70%). 

These statistics are important because they speak to how habits for consuming content and information are changing in favor of video. 

In its report on global consumer trends, Hubspot found that consumers have a clear preference of the type of content they want to see from the brands and companies that they do business with. Video was the preferred form of content for 54% of those surveyed, followed by email and newsletters (46%), social images (41%), social videos (34%), blog articles (18%), and downloadable content, such as PDFs (17%). 

The same report found that when it comes to video, viewers are more likely to consume it from start to finish. Above all other content—news articles, social media posts, research reports, etc.— video is the type of content that consumers pay the most attention to. 

When the choice is text over video, video usually wins. According to Hubspot, “Where both video and text are available on the same page, more than 70% of people would rather use video to learn about a product or service.” There are many reasons that users may choose video over text. Not surprisingly, time is one factor. It simply takes more time for our brains to process text, and visuals like video are processed much faster (according to Hubspot, 60,000 times faster!). 

Forrester reported that one minute of video is worth 18 million words—and just how long would it take for us to read and process 1.8 million words of text? 

Reading a text requires our brains to process meaning and intention, and it needs to be captivating enough for us to keep reading. When text is the only medium, it’s easy for the message to be misunderstood. 

Researchers at UCLA found that other forms of communication—those that can be expressed only in video such as body language, facial expressions, and tone—are better at delivering a message than words alone. Other studies show that people have the ability to recall 65% of the visual content that they see almost three days later (source: Hubspot). Do you have other doubts about adopting a video marketing strategy? 

One of the key objectives of any marketing campaign is to persuade the target audience to take action. This could be as basic as keeping potential customers on your page, motivating them to click over to a blog post or download a white paper, or, even better, to buy your product or service. In today’s world of information overload, there is a lot of competition for your customers’ time and attention. Marketers have to choose where to focus their efforts; a video marketing strategy could be the most effective solution. 

According to Gartner, companies should be focusing on creating content that makes the buying process easier. At a recent Gartner conference, executives highlighted that organizations need to focus on content that “guides customers through critical buying tasks.”Rather than focusing efforts on content designed to entertain, Gartner encourages “buyer enablement” content that provides practical advice and support. 

An effective video marketing strategy could help to communicate practical information that buyers need to convert. Recent statistics cited at Hubspot state that watching a video makes 64% of customers more likely to buy. 

Also from Hubspot: 

• Product videos can increase purchases by 144% 
• Almost 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store 
• 4 out of 5 consumers believe that demo videos are helpful 

Marketers are taking notice of the power of video. As just one indicator, the latest YouTube statistics show that channels already successful on the platform (those with five- and six-figure earnings) saw those earnings increase by 50% and 40% over the previous year. In its B2B Content Marketing Report for North America, the Content Marketing Institute found that B2B marketers have increased their use of audio/visual content such as video, live streaming, and webinars by more than 60% over last year. 

When it comes to finding a product, service, or looking for advice, where do consumers go? Overwhelmingly, they turn to Google, which, as of June 2022, holds more than 91% of the global search market share (source: statista.com). 

According to Pardot, more than 70% of buyers doing research start with Google to get more information before proceeding with a purchase. Therefore, it’s not surprising that search engine optimization (SEO)—the process of making sure your pages and content are actually driving traffic to your website—is one of marketing’s top priorities. 

In Hubspot’s 2018 State of Inbound report, 61% of marketers pointed to generating traffic and leads as their top challenge. 

But it’s not just text that powers SEO. As more video is consumed online, video is also recognized as a key driver for website traffic in 2021. The action, imagery, and storytelling conveyed in video are easily consumed and able to capture the attention of viewers. 

Keeping viewers engaged means that they spend more time on your page, and this is always good for SEO, as it communicates value back to the search engine, which will improve the ranking of your pages. Because video is highly shareable—especially when you have high quality, targeted content—this increases your chances of getting more views and backlinks to your pages, another benefit for SEO. Still not convinced? 

More recent stats from Hubspot: 

• Video is 50x more likely than plain text to drive organic search results 
• A blog post with video could increase organic search traffic by more than 150% 
• 80% of people will watch a video on a page compared to 20% who will read text 

Last year, videos started showing up in featured snippets on Google. When a user asks a question in the Google search bar, featured snippets are Google’s way of providing an answer to the question, which may be an excerpt or snippet from a web page. Viewers can get the answer to their question directly on the search results page. 

Videos that appear in the results are called featured clips and show the answer to the question in a short clip. Hubspot recently analyzed 165 featured clips and identified some important patterns that influence relevance, namely ensuring that both your video title and description should always be optimized for SEO. 

A video marketing strategy could be your most important business driver in 2023!