Five video optimization tips to increase landing page conversions

Video marketing has been on the rise for over a decade. Consumers are becoming increasingly accustomed to watching video content wherever they go, whether it’s on Facebook or a product page.

Which may lead you to think:

Video content is not expected now?

Shouldn’t we produce a video every chance we get?

However, the real question is: will videos be a conversion igniter or a conversion killer?

Let’s find out!

First, some tantalizing statistics…

There are many case studies and reports that say using a video on a landing page is a great idea to increase conversions:

• How-to videos are the most popular type of video. According to Google itself, it is the most popular video format, even more popular than music or games.
• Viewers tend to remember 95% of a message after watching a video and only 10% after reading it. Additionally, videos are capable of increasing conversions by 10-20% (studies vary here, so the numbers can be much higher as well).
• Consumers tend to watch a video about a product rather than read about it. Forbes Insights found that 83% of people would rather watch videos than read text.
• In a previous survey by Animoto, nearly all respondents (96% of them) found videos helpful in making online purchasing decisions.

Now, some important technical stats…

1. The longer a video is, the less engaging it is

You have about 10 seconds to grab viewers’ attention with a marketing video. According to Facebook, people who watch the first three seconds of a video will watch for at least another ten seconds, so there’s a pretty tight window here.

Once your video manages to grab a viewer’s attention, they’ll likely commit to another two minutes. After two minutes the engagement is in sharp decline. Obviously the more interesting a video is, the more people will watch it but since we are talking about engagement with a landing page, these are not narrative videos capable of holding the viewer’s attention for 30 minutes or more.

That said:

• Make sure the first 10 seconds of your video are attention grabbing
• So spend no more than two minutes making sure that your page visitors take a desired action on the page, instead of feeling bored or vice versa too engaged with your video.

2. In-Video CTAs Work!

Many landing page videos I have seen lack calls to action in the video, which is a shame because a video landing page is an essential part of most shopping journeys. In fact, a call to action within a video can generate up to 380% more clicks to a landing page.

The entire purpose of a video on a landing page is to drive conversions, so create a video that leads down the sales funnel and provides step-by-step instructions on what to do next.

In-video CTAs can be in the form of verbal messages (i.e. the narrator encourages users to follow certain steps) and graphical end screens (an end screen with a call to action).

Don’t forget that your video can also be a traffic driver (i.e. Youtube people clicking a link in the description to get to your landing page) as well as a discovery channel (people watching that video elsewhere and being aware of your product).

So make sure these calls to action can be followed directly without visiting your site, for example where possible provide a phone number to call immediately. Likewise, ensure that the desired action can be performed at any time without direct involvement from your team. Set up smart AI-based communication technology that can engage your contacts during off-hours, such as IVRs or chatbots.

3. Video placement matters

Video placement is never something to be taken lightly. There is no single tactic here, because no product or page is the same. A/B try different layouts and then experiment more.

From an SEO standpoint, Google recommends using a prominent video on a page to index it and potentially generate video rich snippets.

Standout videos can increase engagement by 50%. Also, repeating a video in the product image carousel and then at the bottom of the page can improve the performance of a page.

If your site runs on WordPress, there are some themes that have video landing pages already coded. I’ve found some great ones on this list, so check them out when you have a moment.

4. Videos can slow down your page

Embedding any third-party content, including videos, will slow down the page and lower your Core Web Vitals score. This can, in turn, hurt your page ranking because Core Web Vitals are official ranking signals. As an example, here are the scores before embedding a video:

And here is the same page but with an embedded video:

Depending on your content management system, there may be several solutions to make this step easier. Here’s the WordPress workaround (which will also help speed up your entire site, not just that specific landing page), and here’s a tutorial for Shopify. Wix claims to handle slow loading videos for you. Check with your current CMS if you are using an alternative one.

5. Video Ranking!

Wherever you’re hosting your video (Youtube, Wistia or whatever), don’t forget the basics: use your keywords in the most important places (title, description, filename, etc). Remember: Videos rank incredibly well and can actually drive more people to your site and build awareness, not just help boost conversions.

Video page optimization is not much different than any content optimization process – you need relevant and useful content surrounding your video. You can also check out my Youtube optimization checklist to get your videos to rank higher:

So, should you start pumping videos?

Videos can be very expensive and take a long time to produce. Which makes their creation hard to justify if you are a conversion focused organization.

What it really boils down to is your list of conversion guesses. Every growth and conversion optimization team should have an up-to-date list of hypotheses to test. Each hypothesis should be rated (at a minimum) by:

• Ease of trial (or difficulty).
• Cost of the test. Consider development hours, video production costs, design costs.
• Potential reward. How much do you expect this particular hypothesis to move the needle and why?

By creating a list that ranks your hypotheses, you can make better judgment calls about which tests to run immediately and which tests you should put on the back burner.

You may have significant data (qualitative and/or quantitative) that suggests that creating videos will yield a large return on investment. If so, fear not – put on your director’s hat and start pumping videos!

Side note: The system you create for your list of guesses will most likely require continuous improvement and tweaking to get it right. The important thing is to start one now if you haven’t. As you run the tests, you’ll understand what other metrics or ranking factors help you make better decisions about which tests to run. Just be sure to iteratively improve your system based on your new findings.

Do you feel up to it?

Using video to increase conversions is another calculation of risk versus reward. The payoff can be huge, so don’t shy away from this conversion boosting technique.

Ann Smarty is the founder of Viral Content Bee, Brand and Community manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas. She can be found on Twitter @seosmarty.

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