How to Make Sure People Watch Your Videos (Right to the End)

Video content is one of the most effective ways of targeting an audience, allowing you to clearly communicate your message in a matter of minutes or even seconds. But what do you do if viewers are scrolling past your video or moving on after just a few moments? 

Like any other media, it's important to understand that not all video is created equal. Social, for example, is much more suitable to shorter videos, while dedicated websites, like YouTube or your own site, allow you to host any length of video.

So how do you know what's right or wrong?

In 2018, almost three quarters of business videos (73%) were less than two minutes long, that's 33% shorter than videos in 2017. But only 52% of veiwers will watch until the final few seconds.

It's clear that video length has a considerable impact on drop-off rate, too. The research from Vidyard found that videos under 90 seconds were able to retain 53% of its viewers until the end, on average, while content over 30 minutes retained just 10%.

In the age of constant distraction and brand overload, it's not difficult to see why so many viewers move on from videos after a few seconds in the search of something better or more appropriate. But how do you understand what they want from your content and engage them until the very end?

Understand the value of each platform

HubSpot created an engaging infographic, breaking down the optimal video length for each of the main social platforms. Instagram and Twitter, with their user interface that promotes quick scrolling, are for short, concise videos of 30 seconds and 45 seconds respectively. On the other hand, dedicated video website YouTube stretches optimal length to an impressive two minutes, and Facebook falls in between with one minute.

Understanding your audience and what they are on each platform for will help you further hone your video content, and identify what you should be putting in each segment. Often if you make one video, you can edit the content to suit the different platforms without having to film separate videos, giving you the best of both worlds.

Make the most of analytics

Analytics can be a useful resource to help you better understand where viewers are dropping off. From website-own software like YouTube or Facebook to more generalized software, you can learn more about the people watching your videos and why they're losing interest.

To start off, you'll need to define what success looks like for you and identify the key metrics and KPIs you want to focus on. Analytics won't just tell you how long someone watched the video for, but can also inform you of how many times they watched it, whether they shared it, where they live, and what device they watched it on, as well as many more important factors. These can help you develop your video marketing campaign and optimize your performance over time. You can also use stats like the most popular time of the day for YouTube or other social platforms to find the best time to upload your content, which can make a big difference.

Consider empathy

One of the strengths of video is that it gives you an effective way to communicate and connect with your audience. This is why tutorials and interviews are so popular, especially in the B2B market, but it also complements a much more human element of branding. Emotive advertising and using empathy in your videos will allow you to create a long-lasting and loyal relationship between you and your audience.

This Real Beauty campaign from soap manufacturer Dove is just one example of how video content can reach out to your audience, empathizing with their struggles and positioning your brand as one that shares them.

If you don't want to go completely down that route, consider focusing on just one message you want to convey to your audience and build your strategy around that. Once you're done, show it to people that had no idea about it and see whether they get what you were going for.