Astonishing Video Marketing Statistics Every Marketer Should Know in 2023

Video marketing is a field both rapidly growing and already a staple in our daily lives. Most of us grew up with it in the form of television, and kids and teens today are growing up with it on their streaming services and smartphones. And as a marketer, you are undoubtedly aware of it if not actively using it in your campaigns. Yet you might be wondering about the potential impacts or the greater trends at work in the field of video marketing. After all, it is a big world, and you can’t keep track of everything, much less all the updates to do with everything related to video marketing. You are only one person, but that’s where we’re here to help. We tracked down the essential bits of knowledge for you to strategize appropriately moving forward.

While we can’t go over everything to do with video marketing, here are all the main points you need to know as a marketer in 2023:

People Want More Video Content (and Video Marketing)

You don’t need us to tell you how popular video content has become over the past decade. Even before the internet, we had television, though we perhaps looked at it differently. Now there are different types of videos, different types of content, and more options of things to watch than any single person could keep track of. And yet people watch hours of video content every day, both on television and on their other devices.

  • As of 2022, it is estimated that an average adult in the United States will spend 182 minutes watching television and 78 minutes watching video on a digital video device. And this excludes time spent watching videos on social media, which is a huge component of modern life.
  • Keep in mind that these are averages, so plenty of people spend their entire waking lives practically watching video content in some form. Some people sleep with video content on. And to marketers, all that is time they could spend learning about what they have to say.
  • In 2022, it is expected that 82 percent of all consumer internet traffic will be online video. This is far above what it was in previous years.
  • Most people watch online videos at least monthly, to the tune of 85 percent in the United States. And given how that number was from a few years back, it is likely that even more people will watch videos monthly in 2022. The international audience will be massive in the coming years as internet infrastructure improves and more people 
  • If we want to break it down by country, we have the data for that. It is from a couple of years before this writing, but the trend will remain consistent.

  • Interestingly, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and China are at the top of the list here, and you must go down nearly a dozen countries to find the United States. Yet as more people rely on video for various purposes and get more comfortable using new technology, the numbers will improve. And it will be up to video marketers to partially determine what they want to do with their growing audience.
  • As more developing countries gain access to internet infrastructure that allows them to stream video at a reasonable rate without worrying too much about the cost, we expect those countries will watch a lot more video.
  • Heavily tied to video content and video marketing is video streaming. The streaming market was worth 161.37 billion in 2020, and due to the pandemic and natural growth, once we have the numbers for more recent times, we will see even further growth.

While not all of this video content and consumer traffic is related to marketing, it all shows that people are tuned into video, commercials, and messages in such content can be very effective. We’ll talk about how effective it is later on in the article.

Marketers Are Using More Video Marketing

Video is the future of marketing, and this is a theme we’ll repeat in this piece. Yet it is not just us and consumers that might say this, but marketers themselves and the businesses they look for. Here are some statistics and trends to showcase that:

  • According to the 2021 Wyzowl survey on video marketing, businesses are using video as a tool at a rate of 86 percent. Interestingly the trend seems to have stabilized over the past few years, showing no major change since 2019. There was a massive leap from 2017-2018, however. Video can grow in use, but we aren’t sure what will give it the next push.

  • Furthermore, let’s look at a slightly different question from the Wyzowl survey. Is video an essential part of a company’s general marketing strategy? About 93 percent of respondents said yes in 2021, and it’s been relatively consistent (if increasing slightly) over the past few years.

  • For the survey, the most critical question for many marketers and managers is: how about the return on investment? About 87 percent of people agree that video provides a positive return on investment in 2021. Interestingly, only 33 percent thought so in 2015; after that, we saw a huge jump. It’s possible that 2015 was an investment or introductory period, and people were not confident in a newer idea at the time.
  • And if you look at the rest of the survey, you’ll find related and similar questions with similar trends and results. An overwhelming majority of respondents find that video marketing provides a good return and is an important part of an overall marketing effort.
  • And the budgets are going to go up. Most marketers and businesses will increase or keep their video marketing budgets the same. Part of this is simple inflation and the need for budgets to increase, but part of it is also. 
  • And if marketers are using video marketing, how are they distributing videos? They can be hosted on their brand’s site, to be sure, but that isn’t much for outreach or marketing. At most, it helps people already interested in what a brand offers. So we can look at the Wyzowl survey again for what s used:

  • Looking over these channels, there are perhaps a few surprises. YouTube is almost a necessity to use in today’s world. Billions of people use Facebook, and Facebook video is popular on social media. Instagram is practically just a step away from that. We’re a little surprised to see LinkedIn so high up, but to share video marketing on some channels might be more for reference or prestige than reaching maximum numbers.
  • And then, there are upward and downward trends among the platforms. Despite the overall popularity, Facebook Video has a bit of a dip. And naturally, TikTok is on the rise, if not peaking in popularity among marketers just yet. Interestingly, we see more webinars used as a platform, perhaps to respond to the pandemic.
  • While we’re on the topic of different marketing channels, we need to discuss the dominance of YouTube and why marketers rely on it so much.
  • The average user will spend 18 minutes on YouTube, with some users watching (or at least listening) to YouTube videos for hours a day. Some people will have a YouTube video downloaded and ready to listen to on their way to work.
  • More content is uploaded to YouTube each month than television produced in decades. The quality might be a bit more varied on YouTube, but people still watch their favorite, and there are far more channels than most people can imagine.
  • To learn more (and there is so much), we would recommend you read a more dedicated article about either YouTube video or YouTube marketing. It’s emerging in some ways, but it’s perhaps one of the essential parts of video marketing.

How Well Does Video Marketing Work?

Now comes the multi-billion-dollar question. While there is so much investment in video marketing and talk surrounding it, does it even work all that well? How much can companies expect for their efforts, and what’s the general ROI? Some of these questions can only be answered in vague terms, but video marketing generally works and is worth it. Here is why:

  • People are more likely to get the message from video marketing. Video marketing viewers retain 95 percent of the message in video form, compared to 10 percent when reading it. Perhaps it comes because video marketing is more engaging while text-based marketing only has people reading the headlines unless people become more interested in the product.
  • The recollection might last a while. About 80 percent of users can recall a video ad they watched in the last 30 days.
  • It works for conversions in some circumstances. Including a video on a landing page can increase the conversion rate up to 80 percent. The type and content of video matter greatly here, but if executed well, a video is a clear ingredient for success.
  • For marketers looking for qualified leads, video marketing leads to 66 percent more of them.
  • Email marketing also benefits from video content. Emails that have videos contained in them have a 300 percent higher click-though-rate.
  • Website traffic matters and 86 percent of marketers say that videos help increase that all-important metric.
  • It can work pretty well for apps and pieces of software. One earlier survey from Wyzowl notes that eight in ten users have purchased one of those two things after watching a video. It helps that the product can be instantly delivered; for the most part, a video can demonstrate precisely how to use the software and its best use cases.
  • We cannot ignore influencer marketing and how well it works for some companies. While it goes beyond video marketing, there’s significant overlap. The most popular channels for influencer marketing campaigns are Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube, all of which utilize video or are entirely based on video.
  • A total of 93 percent of marketers have used influencer marketing in some form.
  • People spend an average of 147 minutes per day on social media. They have an average of 8.3 social media accounts. That is a lot of attention people give social media. And if a marketer does not include their brand in that time, a competitor will.

There are quite a few other ways in which video marketing is more effective than the other methods and provides advantages to brands and marketers. Still, we hope that the above gives enough general overview to get the picture. Video marketing works, and it looks like it will continue to work for the foreseeable future. It will provide an excellent ROI if it is done well and in line with what the intended consumer base is looking for.

How People Feel About Video Marketing

While the effectiveness of video marketing is one thing, do people want it? The answer comes down to “it depends,” with some clarifying details and statistics listed below: 

  • And often, it depends on how the video content comes to them. No one likes pop-up ads, which generally make people think less of the company that uses them. However, 54 percent of people want to see more video content from brands they enjoy.
  • A grand 86 percent of people want to see more videos from brands. A total of 96 percent of people (practically everyone, when it comes to statistics) have watched an explainer video about a service or product.
  • The standard video ad, however, is not exactly doing so great. About 65 percent of viewers will skip them. And the most popular places for video ads will allow users to skip ads. Some people will instead pay for a premium subscription to avoid ads altogether. 
  • Though for videos to keep people’s attention, marketing effort or not, they have to be good, and it’s better if they’re short. Half of all videos produced last year are less than 120 seconds long (TikTok videos probably had a hand in this). Videos that are 90 seconds or less have a 50 percent retention rate. And only the top five percent of videos will keep 77 percent of their viewers (on average) until the video is done. You probably notice this yourself when you are browsing for videos yourself.
  • And ad blockers are also popular, especially among those who watch a lot of video content—about 25 percent of internet users utilized some form of an ad blocker in 2021.
  • People certainly like to share videos on social media more than anything else they find. Social video content leads to 1200 percent more shares than image and text combined.
  • And when it comes to vital word-of-mouth marketing, video is king. People are twice as likely to share a video with friends than other types of content.

Note that just because people like video and are more likely to share video content, it’s more than just creating a video and letting it do its magic. Marketers already know that bad ads and poor marketing lead to nothing, so the video content needs to be high-quality or exciting for people to share.

Growth and the Future of Video Marketing

Yet with all that in mind and the changes occurring across the entire internet (among the greater cultural landscape), what can we predict about the future of video marketing?

  • Today’s average smartphone can take photos and videos far beyond what the average person could dream of even three decades ago. It is now easier than ever to create video content that you can use for marketing. One of video’s significant hurdles has been its production cost. While it takes time and care, writing doesn’t need to be such a huge investment. Editing text is easy. Mastering and editing video is not so easy, and there is much more expense involved in its production. Smartphones and improved video production programs make it easier, if not the easiest, in the world. 
  • Related to the smartphone, video marketing needs to be tailored to the smartphone (if at least accessible to smartphone users). People are now spending more hours on their smartphones and as a result, are watching more video content of all types on their smartphones. 
  • We might see more forms of interactive video or more options for customers to move on to the next step from a video ad. We already see it in banner and text ads to ensure that you are both engaged and able to get the most out of your experience, yet there is also the desire to provide as little friction as possible between you and the purchase. You will want to see how a video ad can become more actionable or interactive, and you will also want to consider how that might show up on the platform or video player you expect viewers to use.
  • Niche video marketing trends and options might become a thing, partially because products that are not huge brands need to appeal to more niche markets to succeed. Niche videos might be the best way to reach interested customers through content marketing (or influencer marketing). If a group is only several thousand people, but nearly all of them might be interested in a product, it’s still worth it for many companies to reach out to them with a video.
  • We’ll also see content marketing and social media influencer marketing become more common. Sponsorships for user-created videos will become the norm as some platforms such as YouTube become unreliable for creators to make an income based on the regular ads. And as video marketers better understand how these sponsorships work and how to best use them, opportunities for content creators will likely be better, more diverse, and more numerous.
  • While we talked about the platforms a bit, and most are here to stay for a while, there is nothing static about the platforms themselves and the entire internet landscape. Facebook and YouTube algorithms can change. Technology working behind the scenes can change and improve, allowing marketers to do more. Which platforms are most popular or are in vogue can change. All this means is that change is inevitable, and marketers cannot get to set in their ways to the point where they can’t adapt to the habits of their target audience.
  • This is further into the future, but we will see more ways video creeps into our daily lives. Billboards have often switched to video and more likely will in the future as billboards become digital. Most websites will have video as part of their landing page, and as screens get cheaper, they will be more commonplace. Whether you love or loathe the development, it seems likely to occur.

Conclusion

As we’ve stated and as you well now believe, video marketing and the overall marketing business can be complicated and constantly change their methods, focus, and more. Yet whatever you might be hoping to get from video marketing at the moment, we hope you have a better idea about the platform and where it is going. Things will change, but be on the lookout for the above trends and return to this page as you feel the need. Good luck with your efforts, and remember that video marketing takes time to master and implement.

InternetAdvisor Team

We are passionate about aggregating large, accurate data sets and providing it all to our users in an easy-to-use format. Simply put, shopping is easier for the consumer when he/she knows all available options. We are not beholden to any single provider and therefore are dedicated to transparency and giving you unbiased information on all providers.

Follow us on Twitter: @InternetAdvisor