Over the past year, Facebook has become a serious contender against YouTube as a video marketing platform.
In August 2014, Facebook overtook YouTube in total number of video views on desktop. It has added new video functionality features, including a Videos tab and the ability to embed Facebook videos on other sites. In this article, we’ll talk about the benefits of using Facebook and YouTube in your video marketing campaign and how they both can affect your bottom line.
YouTube: YouTube is the powerhouse of online video. It is the second largest search engine in the world and has over a billion active users. Hundreds of millions of hours of content are watched on YouTube each day and the amount of content watched each month grows approximately 50% year over year.
Any video marketing campaign can benefit from a presence on YouTube. It is the strongest platform for reaching new viewers through organic search. All videos uploaded to YouTube get an automatic SEO boost through Google. In fact, Google has been known to hide search results for videos that come from competing video hosting platforms.
Facebook: While YouTube is still a go-to platform for marketing your video content, it is important to understand the changes that Facebook has made and how you can use those changes for your benefit. A study by Socialbakers shows that native Facebook videos get more reach than any other type of post. This has led many advertisers to throw their hats in the Facebook ring.
Another study from earlier this year shows that more advertisers intend to run video ads on Facebook than on any other social network, including YouTube. This is largely due to the fact that the information already on Facebook allows advertisers to target very specific groups of people, making it easier for them to reach their target demographics. While YouTube is tailored to drive views and boost the SEO of your content, Facebook tends to be a better platform for driving shares and engagement.
Summary: YouTube and Facebook can both be a part of successful video marketing campaigns. The search feature and the SEO boost that YouTube supplies can be invaluable in allowing your content to be found organically by the demographics that you are targeting. Combining this with the specificity that Facebook allows in reaching consumers and the engagement and sharing that it promotes can be a powerful one-two punch for your marketing campaign.
That two-pronged approach to video marketing can have a massive effect on the amount of consumers you reach and engage, leading to a boost in your ROI, sales, and leads. Take advantage of this growing trend in video marketing and you’ll be far ahead of your competition. For the latest insights on video marketing trends, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn!