One of the questions that we are frequently asked by our clients is, “Should we be using YouTube or Vimeo?”
This is a great question and something that we can certainly help with. In this post, we’ll break down the pros and cons of each platform to give you a better sense of what will fit for your brand’s needs.
YouTube Pros:
- One of the biggest advantages to
posting your content on YouTube is the SEO bump that your videos will get. Since Google owns the platform, videos posted to the site are automatically favo
red over videos posted on other video sites. This can mean more eyes on you and your brand, which in turn can mean more sales.
red over videos posted on other video sites. This can mean more eyes on you and your brand, which in turn can mean more sales.- Another benefit, it’s absolutely free and comes with a powerful set of analytic tools built into its interface. These analytics can be extremely helpful in making sure that your videos are reaching your target audience. They can also help you to make your videos as effective possible by giving you insights such as how long your audience is watching your content and state they are in.
YouTube Cons:
- The biggest disadvantage for this platform is the massive amount of content that it hosts. A recent statistic shows that 300 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube every minute. This means that your videos will have to compete with a staggering amount of other material if you aren’t optimizing your strategy and using analytics to your advantage. Also, competitors who make effective use of keywords may be able to get their ads placed in front of your videos so be strategic with the type of keywords you want to rank for.
Vimeo Pros:
The primary advantage of Vimeo is that it is geared towards video professionals. The caliber of content posted on Vimeo tends to be much higher than videos posted on YouTube. For example, the most popular video on Vimeo is a stunning time lapse of the sky in the desert. The most
popular (non-musical) video on YouTube is “Charlie Bit My Finger,” which was shot on a phone. Vimeo is also ad-free, which means that you don’t have to worry about any advertisements from competing companies.
The primary advantage of Vimeo is that it is geared towards video professionals. The caliber of content posted on Vimeo tends to be much higher than videos posted on YouTube. For example, the most popular video on Vimeo is a stunning time lapse of the sky in the desert. The most- Another perk is that it is much easier to host private videos on Vimeo than it is on YouTube. Vimeo allows you to password protect your videos for maximum privacy, whereas YouTube only hides the link on private videos. If the privacy of your content is important to you, Vimeo trumps YouTube.
Vimeo Cons:
- While Vimeo has a high level of quality content, it has a significantly lower rate of viewership than YouTube. Vimeo averages around 4.9 billion views per year while YouTube averages about a billion views per month. Fewer eyes on your content could lead to fewer sales.
While there are pros and cons to both platforms, we recommend YouTube for B2C companies. If you are looking to maximize your outreach and engage with the largest number of consumers possible, there’s no question that YouTube is the platform to do that. If your goals are more in line with uploading your videos to a community of professional video makers and having the greatest level of control over the privacy of your content, Vimeo might do the trick for you. Let us know what works for you! Check out our other blogs and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn for all future updates.