No doubt about it you can increase your Facebook video views in an incredible way to organically boost engagement on Facebook. Considering 100 million hours of video are watched on Facebook per day, Facebook video is a top player in social media marketing. However, it isn’t just enough to create videos and upload them to your brand’s page, and you may find that video views are disappointing and off-target each month. If so, it’s time to carefully consider what users respond to best in order to maximum your efforts. Here are a few tips to help elevate the views and engagement on your videos!
Five Tips To Increase Organic Facebook Video Views
Choose Your Introduction Wisely
A study by Time magazine found that people have a shorter attention span than a goldfish! Yes on average you lose concentration after just 8 seconds – that is shorter than a goldfish’s attention span! Starting a video with a bang is essential if you want users to continue to watch until the end. Don’t kick off with a talking head. Instead, utilize eye-catching video, and engaging graphics
or something original that isn’t spotted often on your newsfeed. If you are showcasing a recipe, don’t begin by featuring the list of ingredients or a carton of eggs. Instead show a cheesy, gooey piece of steaming lasagne being placed on a plate. You better believe people will stick around to see how it was made! Buzzfeed’s Tasty does this well. Show the delicious food you’re about to make and most often people will stay to learn.
It is also vital to select a high-quality thumbnail image. When uploading a video, Facebook gives you an option to select one of their thumbnails or upload your own. Be sure to choose one that is most likely to pull in viewers. This is just as important – if not more important – than the title of the video.
Use Captions
Did you know according to recent studies 85 percent of Facebook video is watched without sound? 8 billion video views are hosted on Facebook per day, but most of those views are occurring in silence.
Because of this, subtitles make a massive difference in your video views. They make the videos easier to consume. For example, if you are browsing Facebook while in the waiting room at your doctor’s office, would you crank up the volume to watch a video? Most likely not. However, you may watch it in silence if captions are included.
The format in which Facebook presents your videos favor captions, too. Autoplay is excellent and brings eyes to your video, but you can’t rely on fun music or an eyebrow-raising statement to draw users in. You must rely on compelling videos and engaging captions.
If you are a global business and executing a Facebook marketing strategy, captions will be greatly appreciated by anyone watching your video whose first language is not English! Remember, it is all about creating content that will be consumed by your audience easily.
If your video really does need sound, don’t be afraid to encourage viewers to “tap for sound” in the video caption.
Via Buffer
Add a Call-To-Action
Videos don’t just generate views. They can also drive traffic to your website, convert viewers into customers, encourage sign-ups and generate blog post views.
Facebook has unfortunately removed the call-to-action functionality for videos, but Buffer has highlighted a few ways you can still add a CTA:
- In the post copy: It’s as easy as ending your caption with “Read the full story here: LINK”. This will help drive traffic to your blog, website, or any other landing page of your choice.
- During the video: Use text overlay (Learn the recipe for this delicious pie at LINK) or even mention the CTA if your video includes talking. In fact, Wistia learned that mid-roll CTAs have the highest conversion rates – wow!
- At the end of the video: End your video with text that indicates the CTA and let it run for a few seconds.
Whichever method you choose, be sure to utilize it frequently! It is always worth adding in a CTA and using your Facebook video for the maximum ROI it can provide.
Keep It Short and Sweet
Via Lyfe Marketing
As stated above, humans really do have short attention spans. It is difficult to get them to focus on anything, let alone a lengthy Facebook video. Wistia conducted a survey on optimal video length to determine the correlation between video length vs engagement and here is what they discovered:
- Videos up to 2 minutes get a lot of engagement: After that, it’s a big drop off. It doesn’t matter much if a video is 30 seconds long or 90. As long as it’s under 2 minutes, you’re golden!
- There is a big drop-off between 2 and 3 minutes: After 2 minutes, every second truly counts. Cut out what isn’t essential for the viewers to see.
- 6 to 12 minutes is the second best length: We get it. Some videos do really require more time. After 6 minutes engagement tends to level off, meaning if your video will end up being a little lengthy, keep it between 6 and 12 minutes for maximum engagement.
If you feel as though you are not utilizing all the footage you have, consider creating multiple short videos instead of one long one. Be sure to encourage people to watch the previous videos (and include links!) to maximize views.
Via Wistia
Make Sure Your Video is Facebook Friendly
We get it. Crossposting content is a lot easier than creating unique content for each platform. However, convenience can often backfire. The ideal format for Instagram videos isn’t necessarily best for Facebook. Make sure your video is optimized best for Facebook by considering the following tech specs when producing it:
- Under 120 minutes
- Powerful intro to best take advantage of autoplay
- Aspect ratio of no larger than 1280px wide and divisible by 16px
- MP4 and MOV formal ideal
- Max file size is 4GB
- Maximum character limit is 2,200 (but the ideal is 90)
- The headline can be 25 characters
- Portrait and landscape both accepted
