February 10, 2015 – This month’s SEMpdx event focused on video marketing. Casey Henry, from Wistia, joined us from Cambridge, MA to share his research on effective video marketing and where video can have the biggest impact.
Looking at video marketing as it relates to SEO, Casey stressed it’s more than just video snippets. In fact, results from an in-house rich snippets test showed there is no return of video snippets in web search. So Wistia came up with a strategy: Your Home vs. The Playground. Place conversion videos on your home site and brand videos on YouTube.
For those running PPC campaigns, video holds great potential. The key is to provide a clear call-to-action when the video ends. Also keep in mind that your video needs text for context. Don’t leave viewers wondering why they’re watching your video.
Videos can also be effective when retargeting, depending on the medium. For example, targeting doesn’t work with video on Twitter, so stick with content. On the other hand, it has been successful on Instagram and Facebook.
When adding videos to your website, it’s important to limit the number in your funnel. Two is usually a good rule of thumb. After that, visitors get the idea and don’t engage in more videos. For each video that you do use, be sure it conveys a different message.
Casey shared a wealth of knowledge with everyone and provided us with actionable tips and key takeaways. Video is still under-performed for SEM campaigns, so now is the time to implement it for an upper hand over your competition. If you’re new to video marketing or have specific video questions, Wistia has excellent resources on their website: www.wistia.com/community and www.wistia.com/learning.
Sarah is a search marketing consultant, helping clients improve ROI through paid search, SEO and social media initiatives. She is also the Official SEMpdx Event Blogger and can be found at all of the monthly events.