101 Essential Video Marketing Statistics for 2021

Whether you’re just getting started with video marketing — or you’re looking to level up and make the competition sweat a little — we’ve got the video marketing statistics you need to create a marketing campaign as innovative and adaptable as you are.

Knowing the landscape is essential to creating a path that will get you where you want to be.

Otherwise, you’re wandering in the dark, illuminating one step at a time and basing your decisions on a small piece of the picture.

If you’re here, you know that’s not an option.

Types of Video Content

Which of the following commonly used types of videos are your potential customers most familiar with?

Explainer videos (73% of all video marketing)
Social media videos (67%)
Presentation videos (51%)
Sales videos (41%)
Video ads (41%)

Overall, the most popular type is the explainer video, which (as the name suggests) explains your company’s product or service.

You’ll see these on website home pages, product pages, and landing pages as a way to increase visitor engagement and optimize conversion rates.

The most popular video content marketing for small business owners is ads (38%), with social videos ranked second (33%).

Video subtypes include the following:

Vlogs (video blogs)
Educational or how-to videos (tutorials)
Social media stories and brand videos
Live videos & recordings of live streams
Product demos, reviews, case studies, and testimonials
Augmented reality (AR)
Virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree videos

Video Marketing ROI

Now we come to the big question every business has to answer when it comes to any element of their marketing strategy: “Is it worth it?”

According to these statistics from video marketers, most would answer, “Yes.”

87% report a positive ROI.
For 84%, it helped increase leads.
For 86%, it helped increase website traffic.
For 83%, it increased dwell time on their website.
For 78%, it directly helped to increase sales.

Video Marketing Business Stats

Before you dive into the world of video marketing, invest in a new video creation tool, or increase your video budget, it helps to have some idea of what other businesses are doing.

86% use video as a marketing tool.
39% make videos in-house.
17% outsource video creation.
93% consider video important to their marketing strategy.
For 94%, it helped increase user understanding.
For 43%, it reduced the number of product support calls.
96% plan to spend more (67%) or just as much (29%) on video.

Consumers Respond to Video Marketing

Of course, the whole reason businesses are investing in video marketing is because of the overwhelmingly positive response from consumers, as the following numbers show:

96% watch explainer videos to learn about a product or service.
A video persuades 84% of those to make a purchase.
Videos persuade 79% of consumers to purchase an app/software.
69% said they’d rather watch a short video to learn about a brand.
18% would prefer to read a text-based article, website, or blog post.
85% say they’d like to see more videos from brands in 2021.
People are twice as likely to share video content than any other type.

A large share of your video marketing budget should focus on your social media presence, where a growing number of consumers learn more about your company before buying.

58% visit a brand’s social media pages before going to their website.
60% discover new (to them) brands on social media.
The top 3 purchase-driving platforms are YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

Read on for eye-opening statistics specific to each social media channel.

Instagram

With over one billion active users, Instagram makes heavy use of video marketing and has a massive influence on consumer buying decisions.

72% purchase products after learning about them on Instagram.
Videos get 49% more interaction than static posts.
1 in 4 made a purchase after seeing an Instagram Story.
58% plan to use Instagram in their marketing strategy for 2021.
27% plan to include InstagramTV.
77% have posted a video on IGTV.
41% added Instagram Stories to their marketing strategy.

Twitter

30% of Americans earning $75,000+ a year use Twitter to learn about brands.
31% plan to use Twitter in their video marketing strategy.
Twitter users are 70% male and 30% female.
Video views increased 62% from 2019 to 2020.
90% of Twitter videos are viewed on a mobile device.
69% made purchases based on a brand’s Twitter marketing.
Video tweets attract 10x more engagements than static tweets.

Facebook

Facebook is the #1 platform to invest in over the next 12 months.
70% plan to include Facebook in their video marketing strategy.
28% plan to use Facebook Live.
12% of Facebook video posts are live streams.
Live streams get 2x the engagement of pre-recorded video posts.
The best video length is between 2 and 5 minutes.

The best way to take advantage of online video consumption on LinkedIn is to make it easy for viewers to grasp the meaning of your content without audio.

Users are 70% more likely to finish a video optimized for silent viewing.
LinkedIn Live streams increased by 437% in 2020.
LinkedIn users are 20 times more likely to re-share a video post.
Video campaigns have 82% view rates.
Men outnumber women at 57% of LinkedIn users.
59.9% are between 25 and 34 years old.
63% plan to use LinkedIn in their video marketing strategy.

YouTube

YouTube is a big part of the future of video marketing, and for good reason:

70% learn about new brands on YouTube.
YouTube replaced Facebook as the #1 purchase-driving platform.
87% say YouTube has been an effective channel for them.
89% plan to include YouTube in their video marketing strategy.
The fastest-growing demographics are Gen X and Baby Boomers.

TikTok

TikTok’s platform allows users to create 15-second videos with music clip soundtracks, and while it’s most popular with younger generations, its appeal is growing.

Use as a marketing tool doubled to 20% in 2020.
Female users outnumber males at roughly 60% to 40%.
The largest age group (42%) is 18 to 24 years old.
66% consider their TikTok strategy a success.
25% plan to start using TikTok in 2021.

Mobile Video Marketing

Consumers use their smartphones not just for shopping but also to get acquainted with brands and what they offer.

65% prefer shopping on their smartphones.
71% visited a brand’s website or app in the decision-making stage.
39% were influenced by a relevant web search.
Up to 70% of web traffic happens on a mobile device.
Users are 1.5x more likely to view videos on a mobile device.
Mobile video consumption doubles every year.

To hold viewers’ attention, videos on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram — as well as those hosted on your site — need to be optimized for mobile viewing.

And that means ensuring each video meets three key criteria: short duration, fast page loading, and good performance at low-bandwidth connections.

Video Marketing Trends

Gaining and keeping a competitive edge with your videos is all about staying on point with marketing trends — like videos optimized for silent viewing.

Take that and the following trends into account when creating your own videos:

The average person spends 100 minutes a day watching online video.
The largest increase in online video consumption is in viewers over 46 years old.
Facebook Live is the most engaging — and least used — format on their platform.
Videos now appear in 55% of Google keyword searches.
84% of marketers now rank video creation skills as essential when hiring for new marketing positions.

The best way to optimize your visibility is with long-form videos on your website, which you can break into smaller pieces to use on social media.

But the most significant trend in video marketing for 2020 is the realization that no business, whatever its size, can afford to simply opt out of creating video content.

Pandemic Impact on Video Marketing

Thanks in part to the global pandemic, more people are interacting with others via live video chat on social media or using apps like Zoom and Google Meet.

And, for many of us, even as restrictions begin loosening, online videos will still play an essential role in our brand awareness and shopping habits.

The statistics below should clear up any doubt:

68% have changed the amount of video they watch online.
96% of these watch more than before the pandemic.
91% say the pandemic has made video more important.
24% used video for the first time in 2020.
60% expect the pandemic to affect their video marketing budget.
70% of those expect it to increase.
30% expect it to decrease.

Bottom line: The increasing saturation of video marketing raises the bar for content quality. It also begs a couple questions:

How can a less experienced video marketer hope to stand out?
What does this mean for businesses that don’t use video?

Why Marketers Are Putting Off Video Content

Despite the obvious increase in our consumption of video content, a subset of marketers are holding off for one or more of the following reasons:

19% say they don’t feel it’s needed.
17% say it’s too expensive.
17% don’t know where to begin.
16% don’t have time for it.
7% are unclear on the ROI.
5% are unable to convince key decision-makers to use it.
That said, 69% of those who didn’t use video in 2020 said they expected to start using it in 2021.

Best Practices for Video Marketing

With the growing competition for your customers’ attention, you need to know how to stand out (in a good way).

Keep the following statistics in mind:

65% of viewers are visual learners.
We remember about 95% of what we see on video.
We remember about 10% of what we read.
Videos 15 seconds or shorter are shared 37% more often than videos lasting between 30 seconds and 1 minute.
At least 85% of videos are watched without sound.

To make each video count, keep the following in mind, too:

Hook your target audience in the first few seconds.
Focus on the story — not the sale.
Host your video in a branded, controlled, and SEO-friendly environment.
Create a video sitemap and submit it to Google Search Console.
Use customer data to make videos more personal and relevant.
Use video analytics to gauge the effectiveness of your marketing.
Give each video a clear and forceful call to action (CTA).

Aside from all the marketing speak, customers want to know who you are — really — before buying something from you.

Ready to create a game-changing video marketing strategy?

Whether you’re starting from scratch or making some much-needed changes, you’re here because you’re an action-taker.

You’re not one to shoot from the hip, either. Knowledge is power.

So, which video marketing stat made the biggest impression? And what will you do this week to level up your video marketing game?

What will you do differently today?

Sarah Lentz is a certified freelance writer and published author who blogs about health and beauty for women in their 40s and up. She also enjoys helping clients turn their ideas into ghostwritten books and blog posts.

101 Essential Video Marketing Statistics for 2021

Types of Video Content

Video Marketing ROI

Video Marketing Business Stats