When LinkedIn comes to mind, is video the image you see? If it’s not, maybe it will be soon. The site’s internal data shows its users are 20x more likely to share a video on LinkedIn over any other kind of content. LinkedIn users are responding, spending 300% more time watching video ads than they do consuming non-video sponsored content on the platform. Paid video content (i.e., ads) are doing quite well on the site too.
This makes sense, given that more than 70% of consumers prefer information in video format rather than text. And while Facebook may still reign supreme as the most popular social media platform, LinkedIn isn’t too far behind. That’s why when it comes to social media, slightly over half of all video marketers report that they’ve utilized LinkedIn as a part of a multi-channel strategy. Out of those people, a whopping 84% say their strategy proved to be an effective one.
Over the last two years, LinkedIn has progressively ramped up its video integration and analytics capabilities. The result is that LinkedIn is evolving into a powerful and persuasive platform that marketers can no longer ignore. This is especially true when it comes to B2B brands.
How Can Native Video Help Get Views?
Native video—that is, video that’s uploaded directly to a platform itself, as opposed to merely being linked to from an outside site—is increasing in saturation and use. For example, native video on Facebook gets about 10x more shares than linked-to videos. While implementation on LinkedIn is still in an early stage, most marketers believe this trend should hold true for LinkedIn videos as well.
After an early trial with the site’s influencers, LinkedIn rolled out native video access to all users in August 2017. It later added stickers and text overlays to help make video presentations stand out, even when viewers are watching without sound (as many users do–85% of Facebook users watch video without sound) and video frame filters for conferences and events.
Native video is non-disruptive and offers less friction for viewers. For one thing, native video doesn’t pull users out of their social media feed the way a linked-to video can. This creates a more seamless interaction, which improves user experience. More of the marketing message “lands” with the audience in this case, improving ROI and brand awareness.
Wondering how to share your explainer or demo videos directly to a social media platform? Read this guide.
Should You Take Advantage of Sponsored Content?
In 2018, LinkedIn introduced sponsored brand video—paid advertisements that appear in the LinkedIn feed. These videos can be up to 30 minutes long, although shorter videos produce better results overall.
LinkedIn set three stated goals with video sponsored content. Specifically, they’re aiming to help companies accomplish the following:
- Build brand awareness with visual stories within the “premium context” of the platform;
- Direct more qualified traffic to mobile and desktop versions of brand sites;
- Collect high-quality leads with a persistent “call to action” button or through LI’s integrated Lead Gen Forms product.
LinkedIn’s B2B targeting capabilities allow marketers to precisely target their video content similarly to platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Targeting parameters can include factors like job title, seniority, company, industry/field, stated skills, and more. The ability to target a video’s audience with such precision improves the value of ad spend and increases ROI, making LinkedIn competitive with paid ads on other social media platforms.
Keep an Eye on Improving Analytics
LinkedIn’s 2019 partnership with Moat Analytics (from Oracle Data Cloud) provides the clearest evidence yet that LinkedIn is prioritizing video and not merely paying lip service to its ongoing popularity. Moat’s tools provide consistent view metrics for video ads across multiple platforms, allowing video marketers and content producers to make better decisions more quickly by basing campaign choices on hard data.
In addition, LinkedIn recently announced a move to Azure and the public cloud. The full migration will take at least three years so as not to negatively impact accessibility or performance. However, LI is already using Azure in a few interesting ways.
The most important benefit for content producers is that Azure Media Services helps accelerate LinkedIn video performance statistics after the video has been delivered and viewed. Clearly, LinkedIn understands the importance of quickly available and reliable data in the ongoing optimization of video marketing efforts.
Learn LinkedIn’s Best Practices for Video
Want to make the most of video on LinkedIn? First and foremost, optimize your video content for mobile users. Over half of all LinkedIn users are on mobile devices, so it makes sense to ensure your content aligns with their use environment to improve user experience. Second, whenever possible, be sure to upload video content directly rather than linking to take advantage of social media’s native video favoritism.
Finally, don’t forget to promote and link to your video from other channels, the way you would for any other content you create for your targeted audience. The days of “post it and they will come” are over, and omni-channel promotion is crucial for all digital campaigns. This includes video on any platform—LinkedIn and otherwise.
Have an explainer or demo video project in mind? We’d love to hear more about it. Want an idea of who we’ve worked with and what we’ve produced? Take a look.