Video Marketing Statistics & Insights from Wistia

In late 2023, I collaborated with an organization to increase its visibility and donations.

We created straightforward yet emotionally charged videos with basic filming equipment centering around raw interviews with the people the organization helped.

As we uploaded the videos on social media, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Soon, the donations skyrocketed, and more people volunteered.

This project taught me the power of simple, genuine storytelling in video marketing, which truly resonates with audiences.

That said, in 2023, 91% of businesses were using video as a marketing tool, and even now, videos dominate the marketing industry in every format imaginable.

As an avid video consumer and someone who’s worked in the marketing industry, I believe it’s become important to look at video marketing statistics in 2024 to stay ahead.

Wistia set out to discover how folks made videos, which videos they made, and what they did to make their videos bring real results for their business. What did people’s video strategies look like last year?

In this article, I’ll share what worked and what didn’t. Plus, find out what companies have planned for this year as we look towards the future of video marketing.

Table of Contents

Wistia surveyed over 2,000 professionals, looked at how 100,000+ businesses are using their platform, dug through more than 90 million uploaded videos, and then put everything they found into their 2024 State of Video Report.

Here are some of their biggest takeaways:

• Audiences want to learn how to use your product and gain industry expertise. By far, educational and instructional videos were the most engaging type of video content made by businesses last year. And you don’t need deep pockets to start creating them.
• A bigger budget does not mean higher engagement. High production values and more resources aren’t the key to keeping viewers glued to your videos. Audiences willingly watch, and sometimes prefer, low-budget video content, even talking head videos recorded with just a webcam. This makes video production much more accessible for all—a big win for smaller brands!
• Video is an effective way to generate and nurture qualified leads. By adding email capture forms and calls to action (CTAs) to the videos on your website, you can make video an integral part of the lead generation process.

In Wistia’s report, you’ll find a ton of video marketing statistics on performance, creation, distribution, and generative artificial intelligence (AI).

I’ve pulled out the most interesting insights that’ll help you build a stronger video marketing strategy and keep up with the rising need for video content. Let’s dive in!

For 63% of video marketers, measuring the ROI of their video content involves tracking the number of video views. So, Wistia got curious and asked around: How do you figure out if your video‘s hitting the mark?

Turns out 28% of the folks they surveyed dig into engagement graphs and heatmaps, 27% swear by a video analytics dashboard, and 19% check out where their traffic is coming from.

Tracking performance across different embed locations is key for 14%, while 12% compare different videos against each other.

What’s the most valuable performance metric for videos?

Conversion rate steals the spotlight, whether it‘s through clicks on annotations, CTAs, or email capture forms.

Engagement rate grabs the silver medal, with traffic to the video’s page not far behind. Play rate and total plays score fourth and fifth as success markers.

How are businesses putting video performance data to work?

A solid 40% use it to gauge their videos‘ role in hitting marketing goals. Another 23% let it guide their creative choices, 20% rely on it to track the impact of video on a web page, and 17% use it to prove ROI to the company’s stakeholders.

When it comes to A/B testing, what’s on the experiment table?

A hefty 31% rely on A/B testing to compare video elements (like music and video length) or structural changes (like the addition or omission of an intro).

About 26% play around with the placement or wording of CTAs or forms to see what works best, 21% pit different videos against each other, and 18% try out custom thumbnails to see which one gets the most plays.

Only a few, 4%, test the waters with player design or color changes.

Video Consumption

The amount of time people spend watching videos keeps going up beyond what Wistia’s seen in the last few years.

In 2023, companies hosting their videos on Wistia saw video plays jump by 15% and total watch time soar by 44%.

Statista also reported that in 2023, over three billion people watched videos on the internet, downloaded or streamed.

Kyle Denhoff, senior director of marketing and audience development at HubSpot, says, “There are two changes in the market indicating a need for more video content. First, the search landscape is being disrupted by AI. Second, we’re seeing a shift to a video-first consumption of content for audiences.”

So what’s the scoop on key video performance metrics like the play rate, engagement rate, and conversion rate? Time to break down the stats!

Video Play Rates

Think of the video play rate as the ratio of folks who actually press play to those who just scroll past the video.

Tons of stuff can sway this metric–like how eye-catching your thumbnail is, the length of the video, where it’s placed, the content and context surrounding it, and even the flow of traffic to the page displaying the video.

Longer videos usually catch more clicks per page visit. Longer videos are normally packed with more educational info than shorter videos, and they exist on specialized pages with highly specific purposes that likely get fewer impressions. Most people coming to these pages are hunting for info, making them more inclined to press play.

Shorter videos might not get the highest play rates on a web page. Even though short videos are usually found in high-traffic areas like homepages or product pages, they don’t always attract clicks. Reasons vary—visitors might have already watched them, aren‘t quite ready to hit play, or weren’t expecting to find a video while browsing. Despite the lower play rate, their prime spots mean these short videos still get plenty of views.

Lots of things can nudge your video’s play rate. In Wistia’s full report, they dive into how factors like industry and company size impact your play rate.

Video Engagement

Next up: video engagement rate. This is a key metric that tells us what chunk of your video actually holds your viewer‘s attention.

It’s a great way to see if your audience is actively interested in your video and values the content you’re offering.

Now that we’ve got a handle on what video engagement rate is all about, it’s time to dive into some benchmarks. How does video length play into keeping viewers hooked? Let’s find out!

Interestingly, engagement rates across various video lengths have remained steady year after year. Though, they’ve all dipped a bit in the last 5-10 years.

This dip could be because of audiences’ shrinking attention spans, which may also explain why engagement rates hold the top spot for shorter videos, start to drop for those 5-30 minute videos, and take a hit at the hour-long mark.

Video Conversion

Wistia found that 41% of businesses add annotation links, CTAs, and email capture forms to their videos to crank up their conversion rates.

Now, let’s get into the nitty-gritty: Which conversion opportunities are businesses using in their videos, and which ones work the best?

Annotation links take the top spot at a solid 45%, with CTAs trailing right behind at 40%. Email capture forms? They’re only being used 15% of the time.

There has been a bit of a dip in CTAs and forms making their way into videos over the past few years.

It’s a bummer because when you skip out on a conversion action, you’re basically leaving your most engaged viewers hanging without a clear next step.

Here’s something pretty interesting: Email capture forms netted the highest conversion rate at 23%. CTAs are at a respectable 13%, but those popular annotation links? Just 1%.

So, even though annotation links are everywhere, they’re not quite bringing home the bacon. And forms—the least popular type—turn out to be the most effective in getting viewers to take that next step.

It‘s clear businesses should use email capture forms and CTAs more. They’re your best bet for nudging viewers closer to becoming customers.

Now that we’ve found the best ways to get viewers to take action, let’s see how much video length matters in making that happen.

Turns out videos that run over five minutes often see higher conversion rates.

This probably has to do with the fact that longer videos engage viewers more deeply with valuable content, making them more likely to act when a conversion opportunity arises.

Plus, longer videos give you the flexibility to strategically place conversion opportunities at optimal moments.

For videos under five minutes, annotations and forms don’t bring great results.

But CTAs? They still have a solid chance of converting viewers. You can get an in-depth look at this in the full report.

Average Conversion Rate by Position

On average, the best place to put a conversion opportunity is within the first or final quarter of a video or at the very end.

Phew, we just ran through a lot of numbers, didn’t we? But—believe it or not—we’ve only scratched the surface. You’ll find a lot more video conversion stats and insights in Wistia’s full report.

Andréa Hudson, Head of Audience Development, Distributed Platforms at HubSpot, says, “For businesses truly looking to scale: invest in creators, hire an in-house producer, and leverage AI video tools for your team.”

Are businesses embracing generative AI for video?

Wistia found that only 18% of businesses are weaving AI tools into their video production workflows.

Of these companies, 59% use AI to auto-generate captions or transcripts.

50% tap into it to draft up scripts or outlines or just to brainstorm. 35% lean on AI to generate visuals and music or fix overdubs, while 29% use it to quickly find key clips to edit.

And let’s not forget the 26% creating catchy social promo copy with AI’s help.

But get this: A whopping 66% of folks Wistia asked can’t wait to dive into AI for their 2024 video projects. They want to use it to save time on scriptwriting, video editing, creating chapters, and summing up videos.

More folks are seeing how AI simplifies the video creation process, so there might be a big jump in AI use by businesses this year.

Want to unlock more insights from Hootsuite, like the best time to post videos for each social channel? Download the full report.