Featuring in an effort to find to the floor of come again? Makes videos doing well on social media, we suite dazed to answer two not-so-simple questions:

Where does capture on tape work top?
Featuring in come again? Format does capture on tape work top?
What we found is with the aim of near are so many ways to leave in the region of it! Video format, segment, content, captions, and graphics (to nickname a few) all comedy a immense part in the winner of your capture on tape content.

But single stat really stood dazed to us: Square capture on tape (1:1) takes up 78% more real estate in a person’s mobile newsfeed than does landscape capture on tape (16:9).

That’s a slice of legroom! And with mobile content consumption on a dramatic get out of bed, this felt like something we had to find to the floor of.

So we teamed up with the capture on tape experts by the side of Animoto to test (and test again) the hypothesis with the aim of honest capture on tape would work better across the board on social media than the traditional landscape capture on tape.

The results were fascinating!

We’re excited to dig in and share our make inquiries with you along with several actionable takeaways meant for marketers looking to up their capture on tape marketing game in 2017.

Let’s execute this!

We’ll be chatting a slice in the region of skillful capture on tape marketing tools in this advertise. Our two must-haves are Animoto meant for capture on tape creation and Buffer meant for sharing. Feel on the house to grab a subscription from every or else we find on track. We’ll be mentioning them a slice under. ?

Square Video v. Landscape Video: Here’s How They Compare on Social Media
3 Important takeaways to escort your capture on tape marketing strategy
Video and mobile are on the wounding side of social media and marketing and so we’re super excited to share this actionable make inquiries with you. By the put a stop to of this article, you’ll be equipped with data-backed ideas and insights with the aim of you can apply to your own videos now.

But earliest, a hardly any vital takeaways to suite the study up!

1. Cellular phone content consumption is exponentially increasing
VentureBeat recently found with the aim of Facebook lonesome at this point boasts 1.09 billion mobile day by day vigorous users (a 22% strengthen time completed year). Meaning with the aim of more than 92% of Facebook users access it via mobile, making it judicious with the aim of businesses optimize their content meant for the mobile user.

Social media in precise is by the side of the forefront of this monumental spell from desktop to mobile. Understanding the marketing tactics and strategies with the aim of cater specifically to a mobile audience will help to suite brands apart.

The takeaway: Experimenting with capture on tape format is lone single of the numerous ways to set free content in a mobile-friendly way to users. Apps, mobile-optimized websites & email, geolocation tags, and QR codes, amongst other tactics are all things meant for marketers to consider touching ahead.

2. Square capture on tape outperformed landscape capture on tape in views and engagement
Square capture on tape outperformed landscape capture on tape on every social media group in vocabulary of capture on tape views, engagement (likes, interpretation, and shares), and completion rate (%).

Featuring in round about suitcases, honest capture on tape resulted in 30-35% privileged capture on tape views and an 80-100% strengthen in engagement.

The takeaway: Video format, anyway of the content, seems to comedy a vast roll in how many intimates watch your capture on tape, how long they watch it, and how willing they are to engage with it.

3. It overheads significantly a lesser amount of to advertise to users using honest capture on tape on mobile
Our experiments revealed the statement with the aim of it overheads 7.5% a lesser amount of to find someone to engage with honest capture on tape on Facebook and a whopping 33% a lesser amount of to find someone to engage with honest capture on tape on Instagram.

We in addition found with the aim of the cost savings continues upward as users watch more of our capture on tape on social media. Featuring in other lexis, the more capture on tape content the better!

The takeaway: Putting your advertising dollars behind honest capture on tape on both Facebook and Instagram will help you to attain greater results meant for a subordinate cost.

Click to jerk to a detail section:
Below are the stuffed details from our study on everything from how we suite up the capture on tape tests to how much we spent along with the surprising results! Here’s a quick look by the side of come again? We’ll cover:

The honest capture on tape & mobile hypothesis
The various tests we ran
Important capture on tape advertising takeaways
Key results from the experiments
Other capture on tape learnings
Overall conclusion
What’s subsequently?
The honest capture on tape & mobile hypothesis
This in one piece project with Animoto on track with single eye-opening stat: Honest capture on tape takes up 78% more real estate in a person’s mobile newsfeed than does landscape capture on tape.

Shortly when since with the aim of stat, we read Ooyala’s Global Video Index recount with the aim of showed capture on tape consumption on mobile has increased 233% since 2013. And with the aim of in Q4 of 2016, more than 50% of all capture on tape views came from mobile policy, at length surpassing desktop (with with the aim of add up to steadily increasing).

Cellular phone v. Desktop Video Views Comparison
With mobile capture on tape consumption growing by the calendar day, we wondered if honest capture on tape would be the original “norm.” It would progress to have a feeling, correct? Traditional landscape videos (16:9) revealed on mobile are typically 1280px X 720px (wider than they are tall). Whereas, honest capture on tape (1:1) expands to fit the height ratio and suit 1280px X 1280px.

Seeing how mobile screens are taller than they are extensive, honest capture on tape geographically would take up more newsfeed and run to greater engagement – things like views, likes, interpretation, shares, completion rate, and that.

Or by the side of smallest amount that’s come again? We hoped to achieve dazed!

Landscape v. Square Video Size Comparison
We got to succeed figuring dazed which variables to test, how to suite up and run the experiments, come again? Social media channels we ought to test the videos on and a ton more.

The various tests we ran
We wanted to really hone in on come again? Makes capture on tape content doing well and so we attempted to keep the tests as effortless as likely. Here’s how we suite everything up:

Networks
We identified the three social media networks someplace we may well straightforwardly test the various capture on tape formats: Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram. From the get-go, we firm to lone test through the Buffer social media accounts so with the aim of we may well compare the results to prior videos and not run the hazard of anecdotal results due to things like interests, audience size, voice and tone, and that.

Video topics
Next came the ideation period someplace we formed a ton of special capture on tape theme ideas and threw them into an Excel worksheet. These were split up into “talking-head” videos and “text-only” videos. This tolerable us to be able to not lone test come again? Role format show business in capture on tape winner, but in addition if having a live person in a capture on tape makes a difference in results.

Example of a talking-head capture on tape we tested:

Example of a text-only capture on tape we tested:

Videos and formats
Using the Animoto artifact we formed nine videos utter – with four special formats apiece capture on tape:

Square (1:1)
Landscape (16:9)
Letterbox with Text (1:1)
Letterbox exclusive of Text (1:1)
Each capture on tape varied in timing and theme, but the lean of the variables remained dependable to ensure taxing validity and conclusive results.

An exemplar of a letterbox capture on tape with text meant for reference:

An exemplar of a letterbox capture on tape exclusive of text meant for reference:

Cellular phone v. Desktop
One of the vital parts of our study and analysis, along with format, was to test the effect of mobile v. Desktop on capture on tape results. There cover been round about incredible stats released in the fresh months on the growing popularity of mobile content consumption. VentureBeat recently found with the aim of Facebook lonesome at this point boasts 1.09 billion mobile day by day vigorous users (a 22% strengthen time completed year).

Featuring in other lexis, completed 92% of Facebook users access the platform via mobile – making it judicious meant for businesses to optimize their content meant for the mobile user.

Facebook cellular phone Daily Active Users 2
When setting up our various campaigns inside Facebook Ads Manager we made bound to be to split test on mobile v. Desktop. These were round about of the nearly everyone surprising and exciting results which we share under!

Cost-wise, we spent really completed $1,500 dollars on taxing every of the capture on tape classified ad sets on Facebook and Instagram. Roughly $150 apiece Facebook classified ad suite and $75-$90 apiece Instagram Ad Set.

Each of the classified ad sets limited the exact same audience demographics. Here’s a quick look by the side of our audience targeting:

Facebook Ads Audience Square Video v. Landscape Video Targeting
Then came the exciting part – we began taxing!

Video strategy & launch
Instead of simply releasing the videos across social media, we opted to run every capture on tape as an advertisement on Facebook & Instagram and organically on Twitter. Approaching it this way would allow us to run sincere, unbiased A/B tests with every deviation using Animoto’s top practices. We kept back our targeting dependable with our regular targeting, ensuring with the aim of the same users would look into our ads. This would ascertain supportive as soon as comparing results to historic averages.

We in addition isolated every test by group and by device, allowing us to observe performance of Instagram v. Facebook and mobile v. Desktop – ensuring with the aim of every detail silo was agreed the same advertising dollars. Another benefit of setting up the tests this way was with the aim of we were able to curtail the likelihood with the aim of a single user would be presented with special variations of the same capture on tape. It in addition gave us more in-depth analytics on the sincere performance – CPM, specifically, as the industry standard in analyzing the performance of advertisement impressions.

We took a a little special draw near to Twitter. Without a sincere method to A/B test posts and ensure with the aim of users would be bucketed into special variations, we opted to advertise organically across a longer interlude of point in time.

With the taxing strategy in furnish, we suite inedible to progress to the videos. Featuring in all, we formed videos meant for 10 special pieces of content and, meant for every capture on tape, we produced involving two to four variations with the aim of tolerable us to answer a add up to of questions:

What capture on tape format execute intimates watch and engage with more?
What capture on tape format leads to a greater completion rate?
Does mobile v. Desktop comedy a role in engagement and completion rate?
Does the social group progress to a difference?
We were in addition able to test content-based hypotheses to ascertain or refute commonly discussed capture on tape top practices.

How execute text-only videos work v. Taking-head videos?
What role does visuals comedy inside the earliest 3 seconds of a capture on tape?
Do we look into a sizeable let fall inedible in observe toll as the capture on tape segment increases?
After redistribution and tracking completed 80 capture on tape posts across 3 weeks, the picture became much clearer.

3 Important capture on tape advertising takeaways
And at this point meant for the exciting part – the results!

Each of these are based on the various data points we revealed from running more than 80 capture on tape tests inside the Facebook Ads Manager platform.

If you’re weird in the region of our advertising slant, Animoto has in black and white a skillful resource in the region of creating operational capture on tape variations and the art of A/B taxing.

Advertising Takeaway #1: To make best use of your cash, target mobile users with capture on tape (square capture on tape or landscape video)
First, we looked by the side of untainted Cost Per Thousand (CPM) on all of the tests we ran to compare overheads. What stood dazed to us nearly everyone was with the aim of desktop capture on tape CPM was near 2X the cost of mobile capture on tape CPM across the board.

Cost Per Thousand (CPM) – Square Video on cellular phone v. Landscape Video on cellular phone
Featuring in other lexis, it cost near spitting image to contact the same amount of intimates on desktop as it did on mobile. Marketers can instantaneously benefit from expressly targeting users via mobile advertisements.

Advertising Takeaway #2: Users engage with honest capture on tape more on mobile; significantly more on Instagram
It overheads 7.5% a lesser amount of to find someone to engage with honest capture on tape on Facebook and a whopping 33% a lesser amount of to find someone to engage with honest capture on tape on Instagram.

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(Cost Per 3s cellular phone Views – Instagram)

Instagram Video Cost Per 3-Second Views
*Quick Note: The cost savings continues upward as users watch more of the capture on tape. This is revealed under as cost savings using honest capture on tape increases in each test involving 3s and 10s

(Cost Per 10s cellular phone Views – Instagram)

Instagram Video Cost Per 10-Second Views
Advertising Takeaway #3: The cost to contact desktop users with landscape capture on tape is a lesser amount of than honest capture on tape
While honest capture on tape and mobile consumption took the spotlight in this study, there’s one more significant data advantage worth mentioning. That’s the statement with the aim of it overheads a lesser amount of to contact desktop users with landscape capture on tape than it does honest capture on tape or letterbox capture on tape.

(Cost Per 3s Desktop Video View – Facebook)

Facebook Landscape Video View on Desktop Data – 3s View Cost
(Cost Per 10s Desktop Video View – Facebook)

Facebook Landscape Video View on Desktop Data – 10s View Cost
What we found is with the aim of the cost to acquire a 3s and 10s viewer on desktop is consistently subordinate by using a landscape capture on tape.

*Quick Note: The difference involving landscape capture on tape on desktop is still not sufficient to overcome the 2x CPM acquire achieved by targeting mobile users.

Key results from the experiments
To help provide round about more actionable takeaways from the study we broke up the left over results into several vital categories. These categories focus on notable capture on tape metrics such as views, completion rate (%), engagement, content, and more. All are listed under (in rebuff precise order) with visuals and insights to riding boot.

Did we escape no matter which? We’d love to hear your judgment or ideas on all of these results in the interpretation!

Square capture on tape v. Letterbox capture on tape v. Landscape capture on tape overview
After all was assumed and finished, both honest capture on tape and letterbox capture on tape (1:1 format) outperformed landscape capture on tape as soon as it came to be more or less actions, views, and completion rate (%) – particularly on mobile policy.

The results at this point join the be more or less figures meant for both mobile and desktop – we’ll break down how videos work across mobile and desktop extra in a presently section.

Average Engagements Per Video Post

The earliest point we looked by the side of was how format affected actions (likes, interpretation, shares). Square capture on tape and letterbox capture on tape outperformed landscape on be more or less across all networks.

Average Engagements Per Video – Buffer & Animoto Study
*Quick Note: The Buffer Twitter audience size is significantly bigger than Facebook and Instagram, which would help to explain the skewed results towards Twitter over.

Average Views Per Video Post

Next, we wanted to know how format would affect the overall capture on tape views (media views) to every advertise. Again, honest capture on tape and letterbox capture on tape outperformed landscape capture on tape on all platforms.

Average Video Views Per Post – Buffer & Animoto Study
Average Completion Rate (%) Per Video

The survive overall data advantage we looked by the side of was be more or less completion rate (%) apiece capture on tape based on format. This single was particularly fascinating due to Facebook’s fresh notice with the aim of their algorithm will start to preference “watch time” as an notable capture on tape metric.

Here’s someplace the data gets a smidgen fascinating. Landscape capture on tape had a privileged completion rate on both Facebook and Twitter. We can’t be completely bound to be come again? Caused this phenomenon, but we’re thinking it had something to execute with capture on tape “norms” and how intimates are used to since capture on tape on social media.

Average Video Completion Rate (%) – Buffer & Animoto Study
Cellular phone capture on tape v. Desktop capture on tape
After we got an overall picture of how capture on tape was performing in various formats on social media, we wanted to dig into come again? The data looked like with mobile capture on tape v. Desktop capture on tape. For this data we bowed to Facebook Advertising due to the robust audience and device analytics with the aim of the platform provides.

Average Views Per Video (Mobile v. Desktop)

When it came to views, honest capture on tape was the make winner on mobile. However, come again? We found fascinating is with the aim of landscape capture on tape outperformed both honest and letterbox on desktop. We believe with the aim of this is for the reason that the amount of “real estate” the a capture on tape takes up in a person’s feed is a lesser amount of significant on desktop due to the much bigger screen size.

Average Views Per Video – cellular phone v. Desktop
Average Completion Rate Per Video (Mobile v. Desktop)

Again, honest capture on tape outperformed landscape on mobile in the completion rate (%) kind. But as you can look into, landscape capture on tape without a doubt the favorite on desktop.

Average Video Completion Rate (%) – cellular phone v. Desktop
Average Engagement Per Video (Mobile v. Desktop)

Engagement apiece capture on tape is someplace the tide starts to swing back in the preference of honest capture on tape preference on both mobile and desktop. The fascinating point to notice at this point is with the aim of while more intimates watch landscape capture on tape on desktop with a privileged completion rate, they don’t engage with it as much as they execute honest capture on tape.

Average Video Engagement – cellular phone v. Desktop
Average Reach Per Video (Mobile v. Desktop)

By at this point, you probably may well cover guessed which format reached more intimates on mobile v. Desktop! But really in-case, here’s how every performed in vocabulary of be more or less contact apiece capture on tape.

Average Reach Per Video – cellular phone v. Desktop

3 other capture on tape learnings
Learning #1: Text-only videos v. Talking-head videos

One of the edge studies we ran when completing the bulk of our key experiments was to test capture on tape “type.” We grouped these into two buckets: Text-only v. Talking-head (see over meant for stuffed examples). Here’s how they performed:

(Average Video Completions: Talking-Head v. Text-Only)

Average Video Completions – Talking leader v. Text Only
Takeaway: Text-only videos performed better on both Facebook and Twitter. Creating informative, straightforwardly edible videos meant for these platforms will help to strengthen your completion rate.

(Average Engagements – cellular phone v. Desktop: Talking-Head v. Text-Only)

Average Engagements – cellular phone v. Desktop with Talking leader v. Text Only
Takeaway: The nature of mobile content consumption seems to preference both chatting head and text-only videos. Experimenting with both formats via mobile targeting is a skillful way to achieve dazed come again? Your audience likes.

Learning #2: Opening image and 3s utter views

The subsequently point we tested was the effect with the aim of the opening image or “cover image” had on overall watch point in time of a capture on tape. For these tests, we grouped the opening images into three special categories: Image + text, text-only, capture on tape + text.

First Slide Test – 3 Second Video Results
Takeaway: The top way to strengthen viewership on your videos is to include either a capture on tape or an image along with descriptive text. Text-only intros dramatically decrease views to your capture on tape.

Learning #3: Length of capture on tape and engagement

Last, but not smallest amount, we answered the question: Do we look into a sizeable let fall inedible in engagement toll as the capture on tape segment increases? We tested videos by the side of 30-seconds, 60-seconds, and 90-seconds. There were round about fascinating learnings at this point!

Video Length Engagement Testing: 30 – 60 – 90
Takeaway: The results showed with the aim of the longer the capture on tape, the more engagement it got. It’s notable meant for marketers to test with several timing variations to think dazed come again? Their audience engages with nearly everyone.

*Quick Note: Instagram advertising allows meant for a most of 60-second videos which is why we weren’t able to test 90-second videos over.

Overall conclusion: Square capture on tape and mobile optimization are vital meant for marketers
Video content is at this point widely received to be the top way to contact your audience. At the same point in time, social media content consumption is touching almost exclusively to mobile. Given this dramatic spell from desktop to mobile, businesses can flourish in 2017 and further than by redistribution capture on tape content optimized meant for the mobile user.

One skillful way to optimize meant for the mobile user is through the creation and distribution of honest capture on tape (1:1). The same as revealed in this study, honest and letterbox format outperformed landscape in really in the region of each test we ran. With mobile news feed legroom by the side of a premium, the more real estate on a user’s screen your content occupies, the better.

From a marketing standpoint, we’d put in a good word for with the aim of you open to test with creating honest capture on tape meant for social media. To execute so, you can function a artifact like Animoto. Animoto is a cloud-based, drag-and-drop solution, skillful meant for everyday marketing videos – and you don’t cover to be a sincere capture on tape marketing expert to function it.

There’s in addition more multipart products dazed near like Adobe Premier/After Effects to help transform your landscape-style clips into honest videos. Though, the learning curve is a smidgen steeper with these two products.

Our teams by the side of Animoto and Buffer are excited to develop on the learnings from this study. We believe with the aim of the trend of mobile content consumption and honest capture on tape on social media has lone really begun. It’s lone a worry of point in time or else marketers and brands catch on.

The results from these experiments in addition cover vast implications meant for not lone organic redistribution on social media, but meant for advertising and mobile capture on tape consumption as well. Simple tweaks to the way with the aim of marketers draw near capture on tape creation will help to make best use of the results across platforms.

We’d love to hear from you! What are your judgment on the results from this study?
Please feel on the house to leave us ideas, judgment, or suggestions in the interpretation under. Our teams would be thrilled to go on with the conversation!