Optimizing your Video for Mobile
Some of us grew up on personal computers, a time when lugging around a laptop was already the closest we can get to accessing all our files on-the-go. Right now, at least 7.1 billion devices are being used by people, we are seeing a rise in new kinds of mobile devices: the tablets and smartphones. In fact, people would rather buy a tablet than a desktop or a laptop. It makes sense since the world has become doubly fast-paced and professionals like everything to be easily accessed and ready for editing or presenting.
But what does this mean for us? How does this affect our video marketing strategies? Well, it can affect your marketing greatly. Because almost everyone has a mobile device, adapting to it has become increasingly important, at least for video marketers. There is a potential audience that we might not be able to reach if our videos are not optimized and adaptive for mobile.
People call mobile marketing the key to success, and they are right. We are in a time when people are first experiencing the Internet through their mobile devices. And if videos are a revolutionary marketing technique, optimizing it for mobile makes it an even better tool for marketing. So here we will discuss mobile marketing and why it is so important, and how you can optimize your video to adapt to mobile.
Why is mobile the new thing?
Obviously, a lot of people are using mobile devices now, there is not a corner you turn where you see people without their devices. But there is another reason why mobile is suddenly a big deal. Have you heard of “Mobilegeddon”? Last year around April, Google announced a mobile-friendly algorithm that would prioritise ranking mobile adaptive pages on Google’s search results. They announced that it will significantly impact the ranking of pages, if yours was already mobile adaptive, the algorithm gives it a boost. So you know the webmasters became really anxious about it, hence the moniker, “mobilegeddon”.
Just this month, Google rolled out the second version of the mobile-friendly update, and this increases the effect of the mobile ranking signal.
If you have not checked if your page is mobile-friendly, these are Google’s guidelines:
1. If you don’t know if your website is mobile-friendly, take the Mobile Friendly Test now!
2. If you used content management software like WordPress to build you website, Check out our guide to customize your website software.
3. If you don’t use such software, consider hiring a web developer. We have a checklist of things to care about when doing so.
4. If you’re technical enough to do it yourself, check our Mobile SEO Guide.
Other than Google’s very important mobile-friendly algorithm, what else makes adapting to mobile important?
Why do you need to optimize your video for mobile?
Mobile users are increasing
Mobile devices have become increasingly available and accessible over the past few years. And why not get one? It makes for easier browsing on-the-go, you do not need to be on a laptop to edit documents, and apps for almost everything are available for download. It makes sense that marketers should create a page that can be easily accessed on mobile, but surprisingly some people are not yet convinced. Maybe these numbers can:
- 80% of Internet users own a smartphone while 47% use tablet devices.
- 20% of mobile Google searches are done on mobile
- 89% of their time is spent on media through mobile apps while 11% is spent through mobile web
- When it comes to researching products: 48% of people start researching on search engines, 33% start on brand websites, 26% start on brand apps.
These are just some of the numbers Smart Insights collected and computed themselves, and it shows us how people are becoming more dependent on mobile devices for information and other online activities. Yes, desktops are still relevant, but ignoring these numbers may lose you a boost in ranking and a significant number of potential audiences.
Can help boost conversion rates
Research has shown 69% have made purchases using their tablet device. If a website does not work on mobile (of which at least 48% of people have apparently complained about), there will obviously be no conversion.
What is the purpose of your video? We create videos and spend hours editing it so that people can see it. And once they see it, we want them to do a desired action or what we call a conversion. This could range from buying our products or subscribing to us..
But there is more to mobile conversion than a simple purchase or subscription. According to ComScore, 55% of social media activity happens on mobile, and social media is an important driving factor for video marketing. This makes it easy for the people who have consumed our video content to share it with other people. More shares will equal to more potential audiences reached, and more audiences reached means a high potential for conversion for a significant number of people.
Improved user experience
Let’s take all these numbers and the Google algorithm to consideration. Evidently, it is simply showing us that people are mostly on their mobile devices now, especially if they do not really need to set-up their laptops to do something; pretty sure the same is true for you. And if you have accessed a website or viewed a video on mobile, what is your usual complaint?
It is too small.
Google’s Think Insights on Mobile says that there 48% of people think that companies do not care about them if the website is not mobile responsive. Clearly this is not true since our marketing strategies and the new techniques we have been adapting are all for their convenience. But making our content conveniently available for mobile simply tells our audience that we are making significant strides so that they can watch our content wherever, whenever, and on whichever device. They do not need to zoom or shrink our video content, our mobile design just automatically does the job for them.
Gives you an edge over competition
In any industry, one of the most important things to become successful is to stay ahead of the competition. Other than strengthening your relationship with the people you are catering to, this is the most vital part of any strategy, whether traditional or digital.
Surprisingly, not a lot of people have seen the importance of adapting to the mobile design. 85% of adults already think mobile sites are as good desktop sites. Imagine if your video content is easily shown on the 7.1 billion mobile devices that are being used by people, think of the reach, the potential conversion, and what it means for you. You will easily stand out from the crowd.
Tips or ways to optimize video for mobile
https://www.vidyard.com/blog/how-to-optimize-your-videos-for-mobile-devices/
http://www.reelseo.com/optimize-youtube-mobile/
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6147702?hl=en&ref_topic=6147698
http://www.reelseo.com/optimize-videos-mobile-devices/
http://www.reelseo.com/3-ways-optimize-mobile-video/
Create responsive video players
The first thing you need to do is to make sure that your video player changes size depending on the device that your video will appear on. Learn about screen sizes first, for instance the iphone has a 640 px wide screen and a typical desktop screen has a 1920px wide screen. Make sure that your video can adapt to those screen sizes and everything in between them
Optimize for mobile sizing when you embed your Youtube video by accessing the HTML of your page. If you’re using a video marketing platform with their own video player container, you can adjust the mobile sizing manually.
Make sure your thumbnails are eye-catching
No matter how optimized your video is to mobile, if it does not look enticing, people will not click on it. Make sure that the image is high quality and can easily attract attention in any screen size. In short, the bolder the image is, the better.
Your image design theme should be consistent on all videos so that you can attach an identity to them. In a way, it becomes easier for people to figure out that the thumbnail they are seeing are from your videos even before clicking on them.
Place calls-to-action
Remember that when you upload a video on Youtube or on any platform, the goal is for them to be able to go to your website so that the conversion starts. With Youtube, putting annotations is on mobile is hard. In fact, there might not be a way for it to happen. So here is what you can do:
Mention on the video that they can go visit your website to view your products and read more information about your company/product.
Make use of the Featured Content attribute to promote a new video to your audience.
If you are embedding on your website, make sure that your call-to-action is outside of the video, but on the first fold of the website so that it can still be seen. If it is a video campaign sent through e-mails, make sure that the CTA is big and clickable.
Think of it this way, your video campaigns are useless to someone who mostly use mobile devices, and as what we have been repeatedly saying, the number of people using mobile is massive. As an industry that wants to reach people through video content, there is a need to adapt to audience behaviour. Mark these tips and study the advantages of optimizing your video so you can reap its big rewards.