Vidyard, a business-to-business (B2B) video platform headquartered in Kitchener, Ontario, has just released its latest Video in Business Benchmark Report.
The new report reveals that the average length of B2B videos is getting relatively shorter while viewers are watching B2B videos slightly longer.
Vidyard uncovered these latest trends in B2B videos created by organizations to support their marketing, sales, and customer experience programs by analyzing first-party data from more than 324,000 videos published over a 12-month period.
It also found that both big businesses with more than 5,000 employees and small businesses less than 200 employees published B2B videos at above-average rates.
In addition, organizations in high-tech, professional services, as well as media, entertainment, and communications are the most prolific creators of B2B videos.
The 2019 report also found a significant increase in the number of companies using a mix of internal and external video production resources to meet the shifting expectations of B2B buyer.
Plus, the number of companies using intermediate or advanced video analytics had also jumped considerably year over year.
Key Takeaways from the 2019 Video in Business Benchmark Report
The average B2B video length is trending shorter year-over-year
In 2017, the average length was 6:07 long. In 2018, it was 4:07 long, or 33% shorter than the year before.
Business audiences are watching longer
In 2017, 46% of viewers watched all the way to the end of B2B videos across all viewing sessions.
In 2018, this increased slightly to 52% of viewers. And if a B2B video is shorter than 60 seconds, then 68% of viewers watch it to the end.
Mid-week is the most popular time for B2B video views, with Thursday seeing the most views overall
Viewing peaks in the morning, regardless of the day of the week, typically between 12 to 2 p.m. ET (9 and 11 a.m. PT).
Desktop viewing remains dominant for B2B videos
87% of B2B video views still take place on desktops, but mobile views were 13% this year, up slightly from 11% last year.
Smaller businesses are creating a lot more B2B videos
Companies with 31-200 employees published a staggering 510 new videos on average in 2018, second only to large enterprises with more than 5,000 employees.
More small and medium-sized companies reported using both internal and external video production resources to help them scale B2B video creation while also producing higher quality content.
52% are using both in 2018 vs. 37% the year before.
B2B video analytics has seen increased adoption
In 2018, 85% of companies reported using some form of B2B video analytics. And the use of intermediate or advanced video analytics in 2018 is up 19% over the previous year.
Those are the highlights. Now, let’s dig into the details.
For B2B Videos, Is Shorter Better?
In 2018, the average video length was 4 minutes and 7 seconds long, 33% shorter than 2017’s length, which was 6 minutes and 7 seconds.
This trend continues back to 2016 when Vidyard found that the average length of a B2B video was 13 minutes and 14 seconds.
This either suggests that businesses are discovering that shorter videos help to maximize viewer engagement, or it’s just a reflection of the types of content that they’re now producing.
Or, maybe a little bit of both.
When it comes to viewer engagement, it’s not surprising that B2B videos less than 60 seconds long have the highest completion rate.
However, B2B videos that are between 2 and 4 minutes long had a higher completion rate than videos that are 1 to 2 minutes in length, suggesting that longer-form B2B videos created to educate buyers can still command attention.
According to the new report, the most common types of B2B videos are:
- Webinars.
- Demos.
- Social media videos.
- Explainer videos.
- Product videos.
- Customer videos.
Businesses are using video throughout the customer journey now more than ever.
They recognize the power of video to explain to potential customers what they do, what they offer, and how it helps them.
The popularity of webinars also suggests that there’s also a thirst among B2B buyers for longer-form educational content.
Days & Times Matter for Video Publishing & Promotion
Vidyard’s 2019 report also found that B2B video content is viewed more mid-week, and weekdays continue to be more popular than weekends for viewing.
On Thursdays, 22% of audiences watched B2B video content, which is more than any other day of the week.
In close succession:
- 18% watch B2B videos on Wednesdays.
- 17% on Tuesdays.
- Monday and Friday viewership is tied at 15%.
- Saturday and Sunday trail behind significantly, holding only 7% and 6% of viewers respectively.
Video views peak between 12 to 2 p.m. ET (9 and 11 a.m. PT) on weekdays.
Size Doesn’t Matter for B2B Video Creation & Publishing
Unsurprisingly, companies with more employees produce more videos on average.
The largest enterprises with 5,000 or more employees created an average of 538 videos throughout the year.
However, these large organizations are closely followed by smaller businesses with 31 to 200 employees, which produced an average of 510 videos a year.
This indicates that they’re taking a scrappier approach to their video production strategy, and see video as an important way to compete with larger competitors.
The new report found that many industries are relying on B2B video content to power their marketing, sales, communications, and support.
This includes the high tech, professional services, as well as media, entertainment and communications industries, which created more videos than other fields.
The types of B2B videos they created range from promotional content to educational videos to content for sales enablement.
Production of B2B Video Content Often Outsourced
Vidyard’s report found that more companies are hiring employees to create B2B video content or helping their existing staff to get upskilled in video production techniques.
This year, there was an increase in small and medium-sized companies moving towards using a mix of internal and external resources for video production than the previous year (52% using both, versus 37% in 2017).
At the same time, enterprise organizations are relying more on their employees to create B2B video content, with 38% of that content being produced internally, and another 38% using a mix of internal resources alongside agencies, contract employees, and freelancers.
B2B Video Analytics Key to Understanding Performance & Impact
Now, it won’t come as a surprise that video analytics can help companies to understand the performance of their B2B video content.
But, as companies produce more B2B video content, it’s become more important for them to understand who is consuming it and how it is impacting revenue, rather than just how many views each video received.
In 2018, 85% of companies reported that they’re using some form of video analytics.
And 43% of organizations are taking advantage of the insights available through intermediate and advanced video analytics, a 19% increase over the previous year.
Vidyard’s Methodology Appears to Be Sound
Vidyard’s 2019 Video in Business Benchmark Report is based on their analysis of first-party data collected from more than 324,000 B2B videos published by Vidyard customers from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018.
It also includes anonymized, aggregate viewership and engagement data from B2B video streams during that period.
It’s worth noting that Vidyard’s findings are similar to ones recently reported by The Forrester Tech Tide: Video Technologies For Customer And Employee Experience, Q1 2019. So, Vidyard’s methodology appears to be sound.
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