Video Hosting: Why YouTube is the Wrong Choice
Video hosting is a critical decision.
From a conversion stand point, where is the best place that you can host a video? We’ve got Youtube which every body knows how to use it and it’s free. So wouldn’t use Youtube for all of our video?
Watch all lessons in this series on converting with video.
Be Jealous of Your Hard-won Visitors
When you are using video in a persuasive argument and you want the video to be bringing people closer to taking action, you want to make sure you’re not giving them any way to slip away. You want to be jealous of these visitors. You probably paid to get them there, either by paying for the clicks on an ad or by investing in SEO to get organic traffic to come to these pages. When they are there, you do not want to send the off to Youtube?
All YouTube wants to do is take your eyeballs and advertise something else to them. Can you imagine putting a video on your site, letting Youtube take them away, and them seeing a competitor’s ad displayed over your video? We wouldn’t want that to happen.
Choose a Host You Can Control
I recommend if you’re using video on landing pages on your website, or is any part of a persuasive argument that you get another host, someone who will not be interested in drawing them away, you want a video host that can give you options.
Can you hide the controls that go at the bottom and allow the user a fast forward through your videos?
Can you autoplay the video on your page? Sometimes that will convert more than a non-auto playing video, whether or not you are going to allow them to share this with other people. In most cases, you probably don’t want to use autoplay, especially on landing pages.
Load Time is Critical
Your videos need to really deliver the goods. In other words, when somebody presses play, that video needs to show up as soon as possible with little buffering if any at all. You want a host that gives you the options and can deliver video at high rates. If you do that then you are not going to have people running off to YouTube and seeing the ads of your competitors.
Multiple Video Hosting Providers
This doesn’t mean that you don’t put your videos on YouTube. If you think you are going to able get traffic from Youtube by putting the videos there, go ahead and put them there. Just don’t use YouTube as your host.
You get the best of both worlds. A nice clean interface on your landing pages that doesn’t let people slip away and more viewers from your YouTube channels coming to landing pages where they can take action.
Watch all videos in this series.
Expertise: conversion rate optimization, AB testing, marketing strategy, digital marketing, analytics, landing page design, computer programming, entrepreneurship
Speaking: IBM, Inbound, LeadsCon, Content Marketing World, Affiliate Summit, and more
Books and Training: Your Conversion Creation Equation, Video CRO, Marketing Videos that Convert, CRO Best Practices
As Seen On: ClickZ, Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, Conversion Sciences Blog, Intended Consequences podcast
Education: Texas A&M University, BS Computer Science and Management
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Youtube isn’t the best to put in your website, but can you recommend some video hosting companies? Thanks
Arita, we use Wistia (www.Wistia.com) because it has great analytics, good load times and nice lead generation features. We’ve also used Vimeo (www.vimeo.com) with good results.
Thanks a lot, Brian! Will check out Wistia!