Small businesses are embracing organic and paid video for their marketing on major social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, according to new research from professional marketing video creation firm Animoto.
According to the company’s report, Small Business Video Marketing Report, Facebook is still leading the way as the social media favorite for small businesses that create marketing videos. Of the small businesses surveyed that create videos for social media, 91 percent plan to create more marketing videos for Facebook in the next 6 months than they have in the last 6 months.
Another 74 percent said that was true for Instagram, while 60 percent said the same for YouTube. Overall, two-thirds of small business brands report that video receives more engagement—e.g. likes, shares, comments—than any other form of content on social media.
The research also underscores how small business brands are starting to embrace video advertising on Instagram and continue to do so on Facebook. On Facebook’s Q4 2017 earnings call, it was announced that there are 2 million active advertisers on Instagram, and the mobile platform saw a 67 percent increase in business profiles between July and November of last year.
Facebook is still the leading video advertising platform for small business brands, according to the survey, with 63 percent of respondents having paid to advertise a video on Facebook. Instagram is starting to emerge as a video advertising hub for small business brands as well, with 29 percent of respondents having placed spend against an Instagram marketing video.
Small business marketing on social media:
- 85 percent of small business brands surveyed reported that social media has gotten them a new client or customer
- 66 percent reported that video received more engagement (likes, shares, comments) than any other form of content
Instagram emerging as a marketing video hub:
- 73 percent said Instagram is important to their business
- 74 percent said they plan on creating more videos for Instagram in the next 6 months than they have in the last 6 months
- 29 percent have paid to advertise a video on Instagram
- 57 percent have posted on Instagram Stories in the last 30 days
- If your Story contains more than four frames, over 90 percent of viewers tap forward to move to the next frame.
- Business accounts with fewer than 10,000 followers demonstrate an impressive engagement rate of 0.98 percent.
Facebook is still the video king:
- 50 percent of respondents said Facebook is their most important social media channel
- 91 percent said that they plan on creating a greater number of videos for Facebook in the next six months than they have in the last six months
- 63 percent have paid to advertise their video on Facebook
- 43 percent of them primarily use the Boost button
- 57 percent of them primarily use Facebook Ads Manager
“In a crowded social media landscape, small businesses want to make sure that the time they do spend on their social media marketing makes a difference. Video is the obvious choice for small business marketers needing to create a brand-building presence on social media,” said Jason Hsiao, co-founder and chief video officer of Animoto, in a news release.
“Never before have small businesses had the ability to take very simple content like photos and video clips and transform them into a marketing video that draws attention. We have seen so many of our customers become successful video advertisers and video publishers on social media—especially when their videos are optimized for the social experience on mobile by leveraging features like square aspect ratio,” Hsiao added.
Animoto surveyed its small business customers that have created a video in the last six months and indicated that they use Animoto videos for their social media marketing. The web-based survey was fielded April 23, 2018 through April 30, 2018with a sample size of 308.
