Uncover the latest video marketing insights to help your business thrive with video.
See how businesses are using video and how consumers are watching—all based on data from 80 million videos uploaded to the Wistia platform.
We spoke to over 1,500 companies to see how video impacted their business last year, and to find out what they’re planning for 2023.
State of Video 2023: Is business video back to business as usual?
The COVID-19 pandemic saw companies upload—and audiences consume—more videos than ever. Like, way more.
But as the world re-opened in 2022, video uploads, plays, and time watched came down from these all-time highs.
We zoomed out to analyze video data from 2013-2022 to see if businesses and consumers are returning to long-term trends, or whether the pandemic fundamentally changed video for business.
Explore the chapters below
Chapter 1
Video strategy
Video strategy
How to use video. Decision making. Live video. Video marketing tech stack.
Only about half of businesses feel as though they have a video strategy
Businesses know that video is important, but 43% of companies we surveyed didn’t have a video-specific strategy. This is about the same as businesses reported in 2021.
Video marketing tip!
Need help getting started with a video strategy? Wistia’s Guide to Video Marketing will teach you practical tips on how to elevate your video marketing efforts!
But companies are using video strategically. Most focus on product education and creating new customers with video.
Goals
We asked Wistia customers to pick their video goals and rank desired outcomes with video. The results were pretty mixed, indicating that brands find success with video across many areas of their business.
Priorities
Videos about products, educational videos, and webinars earned the most engagement and return on investment according to businesses, and that’s what they focused on creating in 2022.
1. Product videos
2. Educational videos
3. Webinars
Videos companies prioritized in 2022
Video marketing tip!
At Wistia, we think the first three videos your business should make are product explainer videos, webinars, and FAQ videos. Check out our blog post for more inspiration and video production tips!
80% of marketers held live events in 2022. That sounds pretty strategic to us…
Webinars were the most popular live events for businesses in 2022.
60% of businesses said they hosted webinars last year, and 30% said they held webinars at least once a month.
Video marketing tech stack
What tools are businesses using in their video marketing?
When it comes to increasing efficiency across marketing channels and tracking analytics between systems, these Wistia integrations are the go-tos for customers:
Social media platforms
Businesses are sharing their Wistia hosted videos to multiple social channels in a snap.
Marketing automation
Marketing and Sales teams use video data with their CRM or Marketing Automation Platforms for lead gen, lead scoring, and measuring the impact of video in their channels.
Google Ads and Google Analytics
Companies use video engagement data to retarget viewers and gain a deeper understanding of how folks are interacting with their brand’s website.
2023 Planning: budgets and content strategy
Curious about how Wistia customers are investing in video in 2023?
Download the full report to see video marketing budgets and what types of videos businesses plan to make more of this year.
Key takeaways
Even though they may not have a video-specific strategy, brands do have a clear focus in using video.
Businesses see video as a tool used best for product education and brand awareness at the top of the funnel, and influencing buyer behavior at the bottom of the funnel.
Learn about video creation next
Chapter 2
Video creation
Video creation
Video uploads. How often companies made videos. Creative barriers. Video teams.
Video uploads
Business video exploded in 2020-2021. Businesses uploaded 44% more videos than we expected during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Uploads
In 2022, video uploads slowed but were still above expected levels. +59% since 2019.
2022 trend: 13.8M 2022 actual: 15.0M
Year
Uploads
Projection
2013
724782
724782
2014
1776588
1776588
2015
3039497
3039497
2016
4716548
4716548
2017
5569017
5569017
2018
7188759
7188759
2019
9469885
9469885
2020
17139974
10927402
2021
16385207
12384919
2022
15041737
13842437
When did your company make its first video?
Year(s)
#
2016-2017
484
2018-2019
291
2020-2021
245
2022
222
We haven't made videos...yet
71
Other
224
14% of businesses surveyed made their first video in 2022. Welcome to the club!
And for the 5% of businesses who haven’t made a video yet…it’s time to get those creative wheels turning!
Video marketing tip!
Need inspiration? Our post on 15 Types of Videos That Every Business Can Use can help you get started.
In general, who is responsible for creating videos for your company?
Response
#
In-house video or creative team
891
In-house individual contributors
527
Freelancers
323
Video production company/agency
313
Each department or team makes their own
230
Other
49
So many videos to make. So little time.
With higher demand for video content, what’s stopping businesses from making more videos? It’s not production costs!
Most companies say time (64%) and team size (45%) are bigger barriers than money for scaling video.
What are the biggest barriers preventing you from creating more video content?
2022
Barrier
%
Time
64.4%
Company size and resources
44.9%
Cost
38.5%
Technical capabilities
23.9%
Lack of ideas or stories
17.0%
Buy-in from executives
10.8%
We're not creating videos right now
4.2%
Other
3.1%
2021
Time
74.0%
Company size and resources
53.8%
Cost
37.1%
Technical capabilities
16.7%
Lack of ideas or stories
10.4%
Buy-in from executives
8.8%
We're not creating videos right now
1.6%
Other
2.8%
Video marketing tip!
Explore the relationship between money and creativity in Wistia’s four-part original series One, Ten, One Hundred where we made the same video at three very different price points—one for $1,000, one for $10,000, and one for $100,000.
Most video content created in 2022 was super short-form video under 60 seconds. These short-form videos and those between five and 30 minutes remain the most popular year over year.
Businesses also continued to invest in long-form video. Videos above 30 minutes saw 11,000% growth over the past decade compared to 36% growth for videos under 30 minutes.
Key takeaways
Long-form video, like webinars and live events, is the fastest growing video segment and are among the highest performing videos according to businesses.
Video marketing tip!
Learn how you can up your company’s webinar game with Wistia Live.
The viewing experience. Video accessibility. Channel strategy. How brands got in front of audiences.
When it comes to embedding videos, 73% of marketers customize their video player before sharing videos with the world.
This can add an extra brand touch, increase engagement, and help you collect leads.
Video accessibility
Businesses continued to make their videos more accessible. The number of videos meeting multiple criteria on Wistia’s accessibility checklist were up 5% YoY and up 93% since 2019.
Year
Accessibility Score
#
2019
3
685830
2019
4
169787
2019
5
18857
2019
6
3542
2019
7
2922
2020
3
1125145
2020
4
191019
2020
5
26459
2020
6
8537
2020
7
9717
2021
3
1319047
2021
4
257035
2021
5
34237
2021
6
9362
2021
7
3469
2022
3
1401541
2022
4
250117
2022
5
33280
2022
6
10579
2022
7
2845
Video marketing tip!
Learn how Wistia helps you make your videos more accessible for everyone.
There are a lot of places to share videos out there! We asked Wistia customers which marketing channels and social media platforms saw the best video performance for them in 2022.
Download the full report to see what they said.
Learn about audience engagement & conversion next
Chapter 4
Audience engagement & conversion
Audience engagement & conversion
When viewers tuned in. How long they watched. Where they engaged. Leads captured.
Video plays
Video plays were up during the pandemic: 44% more than expected.
2020-2021 trend: 6.4B 2020-2021 actual: 9.2B
In 2022, audiences are still pressing play a bit more than projected. +59% since 2019.
2022 trend: 3.7B 2022 actual: 4.2B
Video Plays
Year
Actuals
Trend
2013
383248499
383248499
2014
612307727
612307727
2015
1165680660
1165680660
2016
1314658139
1314658139
2017
1533187229
1533187229
2018
1979917675
1979917675
2019
2644250519
2644250519
2020
4472802794
3001056966
2021
4686812260
3357863413
2022
4204597404
3714669860
Viewers tend to hit play the most at the start of Q2 and Q4.
They also tend to take it easy during the summer.
Minutes watched
Viewers smashed video consumption projections during the pandemic—they watched 71% more video content than we expected.
2020-2021 trend: 16.3B 2020-2021 actual: 27.8B
Minutes Watched (in millions) Year over Year from 2016 to 2022
2016
3491
2017
4214
2018
5227
2019
6593
2020
13188
2021
14632
2022
12297
Minutes watched in millions
Year
Actuals
Trend
2016
3491
3491
2017
4214
4214
2018
5227
5227
2019
6593
6593
2020
13188
7627
2021
14632
8661
2022
12297
9695
Minutes watched fell 16% from 2021 highs, but viewers continue to spend a ton of time with video content. +87% since 2019.
2022 trend: 9.7B 2022 actual: 12.3B
Key takeaways
Video is even more of a staple for consumers than in the past.
In 2022, video uploads were slightly up from expected levels, but the way we interact with video content has clearly changed.
2022 Wistia video engagement benchmarks
When it comes to video performance, businesses have their eye on the prize.
38% of companies we surveyed said that engagement rate—how much time their customers spent with video—was the most important performance indicator for their videos.
And we agree! Engagement is the best way to measure how your video is impacting viewers.
So…what is “good” engagement? Here are some engagement benchmarks to help you suss out your own video’s performance.
For your business, what is the most important success metric for a video?
Engagement Rate
38%
Conversion Rate
27%
Total Plays
22%
Play Rate
13%
New Wistia benchmarks: short form video
For videos up to 5 minutes—audiences will watch about 50% of the content.
New Wistia benchmarks: long form video
16% of viewers will stick with you to consume more than an hour of your company’s video.
Key takeaways
Average video engagement rates are consistent year after year.
You can feel confident relying on these benchmarks to assess video performance—we do!
Video marketing tip!
Up your video engagement! Download our Video Engagement Benchmarks cheat sheet.
Now we’ll dive into how businesses are using interactive video tools to turn viewers into leads. Wistia’s toolkit has some features that you might recognize, and some that are unique to Wistia, so let’s level set with some lingo:
Calls to Action (CTAs)
Full-video takeover cards that link viewers to other content.
Annotation Links
These links pop up in the corner of videos. They offer pathways to other content without interrupting the viewing experience.
Lead capture forms
Full-video takeover forms for collecting contact information at any point throughout a video.
Conversions by types of tools in 2022
Annotations
63,0000
CTAs (Calls to action)
115,0000
GIT (Get in touch)
23,0000
CTAs: most popular
Calls to action (CTAs) made up more than half of all conversion tools businesses used in 2022.
Annotation Links: fastest growing
Annotation Links represent about a third of conversion tools, up 21% on a percentage basis since 2016.
Usage of Annotation Links Year over Year from 2015 to 2022
2015
11,300
2016
21,900
2017
24,700
2018
58,700
2019
46,900
2020
52,900
2021
65,000
2022
62,500
Usage of Annotation Links Year over Year from 2015 to 2022
2014
11%
2015
7%
2016
8%
2017
10%
2018
9%
2019
8%
2020
13%
2021
15%
2022
18%
Lead capture forms: highest converting
Conversion rates for lead capture forms have doubled since 2019.
Lead capture forms: To gate or not to gate?
In fact, all email gates are becoming more effective, even if you give your viewers the option to “Skip” the form.
Conversion rates for fully gated videos are way higher than those that allow the viewer to skip, but audiences are more willing than ever to give businesses their emails in return for great video content.
Chart of lead capture forms performance year over year comparing gates with an option to skip from 2019 to 2022
Year
Option to skip
Fully gated
2019
2%
14%
2020
4%
19%
2021
5%
23%
2022
6%
29%
Conversion rates and performance
What CTA copy converts best? Where’s the best place in your video to include lead capture forms? What’s the CTR for Annotation Links?
Download our full report for a deeper dive into video conversions.
The future of video
Although we’ve seen decreases in uploads, plays, and minutes watched, we’re still well above the levels we saw in 2019. So has the business video landscape changed after COVID? Only time will tell.
If brands make more video content in 2023 like they said they will, perhaps we’ll see an increase in these levels next year.
About our report
After the dramatic increases in video creation and consumption brought on by the pandemic from 2019 to 2021, our video data in 2022 showed a return to levels that are still well above our expectations. One thing is for sure: the pandemic has clearly changed the way we interact with video content. Enjoy this report and feel free to use the statistics listed here in any commercial or non-commercial capacity. All we ask is that you link back to our 2023 State of Video Report web page as the original source.
Our method
We analyzed user data from over 80M videos uploaded to our platform from 2013-2022. We also surveyed over 1,500 customers to find out how they’re thinking about and planning their video marketing strategy this year.
The majority of respondents who weighed in are marketers at small businesses with 0-50 (44%) and 51-200 (22%) employees. And most of the businesses represented are in the software industry—like us!—followed by marketing/media/entertainment and education. We also saw responses from consulting companies and industries like healthcare, construction, finance, retail, and others.
About Wistia
Wistia is a complete video marketing platform that helps teams create, host, and measure the impact of their videos—all in one place. Wistia's mission is to help every business thrive with video, so the platform is packed with features like video player customization, built-in accessibility options, seamless integrations, industry-leading analytics, lead generation tools, and more. With educational resources and world-class support, Wistia has your back as you level up your video marketing strategy. Today, over 425,000 marketers around the world rely on Wistia to drive business growth with video.
To learn more, visit wistia.com and follow @wistia across all social channels.
