Video Marketing Statistics: Elevate Your Strategy in 2023

What’s a truly effective video marketing strategy? How do videos perform for other companies? Where does a video lead capture form convert best? If you’re asking these questions while staring into a crystal ball, stop!

This year, we surveyed over 1,500 businesses and analyzed more than 80 million videos uploaded to Wistia. We’ve gathered metrics on how businesses use video and uncovered data from our video platform. Then we packaged up all those sweet video insights into a single cohesive video stats report to help you create a winning strategy.

You can find all these video stats and metrics in our 2023 State of Video Report. In case you need more convincing (and if you’d like a sneak peek of what’s in the report), we’ve compiled 23 compelling video marketing stats to support your marketing efforts this year.

How to approach video marketing in 2023

More and more marketers are making video a key part of their marketing strategy. Videos are not only the most engaging medium to educate your audience, but they also help you connect with your audience on a human level, establish your brand’s voice and core values, and strengthen your overall brand image over time.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty stats, let’s take a peek at the characteristics that make up the highest-performing video content — plus the qualities of the best video marketing platforms — as you embark on your 2023 video marketing journey.

Elements of the best-performing video content

We’ve got a lot of resources on our blog to help you create marketing videos that perform well. Here are the elements you’d find in a high-quality video:

• A strong video hook and structure
• Consistency with your brand’s voice, tone, and core values
• An engaging story
• Information your audience is looking for
• An optimal video length
• A compelling Call to Action (CTA)
• Clear and captivating audio and visuals
• A relevant, eye-catching thumbnail
• Platform-specific style and messaging

We know it looks like a long list of tiny details, but each one plays a big role in making sure your video performs well. Once you have a great video ready, the next step is launching it into the world. You need the right tools and resources to help your video successfully reach and engage your viewers. All the more reason to have a solid video marketing platform, right?

Qualities of the best video marketing platform

Choosing the perfect video marketing platform for 2023 means finding one that fits your team’s specific needs. Look for a platform that offers a variety of qualities so you can prioritize what matters most to your team and tap into other features as your team’s needs evolve over time.

Wondering what qualities to look for in a video marketing platform? We’ve got you covered:

• User-friendly interface to ensure an easy and smooth experience
• Intuitive video library organization to categorize and find your videos effortlessly
• Integrations with other marketing tools to streamline your workflow
• Built-in video editor to save you the trouble of downloading and uploading videos for editing
• Detailed video analytics to measure viewer engagement and help you make data-driven decisions
• Customizable video player to match your brand and enhance the viewing experience
• Accessibility features to make it possible for everyone to access and enjoy your videos
• Stable and secure video hosting to guarantee that your videos always perform well
• Fast load times to keep viewers engaged
• Automated video SEO to improve your videos’ discoverability

A video marketing platform that offers all these qualities streamlines your video marketing workflow, helps you optimize your video performance, and makes it super easy to offer a great viewing experience.

Video marketing trends to help you make an impact

Now, it’s time for the numbers you’ve been waiting for. Here are the 2023 video marketing stats to keep in your back pocket.

Video strategy statistics

Want to learn how to use video in your marketing strategy? Or are you trying to justify using video to the key decision-makers at your company? We’ve got some valuable insights for you.

• 52% of companies say that using product education videos to help prospects learn more about a product or service is their top goal in video marketing.
• 42% of companies say that assisting conversions in the sales cycle is a key indicator of success with video.
• Most B2B companies are making these types of videos: product videos, educational videos, and webinars.
• 80% of marketers held live video events in 2022.
• 60% of businesses hosted webinars last year, and 30% said they held webinars at least once a month.

Consumers are watching more video content than ever, but this isn’t surprising. Users can watch videos on smartphones, computers, or social media — basically anywhere. They get to enjoy visual, audio, and written content all at once. The “good” problem many marketers face currently is audience demand outpacing video creation.

Product videos, educational videos, and webinars are popular types of video content. Know what else? They deliver the highest return on investment (ROI)! Whether your goal is to increase traffic or boost sales, we recommend making videos that help folks better understand your product or service.

Video creation statistics

Companies are making tons of videos to keep up with demand, but they’re facing some creative barriers. Here’s the data we uncovered from our platform and our survey on creating videos:

• Businesses uploaded 44% more videos than we expected during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Video uploads on the Wistia video marketing platform have increased by 59% since 2019.

• 30% of businesses make videos monthly, 30% weekly, and 9% daily!
• 58% of companies have an in-house team dedicated to creating video content.

• 64% of companies say that time is the biggest obstacle to their video output.
• The number of videos above 30 minutes increased by 11,000% over the past decade compared to a 36% growth for videos under 30 minutes.

Businesses are busy making videos, growing their teams, and increasing the frequency of their video creation. Long-form video is the fastest-growing and one of the highest-performing video segments.

Video distribution statistics

Marketing professionals are finding effective ways to make their video viewing experience more engaging, accessible, and relevant to their audiences. Take a look:

• 73% of marketers customize their video player before sharing video content with their audience.
• 75% of businesses have made accessibility a priority.
• The number of videos meeting multiple criteria on Wistia’s accessibility checklist is up 93% since 2019.

Video performance statistics

When it comes to video ROI, tracking video performance with accurate analytics is key. We looked at video performance across the board and dug into the effectiveness of interactive elements within videos. Here’s what we found:

Video engagement stats

• Video plays were up 44% more than expected from 2020–2021.
• Audiences have been playing videos 59% more since 2019.
• Viewers tend to hit play the most at the start of Q2 and Q4.
• Viewer video consumption is up 71% more than expected from 2019 levels.
• The minutes of video watched grew 87% since 2019.
• 38% of companies say engagement rate is the most important video performance indicator.
• For videos up to five minutes, audiences will watch about 50% of the content.
• 16% of viewers will watch video content that’s over an hour long.

Video conversion stats

• Calls to action (CTAs) made up more than half of all conversion tools businesses used in 2022.

• Annotation Links represent about a third of conversion tools, up 21% on a percentage basis since 2016.

• Conversion rates for lead capture forms have doubled since 2019.

• When lead capture forms are added to fully-gated videos, viewers convert 29% of the time, but if there’s an option to skip, the conversion rate drops to only 6%.

What’s clear is that engaged viewers convert to leads, which means more sales for you. Viewers are eager to share their contact information in exchange for awesome video content. They just need a reliable place to slot their info — that’s where having a conversion tool like Wistia’s lead capture form on your videos can make a huge difference.

5 video marketing trends to watch for in 2023

1. Product videos

Product videos continue to be a top choice for marketers everywhere and an absolute must-have in any business’s video library. In fact, the businesses we surveyed told us that product videos saw the most engagement and delivered the most ROI out of all the videos they created in 2022.

Product videos are the perfect way to show your audience how your product tackles their problems or helps them achieve a particular goal. They can include product demos, new feature tutorials, explainer videos, or how-to videos.

2. Live events

As the pandemic pushed companies to remote work, video marketing also transitioned to webinars and live video events, and now they’re a mainstay in many companies' marketing strategies. It became clear when 80% of the businesses we surveyed told us that they hosted live events in 2022.

Webinars and live events create opportunities for people across time zones to connect. Question and answer sessions (Q&As), product walk-throughs, informational webinars, and thought leadership panels are a few prime examples.

3. Short-form videos

When one in three businesses told us that they wanted to invest more in videos for social media in 2023, we knew that short-form videos — or videos that last up to 30 minutes — will continue to be the most popular type of video businesses make.

Short-form videos are perfect for social media. They can give a quick glimpse into a product feature update and then invite viewers to follow a link to your website, helping you increase traffic to your site and generate more leads.

4. Video marketing tech stack integrations

What’s the biggest barrier to scaling video production? We’ll give you a hint: It’s not money. More than half — 64%, to be exact — of companies claim that time is the biggest barrier to increasing video creation.

That’s why businesses are turning to tech stack integrations for their video marketing platforms to increase efficiency.

5. Video accessibility

For a video to reach the widest audience possible (including folks with disabilities and those who watch social media videos with the sound off), it needs to be accessible. This means including a transcript, closed captions, and properly using contrasting colors. It’s well worth your time to take the extra steps to test your videos for accessibility.

Get the full 2023 State of Video Report

Looking at industry data is crucial for creating a robust marketing plan. Year after year, it’s evident from our report that video is a highly vital marketing tool for businesses — the 1,500+ Wistia users we surveyed agree. But don’t simply take their word for it. Look at the data!

When you get your copy of the 2023 State of Video Report, you’re not just getting survey insights. We’re also providing you with hard data and trends straight from our video marketing platform. The incredible video marketing stats here are just the beginning. Download our full report to get all the sweet video data your B2B heart desires.