State of Video Report: Video Marketing Statistics for 2024

You may remember that 2023 kicked off with a certain…uncertainty. Stock market dips, mass company layoffs, and economic hesitations influenced businesses to allocate fewer resources to creating videos in the new year.

This cautious approach was further shaped by the lingering effects of the pandemic era, which had fundamentally shifted the video marketing landscape for businesses of all sizes.

But guess what? People watched more videos than ever in 2023! To meet this rising demand for video, companies had to think outside the box, even when money was tight and resources were thin.

So what did peoples’ video strategies look like last year? We set out to discover how folks made videos, which videos they made, and what they did to make their videos bring real results for their business. And to learn what worked and what didn’t. Plus, we picked their brains about what they have planned for this year!

Video marketing insights

We surveyed over 2,000 professionals, looked at how 100,000+ businesses are using our platform, dug through more than 90 million uploaded videos, and then put everything we found into our 2024 State of Video Report. Here are some of our biggest takeaways:

• Audiences want to learn how to use your product and gain industry expertise. By far, educational and instructional videos were the most engaging type of video content made by businesses last year. And you don’t need deep pockets to start creating them.
• A bigger budget does not mean higher engagement. High production values and more resources aren’t the key to keeping viewers glued to your videos. Audiences willingly watch, and sometimes prefer, low-budget video content, even talking head videos recorded with just a webcam. This makes video production much more accessible for all — a big win for smaller brands!
• Video is an effective way to generate and nurture qualified leads. By adding email capture forms and calls to action (CTAs) to the videos on your website, you can make video an integral part of the lead generation process.

In our report, you’ll find a ton of video marketing statistics on performance, creation, distribution, and generative artificial intelligence (AI). We hope these stats will help you build a stronger video marketing strategy and keep up with the rising need for video content. Let’s dig in!

Video performance statistics

Want to measure video success against your business goals? The most important video metrics, benchmarks, and conversion opportunities you need to know are right here!

We got curious and asked around: How do you figure out if your video’s hitting the mark? Turns out 28% of the folks we surveyed dig into engagement graphs and heatmaps, 27% swear by a video analytics dashboard, and 19% check out where their traffic’s coming from. Tracking performance across different embed locations is key for 14%, while 12% compare different videos against each other.

What’s the most valuable performance metric for videos? Conversion rate steals the spotlight, whether it’s through clicks on annotations, CTAs, or email capture forms. Engagement rate grabs the silver medal, with traffic to the video’s page not far behind. Play rate and total plays score fourth and fifth as success markers.

Learn more about how to track key performance analytics like play rate, engagement rate, and conversion rate with our guide on video metrics.

How are businesses putting video performance data to work? A solid 40% use it to gauge their videos' role in hitting marketing goals. Another 23% let it guide their creative choices, 20% rely on it to track the impact of video on a web page, and 17% use it to prove ROI to the company’s stakeholders.

When it comes to A/B testing, what’s on the experiment table? A hefty 31% rely on A/B testing to compare video elements (like music and video length) or structural changes (like the addition or omission of an intro). About 26% play around with the placement or wording of CTAs or forms to see what works best, 21% pit different videos against each other, and 18% try out custom thumbnails to see which one gets the most plays. Only a few, 4%, test the waters with player design or color changes.

Video consumption

The amount of time people spend watching videos keeps going up beyond what we’ve seen in the last few years. In 2023, companies hosting their videos on Wistia saw video plays jump by 15% and total watch time soar by 44%.

Viewers aren’t just clicking on videos; they’re also diving deeper into online video content more than ever before.

“There are two changes in the market indicating a need for more video content. First, the search landscape is being disrupted by AI. Second, we’re seeing a shift to a video-first consumption of content for audiences.”

Kyle Denhoff, Director of Marketing, Audience Development
HubSpot

So what’s the scoop on key video performance metrics like the play rate, engagement rate, and conversion rate? Time to break down the stats!

Video play rates

Think of the video play rate as the ratio of folks who actually press play to those who just scroll past the video.

Tons of stuff can sway this metric–like how eye-catching your thumbnail is, the length of the video, where it’s placed, the content and context surrounding it, and even the flow of traffic to the page displaying the video.

Longer videos usually catch more clicks per page visit. Longer videos are normally packed with more educational info than shorter videos, and they exist on specialized pages with highly specific purposes that likely get fewer impressions. Most people coming to these pages are hunting for info, making them more inclined to press play.

Shorter videos might not get the highest play rates on a web page. Even though short videos are usually found in high-traffic areas like homepages or product pages, they don’t always attract clicks. Reasons vary — visitors might have already watched them, aren’t quite ready to hit play, or weren’t expecting to find a video while browsing. Despite the lower play rate, their prime spots mean these short videos still get plenty of views.

Lots of things can nudge your video’s play rate. In our full report, we dive into how factors like industry and company size impact your play rate!

Video engagement

Next up: video engagement rate. This is a key metric that tells us what chunk of your video actually holds your viewer’s attention. It’s a great way to see if your audience is actively interested in your video and values the content you’re offering.

Now that we’ve got a handle on what video engagement rate is all about, it’s time to dive into some benchmarks. How does video length play into keeping viewers hooked? Let’s find out!

Interestingly, engagement rates across various video lengths have remained steady year after year. Though, they’ve all dipped a bit in the last 5–10 years.

This dip could be because of audiences’ shrinking attention spans, which may also explain why engagement rates hold the top spot for shorter videos, start to drop for those 5–30 minute videos, and take a hit at the hour-long mark.

30% of marketers who don’t make short-form videos will start creating them in 2024. [4]

Video conversion

We’ve found that 41% of businesses add annotation links, CTAs, and email capture forms to their videos to crank up their conversion rates.

“Video plays a critical role at every stage of our marketing and sales funnel (flywheel).”

Kyle Denhoff, Director of Marketing, Audience Development
HubSpot

Now, let’s get into the nitty-gritty: Which conversion opportunities are businesses using in their videos, and which ones work the best?

Annotation links take the top spot at a solid 45%, with CTAs trailing right behind at 40%. Email capture forms? They’re only being used 15% of the time.

We noticed a bit of a dip in CTAs and forms making their way into videos over the past few years. It’s a bummer because when you skip out on a conversion action, you’re basically leaving your most engaged viewers hanging without a clear next step.

Here’s something pretty interesting: Email capture forms netted the highest conversion rate at 23%. CTAs are at a respectable 13%, but those popular annotation links? Just 1%.

So, even though annotation links are everywhere, they’re not quite bringing home the bacon. And forms — the least popular type — turn out to be the most effective in getting viewers to take that next step.

It’s clear businesses should use email capture forms and CTAs more. They’re your best bet for nudging viewers closer to becoming customers.

Now that we’ve figured out the best ways to get viewers to take action, let’s see how much video length matters in making that happen.

Turns out videos that run over five minutes often see higher conversion rates. We’re betting this has to do with the fact that longer videos engage viewers more deeply with valuable content, making them more likely to act when a conversion opportunity arises. Plus, longer videos give you the flexibility to strategically place conversion opportunities at optimal moments.

For videos under five minutes, annotations and forms don’t bring great results. But CTAs? They still have a solid chance of converting viewers. You can get an in-depth look at this in the full report.

Average conversion rate by position

On average, the best place to put a conversion opportunity is within the first or final quarter of a video or at the very end.

Phew, we just ran through a lot of numbers, didn’t we? But — believe it or not — we’ve only scratched the surface.

Video creation statistics

What are the most challenging roadblocks for creating videos? Who makes videos at a company? What tools are they using? We answer all that and more! Plus, we delve into the rise of generative AI, webinars, and live events.

In 2023, there was a dip in the average number of videos produced by businesses. Seems the economic squeeze, which likely led to tighter budgets and smaller creative teams for many companies, put a dent in video production.

In 2023, on average, small businesses whipped up 15 videos, medium-sized ones created 84 videos, and the big guys churned out 118 videos.

And guess what? Some industries were busier than others! Leading the pack, retail and education sectors upped their video creation output by 19% and 10%, respectively, from the previous year. Curious about the rest? Grab the full report to see how different industries stacked up.

What’s keeping businesses from making more videos? Turns out 61% of companies point to time and bandwidth as their biggest hurdles, with team size, resources, and technical ability trailing close behind at 44%.

Only 36% of video marketers sweat over cost and budget and 32% need to put together ideas or a solid content strategy first. Remote collaboration is a hiccup for only 15% of companies because many have shifted back to in-person production. Finally, 11% of in-house video creators need to get stakeholders on board before they can hit the record button.

“For businesses truly looking to scale: invest in creators, hire an in-house producer, and leverage AI video tools for your team.”

Andréa Hudson, Head of Audience Development, Distributed Platforms
HubSpot

Who makes videos at a company?

62% of businesses have team members — think marketing managers or sales folks — making videos, even if it’s not their day job. Meanwhile, 46% have an in-house video producer or a team for all things video production. And 21% opt for freelancers, while 16% team up with a video production agency.

What tools are companies using to create videos?

Screen and webcam recorders top the list with 57% of businesses using them. Next up, 52% of businesses have full video setups (we’re talking lights, cameras, and mics). 47% rely on live streaming platforms, 46% work with online video editors, and 40% add animation or motion graphics to their videos.

Fewer companies use teleprompters (20%) and generative AI tools (18%) — but that could change!

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What types of videos are companies making?

To answer this question, we analyzed the metadata of videos uploaded to Wistia in 2023. We discovered that educational or instructional videos accounted for 47% of the uploads, product-focused videos for 33%, webinar recordings for 8%, original series and podcasts for 7%, customer testimonials for 2%, promotional videos for 2%, and company culture videos for 1%.

We also looked at what folks are making with Wistia’s video creation tools.

Our browser-based video recorder helps businesses showcase products and educate their viewers. In fact, 44% of the videos created with our recorder in 2023 were product videos and 36% were educational or instructional videos.

Just over half (56%) of the live events hosted on Wistia Live, our all-in-one webinar software, were general webinars. 26% were live educational events, 10% were original series and podcasts, and another 10% were product showcases.

Out of all the content folks fine-tuned with our online video editor, 43% were educational videos, 26% were product highlights, and 17% were webinar recordings.

What’s the most common video length?

We looked at the videos businesses uploaded to Wistia last year, and found that nearly half of them were under three minutes long.

Here’s a breakdown of the video lengths:

In the end, it’s all about matching your message to the perfect length. If you want to provide a quick bite of content, a super short-form video (under a minute) is perfect. But if you’re looking to take a deep dive into a topic, a longer video (over half an hour) is the way to go.

It looks like businesses were all over the map, tailoring their video content to just the right runtime.

Marketers said that short-form videos have generated strong ROI. 30% of marketers who don’t use short-form video will start in 2024. [4]

Are businesses embracing generative AI for video?

We found that only 18% of businesses are weaving AI tools into their video production workflows.

85% of marketers say generative AI has changed the way they will create content in 2024 and 62% say it’s important to their marketing strategy. 63% say that in 2024, most content will be created at least in part with the help of generative AI. [5]

Of these companies, 59% use AI to auto-generate captions or transcripts. 50% tap into it to draft up scripts or outlines, or just to brainstorm. 35% lean on AI to generate visuals and music or fix overdubs, while 29% use it to quickly find key clips to edit. And let’s not forget the 26% creating catchy social promo copy with AI’s help.

But get this: A whopping 66% of folks we asked can’t wait to dive into AI for their 2024 video projects. They want to use it to save time on scriptwriting, video editing, creating chapters, and summing up videos. More folks are seeing how AI simplifies the video creation process, so we predict a big jump in AI use by businesses this year!

Here are 10 of our favorite AI tools that make video production easier, faster, and better!

What live events are businesses creating?

Turns out 35% of folks we chatted with have made webinars and live events a key part of their video marketing playbook. Of that group, 94% are all about webinars, 41% host live internal meetings or training sessions, 25% hold virtual conferences, and 14% are going live on social media.

In 2024, 14% of marketers that HubSpot surveyed want to try live streaming videos for their business. [4]

When we looked at the webinar recordings people uploaded to Wistia in 2023, we found a varied landscape. A quarter of live events were company updates, 17% were product updates, and 16% were branded live events. Then we’ve got educational lectures making up 9%, training sessions at 7%, and how-tos and walkthroughs rounding out the list at 2%.

Why do businesses do live events?

Our survey showed that 38% of companies host live events to engage with prospects and customers, while 30% do it to funnel new leads. Showcasing industry expertise is the goal for 11%, alongside building brand awareness for 9% and targeting a global audience for 6%. And, finally, another 6% do it to expand their content collection.

How often do businesses host live events?

Almost half (45%) of businesses host live events monthly, while 21% do them quarterly. 18% go live on a weekly basis, and 16% fly by the seat of their pants, opting for no regularly scheduled programming.

Where do businesses stream live events?

A hefty 90% of businesses broadcast their live events using webinar software like Wistia Live, Zoom, or GoToWebinar. Only 10% venture directly to YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook.

You don’t have to do one or the other, though! With the right webinar software, you can simulcast your live events to multiple social platforms at the same time.

What makes a live event successful?

We asked businesses which key performance indicators they use to measure the success of their live events. 35% of them put attendance rate at the top of their list, while 32% measure success by how many qualified leads they generate. Registration rates also hold weight for 20%, and interactions and watch time are in the mix at 8% and 5% respectively.

Video distribution statistics

Strengthen your promotion strategy with our data on which channels companies find the most valuable for sharing videos. Learn how folks enhance the viewing experience for their audience with video customizations, too!

Where are businesses embedding their videos?

If you’ve ever wondered where videos get the most eyes, we’ve got answers!

67% of the businesses we asked point to their own website as the best place to distribute videos. 49% give their votes to email blasts as a key channel.

LinkedIn tops the list as the favorite social channel for sharing videos, chosen by 43% of businesses. YouTube is close behind, with 40% of companies posting their video content there.

Customers use marketing videos on their websites, landing pages, emails, social media, and blogs.

Want to know more about the social media channels that are hitting the mark for video promotion? You’re in luck, because you’ll find more deets farther down this section!

How are businesses improving the video playback experience?

Once businesses have their videos uploaded, they don’t just hit “Publish” right away! They take the time to customize their videos in ways that’ll help improve the viewing experience, their branding, and boost their chances of being watched and discovered.

To keep your viewers engaged and sticking around, use a video player that doesn’t distract them with ads or suggested videos from competitors.

Choosing the right video resolution

What’s the most popular resolution for uploading videos? Full HD 1080p, hands down. 2K and 4K are getting some love, too. In fact, we’ve seen a 15% jump in 4K video uploads from last year. Vertical HD videos at 1080x1920 have shot up by 61%, too. The only one going down? 720p.

Customizing the video player

There are lots of different ways to customize a video player, and we wanted to see which ones businesses are using the most. Here’s what they told us:

Adding interactive elements: 19% of folks break up their videos, particularly long-form ones, into chapters. 49% use CTA buttons and 19% lean on email capture forms. Surprisingly, while we see annotation links being used a ton in videos hosted with Wistia, only 7% flagged them as being an important interactive element.

Branding the video player: Adding custom thumbnails and brand logo watermarks are key for 13% and 11%, respectively, while 9% change the player colors or controls.

We also dug through the data from the videos uploaded to Wistia and found that, despite only a 2% uptick in videos featuring custom thumbnails, the play rate for these videos jumped by 7%. If you ask us, adding a personal touch to your video player is worth the effort.

On the flip side, the fuss over watermarks is cooling, with a 7% drop in custom logo branding on videos in 2023. This suggests that businesses are changing up how they make their videos stand out.

Boosting video accessibility

A solid 26% of businesses surveyed believe that improving video accessibility is important for the overall audience experience. To find out how they’re doing that, we looked at the videos uploaded to our platform.

Turns out captions are leading the accessibility charge, probably because we made automatic transcripts and captions free for all videos starting in mid-2023.

Slap captions on your social media videos to draw in a wider crowd and keep them engaged longer.

There was a whopping 254% jump in businesses offering closed captions in 2023 over the previous year. This push toward accessibility resulted in a 59% increase in videos from 2023 scoring higher on the accessibility front compared to their 2022 counterparts.

Not to mention, videos sporting closed captions enjoyed a 3% uptick in viewer clicks.

This surge in captioning is likely tied to the realization that many folks prefer watching videos without sound, and the rise of AI-generated transcripts is making it easier than ever to caption your videos.

Adding captions boosts viewer affinity by 95%, recall by 58%, likability by 31%, and uniqueness by 25%. On TikTok, add text descriptions throughout your video that offer value or context, in addition to closed captions. [1]

Video galleries

Got a bunch of videos? A video library (a.k.a. video gallery or channel) is the perfect way to showcase them on your site. And the right one can even boost your videos’ search rankings.

We’ve got Wistia Channels, a feature that lets you create a video library in just a few clicks. What are Wistia customers using it for? A bit of everything:

• Webinars and events (25%)
• Training videos (20%)
• Podcasts and series (20%)
• Product videos (20%)
• Customer testimonials (10%)
• Marketing videos (5%)

By showcasing your videos in a Wistia Channel, you’ll get to level up your audience’s viewing experience and give your video pages a better chance of climbing up in search results — without doing any coding or SEO work.

Promoting videos on social media channels

We mentioned earlier that LinkedIn takes the crown with 43% of businesses saying they regularly upload videos there, followed closely by YouTube at 40%. But what about Instagram and Facebook? They aren’t too far behind, coming in at 22% and 19%, respectively.

TikTok might be a bit behind the pack at only 7%, but it’s gaining traction fast as a valuable platform for connecting with an untapped B2B audience.

56% of marketers using TikTok will increase their investment in 2024, the highest of any platform. [4]

Businesses, by and large, have multiple distribution channels for their social media videos. According to Hootsuite, businesses post videos on at least two out of the four following channels: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. They also post videos around three to five times per week (with TikToks, Facebook stories, and Instagram Reels combined).

When it comes to posting videos on social media, vertical formats are the most engaging. Out of all social channels, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook are where most businesses see their videos perform the best.

Want to unlock more insights from Hootsuite and TikTok, like the average video length for each social channel as well as the best time to post on each one? Download the full report!

Video strategy statistics

Uncover how companies used video for their marketing goals, their video investment and output frequency, and the videos they prioritized last year. Plus, gain insight into their 2024 video strategies!

Alright, let’s talk strategy, the key ingredient to great video marketing.

93% of businesses rate video as an important part of their marketing strategy. And the other 7%? Well, they’re missing out on all that video magic!

Setting the objectives

So what goals are businesses aiming for with their videos? For 38% of them, it’s all about generating leads and boosting sales. Another big chunk, about 31%, use video to educate folks on their products and encourage product adoption. 17% have brand awareness and PR as their primary goals. And only 8% want to engage folks and get more followers on social.

As for the remaining 5% of businesses, they don’t have any video goals. If you’re in that boat, grab your own copy of our report to get the insights you need to build a winning video strategy!

“Video is just a tactic inside a larger marketing strategy. We can certainly measure the success of a single video based on performance metrics. However, the goal of the video should be aligned with the marketing strategy.”

Kyle Denhoff, Director of Marketing, Audience Development
HubSpot

Investing in video production

Nearly 78% of businesses are eager to make more videos in 2024, while 21% are fine with keeping things steady from last year. Only 1% plan to hit the brakes on video creation.

Around 57% are gearing up to pour more resources into their video efforts this year. Meanwhile, 38% are sticking to their current budgets, and just 4% are looking at less money for video production.

We think many marketers are going to have to get creative with their production resources. But hey, remember that you don’t need fancy gear or professional actors to create impactful marketing videos. Viewers are pretty cool with low-budget videos recorded in front of a webcam these days.

Need some inspiration? Learn how you can make product and educational videos with our video recorder. We also have three video setup recommendations for any budget. And if you’ve got an iPhone, we’ll show you how to record professional videos with it.

As a business, you can focus on making short-form educational videos that show off your company’s personality. This approach works because 71% of TikTok users prefer brand posts that don’t feel too polished. People come to TikTok to participate and have fun! [2]

How often do businesses make videos?

For 36% of companies, video creation is a monthly routine, while 29% engage in it weekly. Another 28% only created new videos a few times in the past year. 6% are committed to creating videos daily — now that’s dedication!

When asked how long they’ve been making videos, 20% of businesses said they started in the past year. Around 40% said between 2–5 years, while 22% have been at it for 6–10 years. And 17% have over a decade of video experience. As for the remaining 1%, they’re not making videos yet. Let’s get that camera rolling, folks!

What types of videos did companies create last year?

Our survey showed that in 2023, product videos took the lead as the most common type of video content, accounting for 43% of all videos created. Educational and instructional videos closely followed at 38%, while live events and social media content each made up 35% of the video landscape.

Additionally, 25% were promotional videos or ads, while customer testimonials made up 18%, sales videos at 14%, original series and podcasts at 11%, and company culture videos at 10%.

“We’ve seen success investing in educational videos that teach people a strategy or tactic without promoting the product.”

Kyle Denhoff, Director of Marketing, Audience Development
HubSpot

We can tell that businesses are seeing value in producing product videos, educational or instructional content, and webinars because they’re putting out a lot of these videos.

On TikTok, videos showcasing “products in use” saw notable boosts: a 25% increase in recall, 23% in ad likeability, 65% in brand affinity, and 18% in consideration. [3]

Factors driving the types of videos created in 2023 included product or service launches for 49% of respondents, internal requests for 47%, previous video performance for 31%, customer feedback for 28%, and competitor activity or SEO research for 14%.

What types of videos do businesses want to make more of in 2024?

Product marketing takes center stage in the year ahead.

45% of companies told us that they want to create more product videos to showcase their products and expertise. Additionally, 38% are keen on educational and instructional content, while 35% are all about social media videos. Webinars and live events are also on the radar for 32% of respondents, followed by customer testimonials at 26% and promotional videos at 27%. Some companies also have their sights set on making more sales videos (18%), original series (17%), and company culture videos (9%).

The future of video

Even though businesses are making fewer videos these days, folks are watching more videos than ever. This leads us to believe that audiences will continue to watch content they find useful, even if its production value is lower.

Video remains important for every part of the funnel, and it’s clear that people want to learn about companies this way. We encourage smaller companies to make more videos without relying on expensive equipment.

And we think that more companies will get comfortable with incorporating AI tools into their workflows. There are tons of ways AI can help businesses simplify the video creation process and improve their video marketing. For starters, it can auto-generate captions and transcripts, get a video script off the ground, and create promotional copy for social media.

With a solid video marketing strategy, you can compete with bigger companies no matter what industry you’re in.

*Sources:

[1] TikTok Marketing Science US SMB Creative Effectiveness Study 2021, conducted by Lumen

[2] TikTok Marketing Science Global Community and Self-Expression Study 2021 conducted by Flamingo

[3] TikTok Marketing Science, US SMB Creative Effectiveness Study 2022, conducted by Lumen

[4] HubSpot State of Marketing

[5] HubSpot’s Top Marketing Trends of 2024*