YouTube Versus Facebook
But the question on everyone’s lips in 2015 is, will this last? Since Facebook started taking their video efforts seriously last year, including newsfeed embedding and monetizing, they have had some very promising results, giving YouTube a run for their money. Quite literally. Perhaps even YouTube can see the strides Facebook could make in the video-sharing world, and are arguably already making.
We wanted to evaluate the two in order to weigh up their pros and cons, ultimately looking for which platform is best for businesses to invest their time and money in to reach their consumers effectively.
Google owned YouTube, have recently eliminated the obligatory Google+ link. Previously, this meant that in order for users to comment on YouTube videos, they had to sign up and/or link it to their Google+ account. This was limiting for users but has since been axed, making the site a much more easily accessible and shareable platform for users and video advertisers.
Everyday, people watch hundreds of millions of hours of videos on YouTube, and people are more likely to see a video through on YouTube than any other video-sharing platform. So once you’ve got your audience, they’re hooked.
While over 85% of YouTube adverts are skippable, companies only pay when people are watching their adverts, meaning it’s pretty much a win-win situation.
On the other hand, it has taken YouTube the ten years they’ve been going, to reach the figure of 4 Billion views per day. Facebook share that figure for their video views too, but it has only taken them a year to do so. Imagine what another year will bring?
Facebook Video
A natively uploaded video to Facebook reaches on average 3 times as many people than a YouTube video, even surpassing embedded YouTube video views on Facebook.
Some have argued that Facebook’s view counter offers dubious statistics, since they work on a 3-second view rate, including scrolling past a video in your newsfeed, which may well take 3 seconds or more if something else nearby catches your eye. Facebook have defended this system, stating that it works well and that there is no industry standard for view counting. However, it is something worth bearing in mind as a company utilising Facebook video for digital growth.
With Facebook, videos are embedded into user’s Newsfeeds, meaning no linking out or loading time, something that often puts users off a video before they’ve even seen it.
Facebook is social, so sharing videos on its platform creates better opportunities for users to share, comment and tag friends in videos, inevitably driving up views and generating a higher return on your videos.
So, overall it’s hard to say which platform beats the other outright. It definitely depends on whom you’re trying to reach, for how long and why. If you can make a video that’s irresistibly engaging within the first 3 seconds, Facebook Video is for you. If you like to play it safe, preferring to focus on your already-established consumers attention, YouTube still works just fine. But with Facebook constantly stepping up their game and realising the future of video-dominated content, things could easily change.
#TheFutureOfMarketing
By Kadie Regan