Clear Calls to Action Boost Video View Rates for Online Retailers

August 14, 2012

This article is included in these additional categories:

Analytics, Automated & MarTech | Data-driven | Digital | Retail & E-Commerce

invodo-impact-cta-video-view-rate-august2012.pngFor online retailers, a text call to action (CTA – such as “Click to Play,” “Click to View” or “Learn More”) can increase a video’s view rate by 12 times over passive labels like “Video” or “Video Here,” (6.16% vs. 0.5%) according to [download page] an August 2012 report from Invodo. Interestingly, videos lacking any text CTA performed markedly better than those with passive labels. Indeed, the view rate for videos without a text CTA was 4.75%, far above the pedestrian 0.5% for the passive labels dubbed “calls to apathy” by Invodo. The report concludes that while the familiar play button has no words, it represents a clear call to action.

Invodo analyzed video view rate data collected from over 35,000 videos on its platform, across more than 100 retail-client web sites over a 3-month period between March 2012 and June 2012.

Larger CTAs Lift View Rates

Larger CTAs (of 5,000+ pixel dimensions) generated view rates of 8.14%, exactly double that of smaller CTAs (4.07%). The report suggests that size is part of the equation, but also observed that smaller CTAs lack the “flair” in colors and graphic elements that are possible at higher pixels.

The study also found that video achieves a view rate of 5.24% above the fold (without scrolling), just over 1.5 times greater than the 3.43% rate for video below the fold.

Video Stands Out On A Busy Page

View rates are highest on simpler web pages (those with between 6 and 10 competing elements). But interestingly, view rates climb alongside the number of elements: to 4.22% on pages with 11 to 15 elements; 4.39% on pages with 16 to 20 elements; and 5.76% on pages of 21+ elements, nearly even with those simplest pages. (The study excluded global headers and footers under the assumption that users interested in a product are typically focused on the center of a page.)

The report believes that online shoppers choose video to “make sense of” large quantities of information, and that video conveys messages simply, leading to consumers choosing to watch a video when it is available.

An April 2012 report from the e-tailing group, sponsored by Invodo, found that survey respondents, when asked the best way to make them aware that a video is available on a product page, were more likely to opt for a button indicating one can view a video (64%) than the video player being embedded in the product page (61%). Respondents reported watching product videos 60% of the time they encounter them on websites.

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