Facebook Video: Native Uploads Get More Reach Than YouTube Links

March 11, 2013

This article is included in these additional categories:

Digital | Social Media

Socialbakers-Facebook-Videos-v-YouTube-Links-Mar2013While brands seem to prefer sharing links to their videos from YouTube to uploading them directly onto Facebook, they may want to rethink that inclination, according to new data from Socialbakers. The company analyzed video shared by brands between December 4, 2012 and March 3, 2013, finding that Facebook videos edged YouTube links in organic reach (10.3% vs. 8.9%), and performed far better in viral reach (2.2% vs. 0.2%).

In this case, 2.2% viral reach refers to the percentage of people who see the video via viral means, rather than directly via Facebook. The “viral” classification is limited to users who actually interact with video content following another user’s comment, share, or like. The data also excludes paid reach from its analysis.

Socialbakers found that Facebook videos also sport a higher engagement rate (0.22% vs. 0.1%), which the company suggests could be due to the ability to play a Facebook video directly from the mobile newsfeed (as mobiles become an increasingly important device for Facebook access.)

Interestingly, both methods of posting videos generated similar types of interactions from fans, with likes accounting for approximately three-quarters of the interactions, and shares more common than comments.

Socialbakers notes that there are pros and cons to both methods of sharing videos on Facebook. For example, fans can be tagged in Facebook videos, but YouTube is the most popular video-sharing site, and Facebook videos can’t be shared outside the network. (For context, Google Sites, primarily powered by YouTube, boasted about 150 million unique video viewers in January, compared to roughly 57 million for Facebook, per comScore data.)

About the Data: The Socialbakers data is based on an analysis of 4,731 YouTube links and 554 Facebook videos.

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