HOW TO MASTER

Video Content Marketing on Facebook

A SOCIALBAKERS GUIDE

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 1

Videos are arguably the best content
format for businesses marketing
on Facebook.
Why? Compared to written content or still images, videos provide more immersive
experiences, personalize businesses, evoke strong emotional responses, and are
a perfect format for the increasing number of users consuming content on the go.

Videos are also more effective in reaching and engaging Facebook audiences
compared to photos or links1. Therefore, videos have more potential than any other
format to enhance communication between brands and their online audiences.

The rise in Facebook video consumption is another argument in favor of using

the format. Currently, more than 500M users watch 100M hours of videos on the
platform2 on a daily basis. According to the platform’s latest study, this number is
set to rise; 45% of the people surveyed expressed their intention to consume even
more Facebook videos in the future3.

Facebook itself is recognizing this shift, saying that video growth will be the biggest
trend across all of their products within the next three years4.

1 Socialbakers data
2 Marketing Land: “Facebook Now Seeing 100 Million Hours Of Video Watched Daily”
3 Social Media Today: “Facebook Releases New Report on Video Consumption Behaviors on Facebook and Instagram”
4 Facebook: “Facebook Reports Third Quarter 2017 Results”

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 2

 What does this mean
for marketers?
Facebook video is booming and companies can be certain of the need to produce
more video content in the future. Now is the perfect time to build a solid Facebook
video strategy that can tap into all the benefits of video and be an effective way to
achieve companies’ marketing objectives.

To do that, marketers need to pair great content with comprehensive video analytics
that go beyond their historical performance. Comparing your video performance
against the market is key to understanding where you really stand and pinpointing
your strengths and weaknesses so you can successfully get ahead of the competition.

In this guide, we explain how you can build a winning video-centric marketing
strategy on Facebook using Socialbakers’ exclusive data-based insights, tips, and
next-level competitive video benchmarking.

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 3

 Table of Contents
Facebook Video Formats in Close-up 5

Fitting Video into Your Overall Facebook Content Strategy 6

Who’s Watching? 7

Getting Creative with Facebook Native Video 9

Connecting to Audiences in Real-time with Facebook Live Video 13

Creating Immersive Experiences with Facebook 360 19

Finding the Optimal Video Length 22

Subtitling Your Facebook Videos for Mobile Viewers 24

Measuring Facebook Videos in the Competitive Context 25

The Takeaway 29

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 4

 Facebook Native Video
Facebook Video Native videos are great for telling a captivating brand story and showcasing your products or

Formats in Close-up services in a creative way

Native videos generate more interactions than YouTube video uploads5

Facebook Live Video

Live videos are the go-to format for webinars, QA sessions or product demos

Live videos outperform native videos in terms of organic reach6

Facebook 360 Video

360 videos are perfect for showing the behind-the-scenes of your business

360 videos create immersive user experiences and point towards future development of the
format, such as virtual reality technology becoming commonplace

The adoption of 360 videos is as low as 2.5% for brands7, which means there’s plenty of room for
more videos of this type. You can use this fact to your advantage by producing more Facebook 360
videos.

5, 6, 7 Socialbakers data Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 5

 Fitting Video into Your Overall
Facebook Content Strategy
Many marketers wonder where videos fall within the context of their overall Facebook
content strategy. The answer lies in audiences’ content consumption preferences,
which are strongly leaning towards video. However, you shouldn’t completely give
up on images, links or written copy. Your content strategy should reflect this trend
and be centered around video, while still leaving space for photos and updates.

When it comes to meeting your social media marketing objectives, video can be a
powerful goal driver. The format’s greatest strength is its high effectiveness across
the marketing funnel. Video can be particularly successful at the early stage where
you can leverage its potential to reach and engage users to raise brand awareness.
But you can also use video at the late stage to propel conversions by streaming
product demos.

Whatever your social media marketing objective, video can help you reach it -
which is why you should start taking advantage of the format now.

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 6

 Who’s 25 to 34 Year-olds Watch the Most Videos on Facebook

Watching? Percentage of Total Facebook Videos Watched by Different User Age Groups

45%
Before you kick off the video creation process, it’s important
that you take time to understand your audience. Knowing who’s
watching videos on Facebook will help you to use your social
media budget more efficiently by producing tailored, appealing 30%
content.

We looked at nearly 550,000 Facebook videos published on the

platform across industries and discovered that video content 15%
is consumed mostly by users between 25 and 34 years old.

25-34
0%
13-17 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
Age Group

year-olds watch Alcohol Auto Beauty Fashion Travel Retail Food

the most videos on Facebook Source: Socialbakers Data
Date Range: April 1 - June 20, 2017
Sample: 545,727 Facebook videos

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 7

 Who’s
Watching?
Industry 13-17 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+ Sample Since this cohort is also the biggest user group on Facebook8,
Accommodation 1% 8% 32% 29% 18% 8% 4% 234 publishing videos will enable you to tap into a community
Airlines 1% 13% 32% 24% 15% 10% 6% 110 that consumes more video content than others and is large
Alcohol 0% 22% 40% 21% 10% 4% 3% 402 in size.
Auto 1% 14% 34% 28% 15% 5% 3% 449
Beauty 1% 18% 40% 25% 10% 4% 2% 931
We took a more granular look at the video viewers and
Beverages 7% 26% 34% 19% 8% 3% 2% 330
discovered that hardly any videos are being watched by
Ecommerce 2% 20% 35% 23% 12% 6% 3% 367
users between 13-17 and 55-65+ years old. This means that
Electronics 3% 24% 37% 22% 9% 3% 2% 541
while you can target these groups with your video content,
Fashion 1% 17% 38% 27% 11% 3% 2% 397
Finance 1% 13% 35% 25% 15% 7% 4% 398 they definitely shouldn’t be your main target audience.
FMCG Food 5% 22% 35% 22% 9% 4% 2% 981
Retail 1% 15% 35% 26% 13% 7% 4% 633
Retail Food 3% 27% 37% 20% 7% 4% 3% 191
Services 1% 13% 40% 26% 12% 5% 3% 792
Software 2% 23% 35% 23% 10% 4% 3% 110
Telecom 2% 23% 35% 21% 10% 5% 3% 216
Travel 0% 8% 26% 25% 21% 12% 8% 139
8 Statista: “Distribution of Facebook users in the United States as of December 2016, by age group”

Date Range: April 1 - June 20, 2017; Sample: 7,221 Brand Facebook pages Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 8
 Getting Creative with Brands Publish More Organic than Paid Facebook Native Videos
Percentage of Brand Pages Posting Organic and Paid Facebook Native Videos
Facebook Native Video
80%
The standard native video is the most widely used video format
on Facebook with a steadily growing adoption rate. In October
60%
2017, 85% of the top 1000 of the largest Facebook brand
pages were publishing native videos organically.
40%
At the same time, as much as 63% of these pages were posting
paid native videos, which shows that video investments are on
20%
the rise and not likely to slow down.

Putting money behind your Facebook video content is 0%

Jan 2015 Apr 2015 Jul 2015 Oct 2015 Jan 2016 Apr 2016 Jul 2016 Oct 2016 Jan 2017 Apr 2017 Jul 2017 Oct 2017
essential to amplifying its results. While videos usually achieve
a pretty high organic reach, you shouldn’t waste the opportunity Organic videos Paid videos
to give them an extra boost and put them in front of an even
Source: Socialbakers Data
larger audience. Besides, creating videos can be strenuous, Date Range: January 2015 - October 2017
Sample: Top 1,000 of the largest brand pages on Facebook by audience size
so using budget to maximize their performance will increase
the return of your efforts.

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 9

TIP
Want to know if your videos need
advertising money to give them
an extra lift? Find out now!

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 10


Getting Creative with
Facebook Native Video
Even though it might seem like Facebook is crammed with
native videos, broadcasting creative content will certainly help
you stand out. Below we list out the possible use cases for
the format to inspire your future Facebook native videos:
Stories
Turn your written content, such as blogs or case studies,
into videos to start telling stories in a more captivating way.
Quick Tips
Advise your audiences on how to best use your product,
give feedback, or get to your store in a concise way.
Customer Reviews
Compile an overview of customer reviews and address all
of their questions and concerns to improve your brand image.
Timelapse
Make time-consuming processes (e.g. putting together your
products) look fun and quick by presenting them in a timelapse
video.
Unboxing
Stir up curiosity and excitement of opening a present by offering
your audience a product unboxing video.
Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 11
TIP
Benchmark your Facebook native
videos against the market to get
a better understanding of your
performance in terms of video
views, time watched, paid views,
and more!

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 12

Connecting to Audiences
in Real-time with Facebook
Live Video

Ever since its launch in August 2015, Live video

has been taking Facebook by storm - especially
in the case of media companies. Media pages are
actively leveraging the possibility of connecting
with their communities in real-time, with the
average Live video adoption rate reaching as
much as 46%.

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 13

Connecting to Audiences in Real-time with
Facebook Live Video
Media Are Ahead of Brands in Facebook Live Video Adoption
Percentage of Brand and Media Pages Posting Facebook Live Videos

80%

60%

40%

20%

0%
Jan 2016 Mar 2016 May 2016 Jul 2016 Sep 2016 Nov 2016 Jan 2017 Mar 2017 May 2017 Jul 2017

Brands Media

Source: Socialbakers Data

Date Range: January 2016 - July 2017
Sample: Top 1,000 of the largest brand and media pages on Facebook by audience size

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 14

Brands, on the other hand,
are lagging behind.
Only 11% of brand Facebook pages on average are
making use of the Live format. Why? Producing a Live
video is still a challenge for many marketers who don’t
know what type of content to broadcast. Here are some
ideas for how you can tap into the Live video format:
Branded Events
Streaming your events is not only a perfect fit for the live format, but it also allows you to effectively
promote your company.
Influencers and Celebrities
Featuring social celebs in your videos allows your community to interact with them in real-time,
which can generate high engagement and publicity.
Tutorials
Demonstrating how to use your products and answering your viewers’ incoming questions can
help you strengthen customer relationships.
Behind-the-scenes
Giving your audiences a sneak-peek at how things work in your office is a great way to
showcase an authentic side of your business.
Contests
Hosting Facebook Live contests can encourage your audience to actively participate and
interact before the live-stream ends.
Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 15
 GREAT 1 Announce your live-stream in advance
Allow your viewers to book some time for watching in their busy schedules.

CONTENT
will surely make your live videos resonate
with your audiences. Here’s what you can
do to improve your Facebook Live video
2 Give your audience time to join
It might take a while before your viewers tune in, so use the first couple of minutes of your
live-stream for a countdown, general theme introduction, or small talk, to gradually gather your
audience.
performance even more:

Once your live-stream is over, it’s time to

analyze its performance. In order to do that
3 Repeat CTA frequently
Live-streams are usually information-packed, which is why your audiences might lose sight of the
call to action. Repeating CTAs frequently throughout the video will allow you to achieve your video
objectives by encouraging your viewers to act.
you should look at metrics such as:

4
• The overall number of viewers and interactions
received by your video Take time to respond to comments
• The exact moments when the viewers started Live videos are perfect for communicating with your community in real-time. Responding to the
tuning in or dropping off comments while on the air is a great way to start a meaningful discussion, establish credibility, and
educate the viewers about your business.
• The distribution of interactions across the
video’s timeline

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 16

Measuring these parameters will allow you
to pinpoint what worked and what didn’t,
which can help make your next live video
even more effective.

You should also benchmark your video

results against the competitors to see where
you really stand and get more valuable hints
on where you need to improve.

TIP
Find out which parts of your Facebook Live video
attracted the most viewers, when the audience started
dropping off and which fragments of live stream they
liked best to improve your future live content!

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 17

TIP
The latest Facebook News Feed update is
going to decrease the organic reach of posts
published by brands. To make sure your
content still organically gets in front of your
audience, use Facebook Live video. According
to Socialbakers’ data, 80% of brands experience
a higher organic reach with Facebook Live
videos over Facebook native videos.

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 18

 Creating Media Publish More Facebook 360 Videos Compared to Brands
Percentage of Brand, Celebrity, and Media Pages Posting Facebook 360 Videos
Immersive Experiences
with Facebook 360 20%

16%
As mentioned in the previous section, Facebook Live video
adoption rate was quite low for brands. However, even fewer 12%
brands are using Facebook 360. Our data shows that as
little as 6% of brand pages publish 360 videos - over 2x less 8%
compared to media pages.

4%

0%
Jan 2016 Apr 2016 Jul 2016 Oct 2016 Jan 2017 Apr 2017

Brands Celebrities Media

Source: Socialbakers Data

Date Range: January 2016 - April 2017
Sample: Top 500 of the largest brand, celebrity, and media pages on Facebook by audience size

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 19

The low number of companies leveraging Facebook
Product ads
360 videos can actually be a great opportunity for your
business. Since your audiences’ News Feeds aren’t filled Letting your audiences play around with the camera angles allows them to see your products
in a whole new light.
with branded 360 videos, publishing one can help you
stand out. Here’s a couple of examples of how you can
use the format:
Walk-throughs
An opportunity to join in for an interactive walk around your office will surely grasp your audience’s
attention.

Adventures
Taking the viewers along for an exciting business trip or team building activity will make them
feel more included in your company’s life.

How-it’s-made
Inviting the audiences into your headquarters and teaching them about how your products
are made will help you earn customer trust.

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 20

TIP
Struggling to come up with
video content ideas? Discover
thousands of top-performing
Facebook videos in one place
and get inspiration for the next
time you film one!

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 21

 Finding the Optimal Shorter Facebook Videos Are More Likely to Be Watched Until the End
Percentage of Complete Facebook Video Views
Video Length
30%
While relevant content is undoubtedly a critical element of any
video, it is equally important to find the optimal video length.

Our analysis of nearly 220,000 Facebook videos published 20%

by brands and media showed that branded videos that are
less than 30 seconds long are most likely to be watched until
the end with 29% completion rate. Interestingly, for videos
between 30 and 59 seconds long, the completion rate drops 10%
dramatically to 13%

What does this mean?

Marketers need to prioritize creating short videos to ensure 0%
that their target audience watches their content in its entirety. <30s 30-59s 60-119s 120-239s 240+s
If, however, you need to create a video that’s over 30 seconds
Source: Socialbakers Data
long, make sure to include its most important part, such Date Range: November 2016 - January 2017
Sample: 146,955 media and 70,989 brand Facebook videos
as a CTA or product showcase, at the very beginning.

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 22

TIP
Be thoughtful when choosing a CTA to include in your videos.
Many brands use tag lines such as “Share this video” or “Tag a friend” to encourage
their viewers to take action. However, Facebook’s News Feed algorithm tweak might
recognize such posts as engagement baits, which will result in decreased reach on
both post and page level.

To avoid being labelled as an engagement bait while still prompting users to interact,
think about the purpose of your video before you pick a CTA. Do you want to reach and
engage new users or get them to perform a certain action? If the former, apply CTAs
that have the potential to spark a meaningful conversation, for example “Share your
opinion”. If you’re going for the latter, use succinct instructions, such as “Download
the guide” or “Visit our online store.”

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 23

 Subtitling Your Shorter Facebook Videos Are More Likely to Be Watched Muted
Percentage of Sound-on Facebook Video Views
Facebook Videos
for Mobile Viewers 25%

As mobile video consumption is reaching new heights9, 20%

subtitling your Facebook videos became an absolute must.
That’s because mobile videos are often watched on-the-go
15%
in many different locations, and subtitles became essential to
consumers’ understanding of the content.
10%
Plus, around 85% of all Facebook videos are watched on mute,
which demonstrates just how important it is to create videos 5%
ready to be consumed with no sound on.

0%
We crunched the sound-on Facebook video views data and <30s 30-59s 60-119s 120-239s 240+s
discovered that shorter videos are more likely to be watched
on mute than longer ones. This means that you should pay Source: Socialbakers Data
Date Range: November 2016 - January 2017
special attention to subtitling videos that are around 30 seconds Sample: 146,955 media and 70,989 brand Facebook videos

long, though we strongly recommend adding captions

to all of your video content.

9 Facebook: “Sight, Sound and Mobilization” Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 24
 Measuring Facebook Videos
in the Competitive Context
Producing Facebook videos can be heavy on budget, time, and The result?
resources. That’s why you need to make sure that every single video
A well-optimized, effective Facebook video strategy that’s both a proof
you produce delivers the best possible value for your efforts. How do
of your success and a great argument supporting budget requirements
you do that? Measure relevant performance metrics and compare them
for any future video productions.
against the market.

One of the largest benefits of competitive performance benchmarking

is the ability to assess how good your results really are. Imagine that the Sounds good?
average viewing time of your video content is 10 seconds. Can you tell Benchmark your Facebook videos against
whether it’s good or not? To be able to correctly answer this question, the industry, region, and country now
you need to compare your numbers against the market’s average and and reap all the benefits of
see where you stand. competitive video analysis!

Putting your video performance in a broader context can also help you
pinpoint the aspects of your strategy where you’re excelling and the
ones where you’re falling behind. From there, you can take immediate,
data-based steps towards replicating the successful tactics and fixing
any possible shortcomings.

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 25

 2
Improving Your Facebook
Video Performance
Once you understand your market standing, there’s a chance you’ll
discover some areas of your Facebook video strategy that could use
improvement. To help you revamp these, we created a list of six ways
how to optimize your Facebook video performance with dynamic
benchmarks.
1 3
Your videos get high total views
and high 30-second views
Good job, your Facebook video strategy is clearly
working well! Make sure to spread the word about
your success and regularly report on your video
performance with presentation-ready reports
you can generate with one click.
Your videos get low total and
paid views but high 30-second
views
Your Facebook videos are resonating with your
audience, but they could do even better if they
reached more users. To achieve that, you need to
develop an efficient Facebook post promotion
strategy and scale it accordingly to the market
spending to make it competitive.
Your videos get low total views
Low total views are an indicator that you’re
not publishing enough Facebook videos to be
competitive. Don’t worry, though - this problem
can be easily solved! Start by learning about
the number of videos your competitors are
publishing to determine how much video
content you should be posting. Then, look at the
top-performing Facebook videos to find great
ideas for video content that can work for you.
Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 26
4
Your videos get high total and
paid views but low paid 10 and
30-second views
6
It looks like your videos are organically reaching
a lot of people - but they might not be the right
ones. Try to reexamine the audience you’re
targeting with your video content, and once you
make adjustments, report on all the changes to
see if you’re improving.
5
Your videos get low unique and
10 and 30-second views
There’s a chance your audience is exposed to
your videos too frequently which is the reason why
they’re not responding well. Revisit your targeting
settings and make sure you’re not targeting a too
narrow audience segment. You might also want
to look into your post promotion strategy and
check if you’re not putting money behind the
wrong content. Finally, monitor your CPC and
CPM for any increases or decreases after you
implement changes to your strategy.
You get high total views but
low 10 and 30-second views
for both paid and organic video
posts
Be careful, you might be losing money on
promoting low-quality content that’s ineffective
with your audience. Look into your private metrics
to understand where users are losing interest.
Take steps to learn about your audience’s interests
and tailor your posts accordingly. To maximize
their effectiveness and know which content to
promote, use AI to single out posts with the
biggest potential to perform well in the future.
Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 27
After you fine-tune your strategy, you can
set more accurate goals to make sure you’re
always ahead of the game. Presenting them to
your managers and clients puts you in a great
position to prove your success and ask for a
higher budget for your future video productions.

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 28

The Takeaway
Regardless of their size, industry or region, brands across the
world must prepare for one of the biggest trends in Facebook
marketing: the explosive growth of video.

To make the most of this shift, marketers need to develop

comprehensive video-centric Facebook strategies. On a
basic level, this means creating great content tailored to the
audiences and closely monitoring its performance. But savvy
companies should go a step further and put their video results
in the competitive context to understand and improve their
market standing.

If you haven’t already, seize the window of opportunity and start

building your Facebook video strategy now. This way, you’ll be
able to effectively reach and engage communities before the
competition and capitalize on all the benefits Facebook video
has to offer.

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 29

Make your social media marketing smarter by measuring your performance
across the most important platforms in one place.

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 30

 Written by Marta Buryan
Designed by Michal Smazal
Social Media Insights by Mantas Ciuksys
Data Insights by Michaela Branova

for

Socialbakers Guide: Mastering Video Content Marketing on Facebook 31