How Facebook Video Marketing is Killing Your Business

What the marketing gurus aren’t telling you about the video content game

We’ve all heard it before…

“Hustle!”

“Grind!”

“More content!”

“Video is KING!”

“Make it LONGER”

“No, make it SHORTER”

I don’t know about you, but honestly, I’m sick of it. There are so many marketing gurus trying to convince people to constantly pump out video content. If you’re like me, that just sounds exhausting.

Photo by Kaspars Eglitis on Unsplash

Who has time for all that? What about actually running your business? The truth is, most of this advice is purely anecdotal. They expect your business to suddenly become a media company. It’s unrealistic.

Maybe I’m just the only one who thinks like this.

But here’s the scarier truth that those content crushing experts aren’t telling you about Facebook video…

“The average watch time per video is around 10 seconds.”

*shudder*

But is that really surprising though?

Have you ever launched a video over Facebook or Youtube only to have it land flat? It can be so difficult to get any traction on social media today with all those algorithm updates squashing your potential.

I felt like a failure every time I posted a video.

But then I found a secret to video marketing that changed everything…

It’s not the quantity of Video that counts, it’s about QUALITY.

What an original idea! People want to watch good content, not average content. Contrary to what you’ve been told, frequency is often hurting you more than it is helping you.

Here’s why: Video algorithms exist to weed out bad content so viewers are only left with the good stuff.

If you fill your account with mediocre videos, then the algorithm will weed you out. The algorithm then judges any future content based off of your past engagement. If you’ve got a poor history of engagement, then it will show your content to less people.

This leads to less reach, less engagement, fewer customers — and wasted time trying to spin up new content.

In other words, mediocre videos are killing your business.

Mediocre videos with average results = bad videos.

When my team came to terms with this reality, we vowed not to settle for average results. We decided to take a brutally honest look at all the videos we created…

The truth is, we thought these videos we created were amazing. If you watched them all the way through, they were quite moving…some of them were tear jerkers. The production value and accolades were out the roof.

But none of that mattered when people were only watching 10 seconds in.

What we discovered changed the way we did video

We made 3 major shifts to video that gets the audience more engaged and creates a greater impact in your marketing.

You can have the algorithm working in your favor. When you make these 3 shifts, more people will watch your videos 100% through.

1. Story as a clarifying device
2. Leveraging the first 6 seconds
3. The forgotten method that makes all the difference

Here’s what we discovered:

Story as a clarifying device

First, we devoted ourselves to telling better stories.

But why is storytelling so important?

Historically, Stories have been one of the best ways that our minds hold information. Scientific research shows us the RAW power of how they actually mold our minds. It’s what we use to make complex ideas simple.

And it’s the best way to send an idea from one person to another.

Scientists call this neural coupling.

“The human brain responds to the descriptive power of stories in deeply affecting ways, influencing both the sensory and motor cortex. To read a story is to feel an experience and to synchronize our minds with the subject of the story.” — Kissmetrics

By using story, people can clearly understand what you offer…and video is the perfect platform to tell a story.

Have you ever lost track of time watching Netflix? In Psychology, this is called Narrative Transportation and it’s a sign of good storytelling.

Good storytellers transport their audience into the story they are telling. And in marketing, good stories transport people to the end of the video. ;)

But how do you tell a good story? Well, the best stories follow a rather simple framework. You can learn more about this framework in a previous post: The Power of Marketing Narrative

Leveraging the first 6 seconds

Secondly, we decided not to waste peoples time.

The best video ads not only grab attention. The best ads quickly and clearly communicate the most important information…leaving you wanting more.

This is true of all platforms. No matter what video service you use, the rules stay the same. Even on Facebook, videos have a significant drop-off starting at the 6 second mark.

I call this the 6 Second Challenge

In order to beat the 6 Second Challenge you’ll need to:

1. Spark your audience’s curiosity
2. Clearly communicate why they NEED to keep watching

See examples of exactly how you can beat the 6 Second Challenge: How Super Bowl LII can teach you to be a better Marketer

The forgotten method that makes all the difference

Finally we decided to do what all good marketers do: we test everything and track the results.

Data isn’t sexy, but it gets sexy results.

While that sounds obvious to some, most businesses don’t actually track videos beyond looking at how many views it got. But if a video got over 1000 views, but over 90% drop off in the first 10 seconds, is it really effective?

Here are the metrics we’ve found are most important to measure:

1. View-through rate
2. 10-second video views
3. Video engagement
4. Video watch over time
5. Video length

When you measure your results, you can find out quickly what videos are helping you and which ones are hurting you. But most importantly, you can learn what to do differently in the future.

The average watch time per video is around 10 seconds. If you can get it up to 15 seconds or above, then you are on a different level of Facebook video marketing. It’s best to try to A/B test your videos to understand which are producing the highest levels of engaged users. — MarketingLand

Sometimes, a bad video just needs to be edited. Knowing when and where to edit is powerful to any business.

Wrapping up

When you use story, keep people engaged, and make data-empowered changes — your videos will help your business grow. Don’t let the gurus fool you. You can break beyond the algorithm, without the need to endlessly produce content.

To your success,
— Bryan Switalski