• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, March 1, 2023

Email sign-ups and calls to action are shifting within videos in the face of a slowdown in uploads, judging by the 2023 State of Video Report, a study by Wistia.

While most email capture forms previously appeared at the beginning of middle of content videos, that has shifted slightly.  

Of the videos studied, 18,619 of CTAs were placed at the front in 2022, down from 37,219 in 2020 and 25,901 in 2021.  

In contrast, 6,348 were positioned in the middle, compared with 9.959 in 2021 and 20,200 in 2016. 

This is occurring amid a slight slowdown in video consumption overall: Wistia recorded 15 million video uploads in 2022, down from 17.1 million in 2020.  

Last year, conversion rates for email capture and CTAs were highest in the middle, pulled a conversion rate of 20.6%.

That was up from 13.8% in 2021, but down from the 31.9% recorded in 2016.

However, the conversions for those placed at the end totaled 11.9% last year, up from 6.5% in 2021 and 7.1% in 2020.

And, there was a 17% conversion for ctas at the front end of videos, up from 14.8% in 2021. 

Conversion rate when using the term “email” is 21%, while conversion rate without that term is 16%. 

The best practices? Brands should:

• Place CTAs and email gates mid-roll.
• Use the term “email” in your form copy 
• Experiment more with lead capture forms in video.

Of the brands surveyed, 56.7% had a video strategy in 2022, slightly less than the prior year. 

The primary goals for videos are:

• Brand awareness — 50.9%
• Customer engagement — 49.1%
• Generating leads — 45.9% 
• Driving sales — 43.5% 
• Highlight company culture — 13.5%
• Other — 2.8%

How can you know how well you’re doing? According to Wistia, the top indicators of video success are: 

• Increase assisted conversions in the sales cycle
• Increase in website traffic
• Increase in social engagement, sharing and followers 
• Increased time on page
• Improved SEO ranking

Wistia analyzed data from over 80 million videos uploaded to its platform from 2013-2022. It also surveyed 1,500+ customers.