It is common knowledge that online video consumption is growing by leaps and bounds, but one really important segment of online video requires special attention: mobile video. Whether on a tablet or a smartphone, mobile video is growing faster than online video in general. From 2012 – 2017, global online video traffic is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 32% on fixed devices, whereas mobile online video traffic is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 90%. In areas with high penetration of smartphones, like SouthEast Asia, Europe, and North America, expect that growth to be even more meaningful as technology improves and consumers demand a better viewing experience on mobile devices.
So, what can you do to get ahead of this trend?
Design for Cross Platform Experiences
If your website only looks great on a laptop or desktop, you are probably doing it wrong. A mobile-optimized website can scale to any screen size on any device, and retains its ease of navigation and visually appealing layout. Importantly, your videos should do the same. ABI Research estimates that mobile video viewing hours will nearly double over the next five years: a dramatic increase from 12.7 hours per user per month in 2013 to more than 21 hours in 2019. This trend cannot be ignored by anyone developing a website featuring video, or marketing with video. Click here for our guide to making your videos responsive.
Not Just Your Website, Your Content Too
We recently went into a lot of depth regarding the impact of the time of day on your video marketing, but you can actually tumble that data and look at it not just from the time of day perspective, but also from a device preference perspective. A Yahoo! Advertising’s online video study shows, video content is discovered and consumed differently depending on the device being used at the time. Interestingly, while smartphone users display a strong predilection to consume short form and user generated content, tablet viewers behave more like people viewing on a laptop:
Looking at your own website’s traffic, do you get a lot of tablet or mobile visitors? Has the proportion changed over time? This is an important metric to track to understand how best to reach your audience.
Based on the type of content you are publishing, you can leverage video marketing to target users when you know a lot of them will be on a specific type of device. For instance, video and email marketing are a match made in heaven, with one caveat – the majority of people (65%) are now opening their emails on their phones. If you have a short form video that plays back smoothly on mobile devices, that video is a great candidate for an email campaign sent in the afternoon when people are seeking distractions.
What do you think? Is mobile video the next big thing, or is mobile optimization more of a pain than it is worth for the time being? Let us know in the comments below, or on Facebook and Twitter!
