Online Videos: 5 Elements to Test to Boost Conversion

Written by Toonimo

While video has enhanced the overall customer experience for individuals who choose to do their shopping online and has led to more sales and higher conversion rates, it is important to know what specifically has caused their conversion rates to go up and what the role is of video.

This document outlines what to test to boost conversion with video and helps us discern what works and what doesn’t.

Here are the key factors and tests that lead to specific conversions and what you can do to optimize your videos in the most powerful

KNOW YOUR MARKET AND WHAT WORKS

Before you decide how you can reach your audience more widely through video, make sure you know your market and know what’s already working. Based on a study from ComScore, we know that, Americans alone watched 16.8 billion videos online. However, the question is not what this led to, but what is it that Americans watched and why. Why did they spend a certain amount of time on a specific video? Did they find it easy to follow? What could be done to make it better? Don’t make changes to your own videos (or create videos if you don’t have them) until you know your market and the factors that could change their opinions on your video.

So you know your target market and the videos they are watching. Now what?

Now that you know your target market and have done some research on what has been working, make a decision about what variables will need to be taken into account to best convert leads. While the list of variables is exhaustive, we will focus here on just a few of the many factors that are faced by companies that choose to use videos to market their product or service.

1. First Impressions Make All The Difference

Have you ever heard someone say “You had me at ‘hello’”? Well, it’s now possible that you actually did have your potential customer from the outset. A recent study published by the University of Glasgow's Voice Neurocognition Lab shows that we have about half a second to make a good first impression- and that’s just from the sound of our voice. With video, we need to know not just why someone came to our site for the first time, but also how to approach him or her if they come a second time. If a lead doesn’t convert right away, should we change our video? Is your product one that may take more than one impression for a lead to convert? Should you have a new video or just a new Call to Action (CTA) for repeat visitors? These are all factors that you should take into account when testing for video optimization.

2. Know what calls to action motivate your audience

In a recent piece on Master New Media, Robin Good points out that triggers are actually similar to CTAs. A trigger, according to his definition, is anything that indicates to your viewer that a video is there and that they should watch it to learn more about your product. Essentially what needs to be tested here is the placement of a trigger, how it looks, and what it tells your viewer to do. Questions that you should ask include:

● Does the video play as soon as the site opens?

● Does that button look like? Is it effective?

● Also, it always makes sense to have your video above the fold, but on what side of the screen should it be placed?

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