How to Use Video on Landing Pages to Delight and Convert Customers

Imagine a world where 100% of your landing page visitors are instantly enchanted by your company, product, or service and are immediately inspired to take action. Wouldn’t that be magical?

While we can’t quite guarantee that level of performance, we can recommend one simple addition that can help lift your landing page conversion rates: video.

The average landing page conversion rate across the board is only 3% - 5.5% depending on industry… ooof. Adding video as a page element can be a great addition to quickly capture attention, deliver a clear message, and encourage visitors to take action — thus increasing the conversion rate.

The best part? You likely already have great marketing videos that you showcase on your website and throughout other digital touchpoints. Landing pages are another natural place to repurpose your existing library of video assets to support and nurture customers. And even if you don’t have any videos yet, we’ve got plenty of resources to help get you started.

What is a “landing page”?

Before we dive in, let’s get on the same page about what we mean with a “landing page.”

Our friends over at Unbounce have this to say:

“In digital marketing, a landing page is a standalone web page, created specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign. It’s where a visitor ‘lands’ after they click on a link in an email, or ads from Google, Bing, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or similar places on the web.”

While any page can technically be a landing page, these conversion-focused web destinations are designed to encourage a visitor to take action and typically feature a stripped-down or absent navigation, few — if any — links to other pages, minimal distractions, and a crystal clear call to action.

Additionally, these pages are standalone, so they aren’t typically linked to internally via other pages and may not even be accessible via web searches.

Simply put, landing pages are built with one goal in mind: getting a page visitor to take action.

Making the case for video on landing pages

Most online researchers and shoppers are skimmers — they want to quickly and efficiently gather the information they’re looking for to make a decision.

Video allows you to effectively communicate your message and unique value proposition without making visitors sift through written text. Video can also create an emotional connection with visitors and make complex products or services more accessible and easy to digest.

That all sounds great in theory — but don’t just take our word for it. Let’s dig into some data!

According to Wyzowl, a video design agency, 96% of people say they’ve watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service, and 79% of people say a brand’s video has convinced them to buy a piece of software or app.

This aligns with the 68% of people say they’d most prefer to learn about a new product or service by watching a short video — which came out ahead of other learning tools like text-based articles (15%), infographics (4%), presentations (4%), and ebooks (3%).

“68% of people say they’d most prefer to learn about a new product or service by watching a short video.”

Give online shoppers what they want — a concise, informative, and perhaps even entertaining brand experience through video.

Best videos for landing pages

Sure, this all sounds great, but what types of videos actually work best for driving conversions?

Well, that depends on your business and your goal. A landing page for a food delivery service will likely look very different than a landing page for an enterprise software solution.

Here at Wistia, we typically align our videos with the four phases of the marketing funnel.

Where specific videos fit into the funnel is different for everyone — but broadly speaking, a company overview or product demo will likely be a better fit for visitors that are new to your brand and marketing funnel. A case study or testimonial video, on the other hand, is likely a better fit for remarketing or nurture campaigns.

Here are a few of our favorite examples of videos on landing pages.

Company intro or overview

PlanSource, a benefits administration software solution, uses video on their top-of-funnel landing pages to provide a high-level overview of the company, common industry pain points, and how their product uniquely alleviates these concerns.

This video does a great job of clarifying the problem and clearly communicating their solution in a complex industry.

Product demo

For large companies with a full suite of products and services, breaking landing pages down into granular campaigns and touch points is a great way to simplify the shopping experience. Salesforce does this with specific product demos that service as a teaser on their “get in touch” landing pages.

In addition to hyper-targeted demos and landing pages, Salesforce also hosts the full demo library on their main product page for top-of-funnel traffic.

Customer success or testimonial

Social proof is a powerful behavioral economics tool to help build trust with prospects. In other words, it’s the “don’t take our word for it” approach. Add this subtle but important element to your landing pages with customer testimonial videos to give consumers confidence when making a decision.

TouchBistro, a restaurant point of sale solution, places customer testimonials front and center on their campaign landing pages to showcase customer success and instill confidence in their solution.

Deal or discount

When Unbounce updated their pricing and eliminated their free plan option, they knew they wanted to take a very unconventional approach to communicating the change to their existing client base. The goal was to minimize churn and showcase the value of staying on board with a paid plan. They did this through a large-scale communications campaigns with video at the center of the operation.

The entire campaign was a much larger undertaking, but video played a very large role in tying everything together and delivering a clear, compelling offer. And in the end, this video campaign resulted in $660,000 in annual recurring revenue with a 1,000% lift in annual plans (2% to 22%).

Explainer video

As the name suggests, explainer videos tell viewers what they need to know about your product or offer in a short, easy-to-digest format. They typically focus on a specific problem or pain point and how the company uniquely addresses these concerns.

This example from DemoDuck, a video production firm, is a bit longer of a format — but it worked! The video increased the contact form conversion rate by 64%.

Bonus: Get creative

Don’t forget, video can be a great way to showcase your brand personality in fun and creative ways. If you’ve ever contacted us for a quote, you’ve seen this first-hand with a video we use on our contact confirmation page.

Why take the extra step of adding a video post-conversion? Two words: surprise and delight. We’ve received tons of great feedback since launching the video. People love it, and it leaves a lasting first impression that keeps Wistia top-of-mind.

Video best practices for landing pages

There are several approaches you can take when it comes to adding video to your landing page strategy; some videos make a great candidate to steal the show with a prominent feature, while others work best in the background with persuasive copy to serve as on-page support.

Here are a few best practices for using video on landing pages.

Use an enticing thumbnail

A thumbnail can make or break your video play rate, and you better believe we’ve tested it. A fun, friendly thumbnail that features a person typically sees a much higher engagement rate than a brand logo or presentation preview.

Opt for inline embed

Though a popover embed is a great way to grab attention, we typically recommend using an inline embed to not overwhelm page visitors. Being too aggressive upfront could scare visitors off the page and cause them to bounce before even considering your offer.

Align video with page content

Consistency is key when adding any media to a page. Make sure the video is closely tied with the overall message or offer on the landing page and that it fits in with surrounding copy and design elements.

Keep it short

While there’s no hard and fast rule for the exact length a video should be on a landing page, err on the side of brevity. We recommend about 30 seconds for an offer, 60 seconds for an explainer, and no more than 90 seconds for a testimonial or overview.

Keep video content above the fold

Do you want people to see and engage with your video? If so, keeping it “above the fold” is the best way to ensure it gets the attention it deserves. How big of a difference can video placement make? We asked this same question and discovered that videos above the fold received up to 50% more engagement!

Make sure the video is optimized for viewing

Having a page that immediately loads all elements without any delays is crucial for maintaining a great user experience, which is one way professional video hosting can step in and help. Keeping your video short will help, as will using professional video hosting. A good rule-of-thumb is to keep your landing page load time under two seconds. Check out this free tool from Google to test your page speed.

Don’t use autoplay

This best practice isn’t exclusive to landing pages; auto-playing videos aren’t considered accessible and they generally don’t provide a great user experience. Don’t force visitors to interact with a video — this could scare them away. Instead, let them engage on their own terms. (Psst — if you are an auto-play enthusiast, consider using muted auto-play instead.)

Include a call to action

What do you want people to do after viewing your video? Likely, the answer is to fill out a form on the page. So why not all this out specifically in the video? Or, better yet, use the video as a way to capture leads. You can also play around with custom videos that physically point to the form on the page as a way to draw attention.

A/B test

When in doubt, test it out. We highly recommend A/B testing your videos everywhere, landing pages included. What can you test? Well, you can test different videos, calls-to-action, video thumbnails, and much more.

Getting started with video

If you’re new to video and the thought of getting started is a bit daunting — fret not, we’re here to help.

• Check out our Beginner’s Guide to Video Production, which covers everything from essential video gear and how to look good on camera to basic video editing and more.

• For inspiration, check out this recap of 15 videos every business can use and our recommendations for the first three videos every business should make.

• Finally, once you’re ready to level up your video skills, dive into our complete Video Marketing Guide for tips and tricks on how to build and optimize a full video marketing strategy.