Autoplay VS. Manual Play - Which Should You Use on Your Sales Page?

Is your brand not receiving the love that it deserves online? If your answer is “yes” then it’s possible you aren’t putting enough marketing dollars into your video marketing budget.

According to Animoto, 85% of marketers say that video is an effective way to get attention online. Customers agree, with it being the number one way they discover new products and brands on the web.

There are many ways to attack video marketing. Today, we want to focus on whether or not you should use autoplay or manual play for your video sales copy. Keep reading to find out.

When someone lands on your sales page, if your video starts to play immediately, then it’s considered “autoplay”. If the consumer has to physically click on a play button, then it’s “manual play”.

In the past, consumers have disliked autoplay videos. There was a time when the audio could cause embarrassment if the video started to play in a public area without the potential customer being aware.

But this is 2022. The vast majority of consumers walk around all day with Airpods in their ears. And if they don’t have Airpods, then they have cheap earbuds from Walmart that they picked up in the checkout aisle for five bucks. 

Either way, we live in an era where people are no longer blasting the audio on their phones for all to enjoy. That was a period of time no one will miss.

Every facet of marketing has its pros and cons. Despite autoplay options getting a bit of bad rap, there are reasons for employing this strategy.

Pro: It’s an Attention Grabber

An unexpected burst of audio will get your audience’s attention every time. Even if you have it muted, you’re still more likely to get eyes on the video if it auto-plays.

Pro: More Conversions

One of the biggest challenges in marketing is figuring out how much decision-making you really want your customers to have. We now know, thanks to human psychology, that the more choices people have, the less likely they are to make a decision, mostly due to the fear of making the wrong choice.

Make it easy with autoplay. Don’t give them the choice. Just give them the video and while some folks may not appreciate it, the lack of choice will increase conversions.

Con: It’s Invasive

Ever since the pandemic hit, more people want to be left alone. They want to work remotely. They don’t feel like dealing with anything. The same is true with marketing efforts.

While people respond to marketing, especially video, force-feeding their content may not always be the best choice in a post-pandemic world.

Con: It Doesn’t Always Work

Many browsers are starting to disable autoplay features. You may not even notice. Everything could seem to be working fine on your back-end but when consumers hit your landing page or email, the video simply won’t play.

Manual play video options may seem like a no-brainer, but there are definitely pros and cons to using this option.

Pro: Less Invasive

As the less invasive option, consumers are most likely to respond to this form of video favorably. An unexpected eruption of audio in their ear might turn them off if they aren’t ready for it.

Pro: Higher Conversion Rate

Forcing a potential customer to manually click on a piece of content to view it means they have a high amount of interest in the product or service. This tells us that people who click on these videos are further down the sales funnel and the content should focus on people who are close to being ready to purchase.

Con: Not Everyone Will Watch

If someone has to manually click on a video, not everyone is going to watch it. Most people probably won’t. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Maybe they are in the beginning stages of the sales funnel and looking for informational content.

Or maybe they’re shopping around to see who has the most attractive-looking products. So there is a chance that some of these people will eventually come back to your website and watch when they’re ready.

What Do the Numbers Say?

The data backs up the thought that video marketing is becoming more important every day. It’s a good idea to try different strategies, as what works for one brand may not be adequate for another. The best way to find out what works for you is extensive A/B testing.

Let’s take a look at some statistics from various social media platforms to get a better understanding.

A study from Blogspot shows that 53% of consumers want to see more video content. This is from brands they already support or follow. They also say they’re more than twice as likely to watch a video all the way through as opposed to skimming it like they would an email or blog post.

Social platforms have become marketers’ favorite way of distributing their content. Using the three top channels, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube will give you the most watch time and highest conversions, provided you know how to use them properly.

Facebook videos are usually watched muted. Viewers watch them in silence 85% of the time. What does this mean? You want your ads to have text. This is one of the most important parts of running Facebook ads. Put the “text” into “context”.

You can’t sleep on Instagram in 2022. It is receiving over a billion visitors every month. The most staggering part of this statistic is that 9 out of 10 users watch videos on the platform on a weekly basis.

The biggest portion of the audience is millennials, with a rapidly growing market in India. If your products or services are touching any of these markets, start preparing a video marketing strategy as fast as you can.

Facebook and YouTube are also great places to do live streams if you want to mix things up. Consumers love to watch them and marketers are listening. The number of live streams on YouTube alone grew by 45% in 2020.

Now you get it. Video marketing is all the rage and you want to jump on board. What do you need to have to grab a viewer's attention?

The Hook

The first thing every video needs is a hook. You only have a few seconds to grab someone’s attention. One of the best ways to do this is to focus on the pain point you’re trying to solve.

Let’s say that you’re trying to sell a suite of affiliate marketing tools to help beginners make money online. You could start off your video with an animation of someone staring at their website data and not seeing any traffic.

You can also do the same thing with a live-action video. Start the content off with a person talking about the biggest problems getting started with their affiliate website. Pain points hook the viewer. Solutions to those points make sales.

Say What You Need to Say

You want to get straight to the point as fast as possible. The longer the video, the fewer the number of people who will watch to the end. Have a goal as far as length and stick to it.

As soon as your hook is complete, discuss what makes your tools so great for people who are new to affiliate marketing. If you have any kind of statistics, make sure to include them here.

Something to take into consideration is where folks are in the sales funnel. You may need to alter the video if you find the people visiting your website aren’t ready to buy just yet.

Think about Where the Video is Posted

The length, autoplay vs manual play, audio, text, and everything else will be influenced by the channel you want to use for this video. Social media videos are usually shorter than what you’ll find on a landing page. YouTube videos are typically longer than Facebook or Instagram content.

If the video is on a website or landing page, it’s really important for your content to be on-brand. This includes color schemes, fonts, and even the voice-over for the video. If you’re using a live-action video, you may want to include the same actors or members of staff that you’ve used in the past.

This strategy will help consumers feel more comfortable with the brand as every piece of content they see has a familiar look and feel to it.

There are several ways you can use autoplay for your sales videos even if browsers are blocking them. Facebook and Instagram both use autoplay for videos as a default feature.

YouTube offers a single auto-play video that starts as soon as people go to your individual channel. Knowing this, what’s the way to use the features?

YouTube

YouTube has a setting for you to place a single video at the top of the screen when someone visits your channel. This video auto-plays with sounds on.

It’s a good idea to place your most engaging and interesting video here. A lot of individual content creators use this area of their channel to create a “welcome” video. Don’t do that. You have a chance to grab a viewer's attention and you should use it wisely.

Facebook and Instagram

Both Facebook and Instagram autoplay ad videos on mute. If you want to go this route, make sure there is text on your content, and your hook and the first few seconds are stellar.

Website and Landing Pages

Your own website is where your video content can really shine. You’re mostly going to be restricted to manual play, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

This is the best scenario for customers who are close to the bottom of the sales funnel. They’re most likely to click play and watch all the way through to the end. Make sure this content is what they need to push them over the edge to make a sale.

Great ways to get viewers here include internal linking in blog posts, social media posts, as well as Google PPC.

Vmaker can help with their software. You can create videos, including screen recording with their screencasting feature. It’s beginner-friendly, with a clean interface, giving you all of the editing and customization options right on your screen as you record.

If you want to record a video for your brand and you want full control and an authentic feel, then Vmaker has you covered. The best part is their introductory plan is completely free. So you can play around to see if the software is right for you.

Conclusion - Autoplay VS. Manual Play - Which Should You Use on Your Sales Page?

Autoplay isn’t completely dead. There are still some scenarios where it’s used and is effective. However, you need to focus on the first few seconds of video and text for these options to be successful.

For most situations, manual play is the now and the future for your video content. It’s going to take some time to master when and how to use it, but with proper testing, you’ll get there.

Design your marketing strategy to focus efforts on your landing pages and website, as these strategies will increase your ROI by focusing on the bottom of the funnel customers.

Thanks for hanging out with us today. If you enjoyed this post, you should check out this one on reasons why video communication is crucial for your business.

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