How to Get More Facebook Video Views

In 2022, more brands are turning to social media as a top contender for brand marketing because it has a vast audience of consumers that use the platform, and you can deliver your content to them in various forms. Facebook has been around for more than two decades and will always be the ideal space for most companies to branch off into. A business report released by Buffer suggested that 93.77% of businesses have chosen Facebook as their primary social media marketing source. 

So it is essential to remember to include Facebook in your digital marketing strategy this year. It would help if you remembered to focus on uploading videos about your brand and what you provide. Static posts are compelling, but videos grasp consumers’ attention these days. When you decide to post video content, the first metric you measure is your views. This metric, above other things, can determine the hit or miss factor of your video content. So finding different ways to increase your views is vital to successfully reaching your customers. This blog will explore what you can do to churn out the views you want for your brand’s video content. 

One of the first things any advertiser will tell you to do or to continue doing is to run a Facebook video views campaign. The idea is to put money behind your Facebook video to reach more consumers. This may result in more people viewing your content and reacting to it accordingly. If you are only looking for organic views, you should skip to the next section; however, if you are interested in paid views, keep reading. 

When you start a video views campaign on Facebook, you let the platform’s algorithm know that you want your video to be prioritized to pop up in front of your targeted audience. It is relatively easy to use and Facebook assists you in every step. The results from the campaign will be monitored by Facebook effectively and you can extract analytical reports from the platform itself. 

With that in mind, let us move on to the organic ways you can increase your Facebook video views. 

The following ways are:

1. Optimizing Your Content For Different Viewers

You can bet that your consumers consume your content on multiple mediums. It can either be their desktop, laptop or mobile device. This calls for brands and creators to ensure their content translates well through any viewing medium. You don’t have to stress about changing your format whenever you want to appeal to consumers on either platform. Instead, Facebook lets you optimize your content through Creator Studio for different audience bases. This ensures that your content is viewed in its best form no matter the platform you watch it on. 

Navigating Facebook’s Creator Studio can be tricky, so let’s break it down. Once you can access the Creator Studio portal on Facebook, you can click on the Optimize Tab to start the process. Next, select the Video Optimization box and tweak the settings according to your preferences. Finally, you can opt to have Meta optimize your videos automatically by selecting the Auto option on your screen. If you choose the auto option, the following things will happen. 

Firstly, the smart preview option will be enabled. This displays an engaging clip of your video to consumers. This aims to attract consumers to click on your content to know more. The next is smart cropping. Sometimes your video looks perfect for desktop viewers, but it has been cropped horribly for mobile devices. This option ensures that it will never happen by showing your video in a 4:5 version for mobile users while keeping the original size for desktop or laptop users. These options focus on your content and not cropping your videos. You will save yourself a lot of time and effort in the long run.

While most advertisers make content for desktop users and then optimize it for mobile phone users, what needs to be remembered is that mobile phone users view content the most out of all the other viewing mediums. For example, it was stated that 80% of Facebook users view content on their mobile phones, while only 1.5% of consumers view content on their desktops. That statistic alone should remind you to optimize your video content every time. Some brands have also started creating content in a portrait format over the traditional landscape format to cater to mobile phone users more. This format is known as 9:16.

2. Enable An Audio Option Feature

It should be noted that around 85% of Facebook users watch video content without the audio enabled. For example, Facebook automatically mutes videos by default but always allows you to enable them while watching the video. It can be safely said that most users scroll through Facebook in noise-sensitive environments. These areas could be libraries, conference rooms, doctor waiting rooms, etc. 

So to appeal to the majority of users that find loud videos to be disruptive, it could be taken into consideration that you could enable your videos to run without sound. Instead, you could enable subtitles in your videos to help consumers follow what’s happening. Subtitles work well even if there’s no sound; your content will be understandable. Whether a ‘how to change your tire’ or ‘3 ways to journal’, video content with no audio is easily interpreted and will reach more users. 

The main reason behind this feature is that most consumers will scroll past a video with disruptive audio. This will mostly happen in a noise-sensitive setting. To ensure your video isn’t skipped, you should keep your videos muted and informative. Utilize top-quality imagery and subtitles to get your point across. It is suggested that expressions such as happiness, surprise or wonder are more inviting than still images.

3. Custom Video Thumbnails

If you haven’t already guessed it, thumbnails are the significant deciding factor for a consumer to click on your video content. Thumbnails are designed to pique consumers’ interest, so picking the right one to excite users is essential to gaining more video views. The difference a thumbnail can make was highlighted in a marketing report. The impact was mainly seen on the campaign’s CPA (cost per action). What was observed was that a thumbnail for a video can make a 2X difference in the CPA.

Be sure to design your thumbnail and not opt for the auto-generated thumbnail that Facebook provides. For example, the auto-generated thumbnail might do the job of giving you a thumbnail, but only a custom thumbnail will give you the best possible chance of a consumer clicking on your video. To make sure your video content stands out, it helps to ensure your video thumbnails are consistent with your brand in terms of color and imagery. If a specific color represents your business, include it in all your thumbnails.

The text you use should also be clear and crisp. You wouldn’t want people struggling to read or scroll past it because it doesn’t make sense. Instead, you have a limited amount of space to write your text without it disrupting the imagery of the thumbnail, so pick your words wisely. The color of your text should also stand out from the background colors or imagery so that they can be easily read, even at a glance. Use inviting imagery or a friendly face to hook consumers into clicking on your video. It is suggested that expressions such as happiness, surprise or wonder are known to attract consumers.

While in the Creator Studio on Facebook, you will have a few thumbnail options. Instead, ignore these options and go straight to the Upload Image option. This way, you can include your curated thumbnail in your video and fully control how it is viewed. You can ensure the thumbnail is not grainy and that text overlay is enabled for your viewers. Opting for these options will not affect your video frames. 

4. Change The Aesthetics Of Video Content

Over the years, a humongous amount of video content has been uploaded onto social media and consumers have been viewing different varieties of video content daily. So it can be assumed that today’s consumers can differentiate between authentic and promotional sales content. 

You don’t want consumers to see your brand as a promotional entity, not a business they can trust. Many platforms like Facebook have enabled shopping and market features to promote business activities between sellers and buyers. The true essence of social media is being social and genuinely interacting with one another. Do not underestimate the consumer’s power of observation and how masking promotional content with distractions will still be scrolled over. 

The solution to this dilemma as a brand is to experiment with different video aesthetics. One such aesthetic that has proved to be effective is the home video format. This idea is that consumers see well-polished and pristine content as decoys and tend to be very skeptical. The advantage of making your videos with a homely feel is that it requires a minute budget. Unfortunately, most home videos posted on Facebook come from ordinary users with no budget. As an advertiser, you can push for video content to be filmed on a smartphone or a camcorder to give your content an authentic look. 

Some might say this would not stand out or attract consumers, but being authentic will make you stand out for someone just starting. By seeming more casual and genuine with your audiences, you would have more consumers viewing your video content to see what you are about. 

5. Use Captions On Videos

This might be a well-known fact, but a video caption significantly affects how much exposure your video will get on a social media platform. Focusing on your Facebook videos is an excellent way to secure more views. Captions make your content more inclusive and ensure it’s easy to find. 

A caption can also break down language barriers and bring more international clientele to your Facebook videos. As we know, Facebook is an international platform with users who speak different languages. Even if your video isn’t in the native language of a user, the caption could be. This would assist the user in clicking on content and using the subtitles option to translate the content in the video. The first step is to get consumers to click on the video, which can only happen if they understand the caption clearly. 

With the number of active users on Facebook growing year-round, you can bet that there are international audiences that stumble upon your content daily. So as a brand, you should look at your video analytics and see where your video viewers are from. This way, you can curate your content to different target audiences from different countries. Reaching these users in their native language will boost brand awareness and increase your audience size.

You can also go to the extent of enabling your video subtitles to be in various languages to cater to a broader audience. Making your videos more inclusive in language will make your content more shareable and increase your video views overall. Having captions not only appeals to people who speak different languages but also to individuals who are deaf or have impaired hearing. Without being able to see what the video is about, being scrolled over is the only option. 

6. Add A CTA To Video Captions

Following up on your inclusive caption is a call to action section that follows after your caption. This is to encourage users to engage with your video and watch it. The CTA can vary from “watch this to know more” or “click play to learn more.” What a CTA can do for your video views is act as the final push to nudge consumers into clicking on your video. The thumbnail would have sparked their attention, the caption would have got them interested and the CTA is what finally gets a user to give your video content a try.

If you enable your caption to have a CTA phrase, be sure to have it visible before the See More button. Facebook usually limits video captions to around 280 characters. If you have decided to include expressive elements such as emojis or line breaks, it would be advisable to click on post preview to see how consumers will see your video and its caption in their feed.

7. Observe The Competition 

Even though you compete with your rivals in the same space, not paying attention to their actions can be a critical mistake. What can be surprising is how your competitors gain views on their content. For example, it could be a new marketing strategy or newer content. You don’t need to be a copycat, but it doesn’t hurt to be inspired or driven by your competition. Healthy competition always blossoms creativity and innovation. With third-party monitoring tools, you can monitor what your rivals do or are doing daily without spending much time or effort. 

Another reason to pay attention to your competition is Facebook’s relevancy score. This is similar to Google’s Quality Score. This is only if you are looking for paid exposure on the platform. Over time, the metrics by which this score is measured have changed and will constantly change. One such metric is quality ranking, which is the quality of your ad compared to your competitors who want the same audience. You will be rewarded in two ways if you get a higher score. The first way is your video ads will be showcased more often than your rivals. The second is you will get discounted prices for impressions and optimization events. In short, receiving a high-quality score means getting more views for a lower price. 

So it would be suggested to figure out what your competition is doing in ads and elevate yourself above that to acquire the best position for your brand regarding exposure and Facebook video views.

 These tips will give you a better understanding of what needs to be done to achieve better views on your Facebook videos.

A few things to remember when you make your next video marketing strategy are:

• Ensure your video content is consistent with your brand
• Be sure to include eye-catching imagery and clear texts to attract consumers
• Enable audio features to your content to make it more accessible in noise-sensitive environments
• A custom thumbnail is always better received than a default one
• Include inclusive captions that will appeal to an international audience 
• Add a CTA to your caption to make it more persuasive
• Keep a close eye on your competition and their activities

These are just some of the ways you can improve your video views. The only way to know if this works for you is to test them all out eventually. Implementing all these changes might be daunting, so making tiny tweaks over time and monitoring your videos’ progress would be recommended. Don’t be shy to reach out to an agency or third-party program that could assist you in designing and maintaining quality video content.