Showcase Your Animated Brand Video

Using images in your LinkedIn posts will increase your views and shares. When sharing a video in LinkedIn, you’ll want to create your own cover image or thumbnail. For the best results, stick with these recommended sizes: Shared link: 1200 x 627 pixels Stories: Aspect Ratio 9:16; 1080 x 1920 pixels

According to Hootsuite, Tweets that include images consistently get more click-throughs, more likes, and more Retweets than non-image Tweets. So, it’s important to have your video image framed properly.

When sharing a link to your video, Twitter recognizes the URL then crawls that website, pulling in content and creating a Twitter image. However, if you’re not happy with the image, you can create your own using these Twitter card image specifications:

Minimum size: 120 x 120 pixels
Supported formats, GIF, JPG, and PNG
Maximum file size: 1MB

For in-stream photos without a link:
Image size: 1600 x 900 pixels
Minimum size: 600 x 335 pixels
Aspect ratio: Any aspect between 2:1 and 1:1 for desktop viewing; 2:1, 3:4 and 16:9 for mobile viewing
Supported formats: GIF, JPG, and PNG
Maximum file size: Up to 5MB for photos and GIFS on mobile. Up to 15MB on the web.

The ever-changing social platform! If you’re a regular to Facebook business you know how frustrating their posting process can be because as soon as you think you got it, they change something (that’s a small downside – for the upside to Facebook for business, read on!). To avoid further frustration, it’s recommended to just post the video and use the image that’s generated. If you have a customized image, follow these recommended specifications:

Recommended size: 1200 x 630 pixels
Minimum size: 600 x 315 pixels

The upside to Facebook for business is their advertising opportunities, providing one of the best ways for your video to be seen at a minimal cost. In fact, when testing recent static Facebook ads over video ads, the Explainify team discovered that more than half of the people who saw the ad in their feed watched the video over the static ad. Whatsmore, the video ads had a lower cost-per-click than the static ads – resulting in a staggering $0.35 vs. $1.50. All these approaches resulted in a 311% increased CTR.

Sizes for Facebook Feed ads:
Aspect ratio: 1.91:1 to 1:1
Minimum: 600 x 600 pixels
Maximum files size: 30MB

Facebook image sizes for Instant Articles:
Aspect ratio: 1.91:1 to 1:1
At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
Maximum files size: 30MB

Thankfully, Instagram now supports horizontally and vertically oriented images. This opens your options when posting your video or video thumbnail. It also makes posting the correct size a little bit trickier. Follow these guidelines to get the best from your video post:

Image size for thumbnails: 161 x 161 pixels
Upload size: 1080 pixels wide

Instagram Stories
Image size: 1080 x 1920 pixels
Aspect ratio: 9:16 – Uploading an image with a smaller pixel size (but the same aspect ratio) means the Story will buffer quickly. If you don’t use this ratio, the Story might show with uneven cropping or leave large sections of the screen blank.

*Instagram Reels uses the same sizes as Stories!

Don’t rely on YouTube to generate your thumbnails. Afterall, this could be the first image your audience sees, so you’ll want to control the first impression that could be the compelling factor that gets them to press play.

YouTube thumbnail size: 1280 x 720 pixels

Is your video too long to add to some social platforms? Ask us about our Social Cuts offerings. We’ll seamlessly trim down your long-form video into bite-size clips – perfect for social media. In some cases, we can even create two social cuts from one video to give you more ways to up your social amplification.

Recognize the purpose of your landing page and use your video accordingly. Bringing your message to the top with your dynamic video will grab the attention of your audience, but also think about the accompanying messaging. For example, if your landing page is for a webinar, your video will cause your viewer to stop and watch but then they’ll need clear instructions and of course a call to action.

If your video is showcasing a new product or service, bring it to the top of the page so it’s the first thing your audience sees. Once intrigued, they’ll want to know more. This is where you can really dial in and give them more details and contact information.

After your video is added to your landing page, remember to test it out to make sure it shows properly in all browsers. Whether viewers are logging in using Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, or the multitude of other browsers, you’ll want to ensure everyone is seeing your video in all its glory so test, test, test. If you’d rather not test manually or don’t have access within your webpage CRM, there are a variety of browser testers, such as BrowserStack.

How does your video look on a mobile device? Again, take the time to test your landing page on your cell phone and tablet.

Once your video is set prominently on your landing page, take some time to monitor the results. With tools, such as Google Analytics, it’s easy to collect visitor feedback and then go in and do some tweaking if necessary.

Take a deep dive into your video and pull out all the on-point messaging that flows throughout. Each one of those messages is a marketing campaign. Start building your campaign around that message with the focus on the look and feel of your video.

Create a blog around that message and remember to include the video in the body of the blog.

Build a webinar around the main message, including snippets of the video and even a guest speaker to go over all the talking points. Take screenshots of the video to include in your slides. Once the webinar airs, send the video to your audience in a follow-up email. Collect your leads!

Build out a 3-touch email campaign, starting with: 1. Awareness – Focus on the main message; 2. Consideration – embed the video within the email or add a direct link to the video; 3. CTA – Take the talking points from email 1 and the video from email 2 and give your audience a clear path to take an action.