The Power of Thumbnail. How a good preview image can increase your videos play rate

Hi my friends,

We have shared last week an infographic with information about how to increase conversion rates through online videos. Today I’ll write about one issue that most intrigues and contribute analysis and reporting metrics for online video: play rate.

Play rate is the “percentage of visitors who click on the play when they are placed in contact with the videos”. This rate is directly affected by mainly two particulars: context, or where your video is embedded; and the Thumbnail, or the preview image that video brings.

Set a prominent and showy spot on your site to put video something that you can do by yourself. But the Achilles’ heel, however, is to configure and set the Thumbnail that will break the barrier between the user indeed click on the play.

What happens, most times, is that video portals – as Youtube, for example – only let you choose between few pre-set Thumbnail options. This would be making a movie and at the time to select a frame to make a promotional banner you have to choose among the ones defined by a computer. Preview picture is the best advertising the your video has. You are the owner of your content and know better than anyone the picture that will better represent it.

If Thumbnail is a bad or non-representative there is no magic that will make users click on the player to watch your video. And since you did well and were able to make users click on the play, even there is a pre-roll advertising, they will tend to keep watching it.

In Liquid, our Online Video Platform, you can set which image will be the video Thumbnail. You can also take a video preview printscreen or select a saved picture from your computer. This freedom will certainly contribute to increase tour videos play rate.

Wanna see how easy is to set a Thumbnail? Get in touch and schedule a tour!

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