With streaming video views picking up steadily between Facebook video and YouTube, along with a number of smaller channels, brands and marketers are taking advantage of the format now more than ever for advertising. The chief advertising method is through auto-play videos – pre-roll videos that play before the user can watch the content they really want. YouTube has used it pervasively since 2009, but advertisers still don’t know whether or not they’re a good idea.

Marketing design engine Crayon recently published a report (via SocialTimes) that examines just how much video is being used by companies. It analyzed numbers based on three different portions of the video market: the top 500, the top 10,000 and the top 50,000 websites, and came up with different results for each.

When it comes to those in the top 50,000, there seem to be slower adoption rates with certain companies. Self-hosted video and other tools are highly used within areas such as software and marketing, healthcare and medical, and non-profit and education enterprises, while retail and restaurant enterprises are on the lower end.

When it comes to auto-play, social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter often utilize the format. However, not all companies are jumping on board, as the chart below shows.

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The numbers don’t lie. About 50 percent of videos posted online use some form of auto-play, while others rely on a click to get started.

Also, the report states that only 21% of companies involved in video use in-house tools, while 70% turn to a third party, such as YouTube, for hosting when it comes to the top 50,000. The numbers change a bit when going into the top 500, with 28% hosting their own video and 53% turning to YouTube. The numbers are most balanced in the 10,000 bracket, with 50% using in-house video, including such areas as restaurant, fashion and casino and gambling enterprises.

Corporate structure plays a big part in the slow adoption rate, according to the report. Those companies in the top 10,000 and 50,000 brackets seem to be the slowest, along with those corporations with a high employee count, in the 51-200 range. The lack of time, resources or opportunity with smaller businesses also play a part in that.

Whether more social sites will adopt certain programs that will make it easier for companies to hop on board has yet to be seen, although Facebook is opening up some new avenues with its video service. We’ll have to check out just what its plans are in the months ahead.

Meanwhile, the full report can be found here.

On the other hand, when U.S. internet users were asked if they like videos that played automatically on Facebook and Instagram, people responded that largely dislike them. Only 15.2% claimed they like the format, while 19.2% didn’t state an opinion. 12.5% of people claimed they never saw the videos.

statista survey

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