Facebook commissioned Nielsen in 2015 to measure the impact of marketing videos on audiences in the social media platform. Nielsen used data from its Digital Brand Effect database. Brand Effect is a platform that allows advertisers and companies to measure and optimize all forms of advertising using relevant metrics.

1. One Floor Up
Facebook and Nielsen:
Video Ads Viewed for
Three Seconds Can Still
Drive Sales

2. Facebook commissioned Nielsen in 2015 to measure the impact of marketing videos on audiences
in the social media platform. Nielsen used data from its Digital Brand Effect database. Brand Effect
is a platform that allows advertisers and companies to measure and optimize all forms of
advertising using relevant metrics.
Nielsen’s findings showed that watching three seconds of video ads increases ad recall by 47
percent, brand awareness by 32 percent, and purchase intent by 44 percent. The figures increase
further the longer audiences watch video ads.
The data suggests two things. First, merely scrolling through a Facebook news feed and catching
a video ad provides value to advertisers. Second, long videos can generate higher marketing value
and influence consumers to buy a product or service.
Maximizing Creative Impact
Marketing Land, an online digital marketing publication, remarked that the study above is self-
serving. It concedes, however, that the findings are interesting and could provide value to
advertisers who use Facebook as a marketing platform. The report concludes with a
recommendation to use strong, creative visuals from the very beginning of a video to make the
most impact.

3. Video length can also influence audience response. After analyzing 100 million Facebook videos,
Buzzsumo found that videos 60 to 90 seconds long have the highest audience interactions.
Strong Audience Response to Videos
The Facebook and Nielsen study also aligns with the findings from a case study by the online
marketing resource, HubSpot. By testing a video teaser against a share post with an image and
brief description of the shared article, HubSpot found that the video teaser got 22 percent more
clicks than the article. The study doesn’t analyze the impact of those clicks on brand awareness,
but it demonstrates how videos draw more audiences than still photos.
The finding suggests that audiences respond better to the idea of watching a video than reading
an article. It also hints that advertisers may get more returns from their advertising budgets if
they maximize funds for video marketing. Video production has many factors, however, and
advertisers and their clients may need input from creative marketing agencies. Hiring a third-
party video production team will add to advertising expense, but it could also deliver payoffs.

4. Sources:
https://www.facebook.com/iq/articles/making-an-impact-measuring-the-value-of-facebook-
video
https://marketingland.com/even-brief-video-views-drive-brand-lift-facebook-nielsen-study-
finds-122169
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/to-video-or-not-to-video
https://onefloorupdenver.com
https://buzzsumo.com/blog/facebook-video-engagement-learned-analyzing-100-million-
videos/#length1