If a
picture’s worth 1,000 words, then a video’s apparently worth 15 million clicks
to buy.
Compared to
other prominent social media, YouTube is the most effective at getting
consumers interested in products as well as persuading them to make the purchase,
according to a VentureBeat report.
The study,
performed by AOL Platforms, analyzed the interaction of some 500 million clicks
on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+, Tumblr, and YouTube. All
that clicking resulted in 15 million purchases. The study looked at three
stages of shopper interaction (introduction to products, re-exposure to
products on other social media platforms, and searching out a product with
intent to buy) as well as instances where consumers bought something right away
via social media without encountering further marketing.
As it turns
out, YouTube was tops at both calling consumers’ attention to products and at
closing the sale at the third stage. YouTube also got more shoppers to purchase
immediately. At the other end of the spectrum, Twitter didn’t have much impact
at all in those areas but did have the most influence in the middle stage of
shopping, by reinforcing advertising messages that consumers had already seen
on other social media.
Overall,
paid messaging on all social media platforms got more people to buy than
“organic” messages shared by users, except for posts relating to food,
beverages, apparel, and accessories. For those products, what users had to say
influenced purchasers more than marketing.