An eMarketer article recently predicted online video will be the fastest-growing ad medium this year, expected to grow by more than 38%. According to a Search Engine Land article by SundaySky CEO Shmulik Weller:

This is the year in which we will see video grow from a “frill” some businesses occasionally include on their websites, to an essential, competitive differentiator that drives SEO.

By the end of the year, eMarketer says online video will be a $2 billion dollar industry.

Cool. But where’s all this money coming from? According to a survey of US ad agencies, most will come from advertiser’s display and TV budgets. Online videos are considered more effective than display ads by 57.3% of ad agencies.

60.7% consider it to be just as, if not more effective than TV ads. This doesn’t come as a surprise to me—I haven’t owned nor wanted a TV set for over half a decade. It’s just not as convenient as the internet—for viewers or advertisers.

But enough text. Here’s the graph.

At WebVisible, we’ve seen the effectiveness of online videos first hand. According to our data, Landing Pages with videos convert visitors to leads 8.3% better than those without. And for some verticals (such as Physicians) the conversion rate is 40% higher. What does this mean? Well for WebVisible Packages above $1,000 a month, it means an average of 2 more leads every month.

Best part? Online videos come standard with WebVisible Landing Pages, so you don’t pay an extra cent for video. And that gives you a competitive edge. As Weller says:

Time was, videos were nice to have on a website. Now, they are a must-have element of any serious, viable e-business.

Put your advertising dollars where they’ll count the most. Feel free to give us a call.