Digital marketing agency Ignite Visibility has completed its 2024 Creative Digital Marketing Study. Spanning 206 experts based in the US, it focuses on the more creative assets that marketers work with. Their biggest finding was that 92.2% of marketers swear by the same one type of content.
Marketers’ Favourite Content
After finishing their research, San Diego-based Ignite Visibility found one type of content in most digital marketers’ strategies. Not only was visual content, specifically images and videos, prevalent at 92.2%, but its use had also grown dramatically from 74% in their 2023 market research.
This may come as no surprise, as watchable media dominates modern entertainment. However, the marked increase over the last year shows its use was targeted and intentional. Marketers detected and then capitalised on a trend where visuals are better received by users online, to a degree higher than in the past.
In many online industries, visuals are the product or service that the customer wants. For example, iGaming websites host livestreams of casino games for players, allowing them to watch and play from home. When a user wants to play online roulette at Paddy Power, they can select their game from a page filled with thumbnail portals that market themselves. Video-sharing websites use a similar design philosophy – show images/videos of the content and let it advertise itself to the users who will click on them. This simple but effective way of displaying visual services online seems to have informed and changed the strategy of digital marketers.
For a long time, conventional wisdom held that you should include images or videos to spruce up your content. Today, visuals are becoming the main way to deliver information, not an accompaniment to other kinds of marketing literature.
Viral videos played a part in this, incentivising quick, interesting and narrative-driven marketing targeted toward internet users. Publications like Harvard Business Review have analysed viral videos and what makes them tick, finding that emotional response and shareability are key.
Breaking Down the Stats
This market research didn’t stop after that one question. After establishing that visual content is valued by over 90% of the marketer respondents, it was then asked which visual asset is the most valuable. Between video, images, infographics and GIFs, video won out at 66.5%. More surprisingly, this is up a full 43% from last year’s figures. The proliferation of short, watchable video content is nothing new, yet only 23.5% thought video was the most valuable a year ago.
The study also asked if marketers’ SERP rankings were helped by adding the aforementioned creative assets. 74.3% said yes, despite video and other assets not being direct ranking factors.
Video SEO Marketing
By looking at the SEO developments of the last year or two, we can put figures into context. Through additions like the Helpful Content Update and the Perspective Filter, Google has been honing its ability to judge and serve quality video. That’s why searching for a recipe tutorial will show you a video snippet nowadays, instead of a foodie blog at position zero.
For many, seeing the person do it is more instructive, helpful and lends more credibility than words on a screen. SEO titans like Semrush have issued comprehensive video SEO tutorials with 2024’s marketing landscape in mind.
If true, the allure of video content isn’t just a shift in consumer habits. It may be that new algorithmic changes boosted video content more than it did in the past. Whichever came first, it’s clear that digital marketers are bullish on using video marketing for the foreseeable future.
