We’ve analyzed over 5000 videos from more than 100 publishers that were shared to over 300 Facebook pages in Q2 of this year (between March and May of 2017). We’ve found that publishers are doubling down on video to drive engagement and revenue. Square has become the clear winner in the aspect-ratio battle. Videos over 90 seconds are growing in popularity and number. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Read on for findings and insights critical to every rung on the video ladder. Throughout, you’ll see comparisons are made against Q1 findings (between December 2016 to February 2017).

Social Video Production Increases

Q2 saw the average publisher significantly increasing their video output vs. Q1, with a 65% overall increase in production for those who posted videos in both quarters. This supports the findings of a survey conducted earlier this year in which 75.95% of publishers indicated plans to make more video as a way to increase revenue and audience engagement.

The data also showed that increasing production to grow engagement is an effective strategy. Our analysis revealed a strong correlation between the number of videos posted on a Facebook page and the total number of views received. According to our data, the ratio (r) between them is 0.56 (r2 = 0.32), meaning 32% of the total views of a Facebook page can be explained just by the number of videos posted to the page.

Social Video Engagement Rises, Except of Likes

Views, comments & shares are up 20-30% per video, on average.

While reactions alone are up significantly, a decrease in ”Likes” resulted in a slight overall reduction of these interactions, quarter-over-quarter.

Square Videos Rule Facebook

Square videos clearly outperformed horizontal and vertical in Q2, with significantly higher views, shares, comments, and likes. This can largely be attributed to mobile viewing, where a square video takes up 78% more screen real estate in the social feed.

While the majority of videos still have a 16:9 aspect ratio, that number is decreasing – in Q1, 70.7% were horizontal, compared to 59.8% in Q2. Vertical videos comprised only 0.6% in Q1 and 0.4% in Q2.

 

Videos Are Getting Longer

The vast majority (77.8%) of videos remain between 30 and 90 seconds long. However – likely due to the advent of Facebook mid-roll – there was a significant increase (+38%) in the number of videos exceeding 90 seconds in Q2 over Q1.

While 90+ second videos are now just 15.47% of the total, we expect to see this shift continue. Longer videos open monetization opportunity through Facebook’s mid-roll ads, something two-thirds of participants in our earlier survey planned on exploring. Additionally, engagement numbers for longer videos is up. Videos over 90 seconds averaged 1780 shares per video (vs. 1280 for all videos) and 150,609 views per video (vs. 125,000 for all videos) in Q2.

Social Video’s “One Percent”

Consistent with Q1, only 1.1% of videos “go viral,” which we define as receiving over a million views. This relatively small quantity of videos is responsible for the lion’s share of total engagement, receiving 43.2% of total views and 63.98% of total shares.

Popular videos, which are those receiving more than 100,000 views (19.85% of videos) account for 39.96% of total views and 30.51% of shares. The rest of the videos (79.05%) are responsible for only 16.85% of total views and 5.52% of total shares.

The breakdown of data from Q2 shows that video only continues to grow in popularity and importance on Facebook. As with all things on social, though, video changes shape over time (quite literally, when considering the increasing popularity and prevalence of square videos). Overwhelmingly, video continues to prove itself an absolute necessity for publishers and media companies of any size from anywhere, if they want to find success on Facebook.