Auto Playing vs Manual Playing Videos
Above are two heatmap tests, where you see colored dots is where people clicked. The brighter the dot, the more clicks there were. Both aren’t showing the video that was playing, because the test software doesn’t render it for the screenshot.
The left image is the one with the video set to manually play. That means, users must click the video to make it play. You can see a bright spot towards the bottom left, which shows people were clicking the play button.
The right image is the one with auto playing video. You’ll notice a slight amount of clicks on the video to make it stop playing, but an overwhelming number of clicks on the optin form.
This test was done with 1000 hits each, through a variety of exchanges. I received 0 signups from manually playing page, and a couple from the auto playing page. One thing that I noticed is more than a couple people clicked the optin form, which leads me to believe they already were a subscriber as I was only testing for completed subscriptions. In the future I’ll test to see if they are already subscribing, and I’ll be sure to find a way to utilize the “hey you already subscribed” page!
Thoughts from this test:
- If you are going to have a video, make it play automatically.
- People don’t always remember they subscribed, so find a way to effectively use that already subscribed page to your benefit (show them an offer for a similar product or service they’d be interested in?)
- Video DOES work. Mine wasn’t loud or annoying, so I’ll haven’t tested that, which maybe I will!
Interesting, radio and tv commercials always play auto, no manual button there, except the power switch. I think it is ok, also with te´s, i don´t surf much, but i read (listen to) the ads when surfing.
Lol! I’d love to see that page, sorry you’re already subscribed
I do not like anything auto-playing when I am surfing the exchanges for at least two reasons:
1. I am usually (trying to) listen to music or maybe a motivational speaker of my choice, and auto playing media interferes with this.
2. Many of the videos and audio messages seem to slow down the page loading process, sometimes to the point of freezing the page.
Your mention of the fact that your video is not loud or annoying is indeed a point to consider…I know that from my own experience with sites that are loud and/or annoying, the only thing I remember about that site the next time I happen upon it is how badly I wanted to get away from it. It does not induce me to act in a positive (purchasing) manner!
Thanks, Tim, for continuing to provide your audience with informative topics and ideas.
That’s great data to back up an argument, but I wonder how long video will be successful.
I agree with Cat about autoplaying. I usually like to listen to music when surfing and audio is very disctracting. Especially that stupid f***ing duck.
Most surfers use several exchanges at once and as videos are more common, they will just clash and drown each other out. This already happens with safelists when you click the email ads each day.
But as I said, RIGHT NOW, the data speaks for itself.
Maybe in a future post, you could share the technical set-up of heat-mapping.
Good Work,
Marc
First how does one get the “see my Blog” on MyBlogLog button?
Pretty nice.
I think video and audio have their Place and will not go away. I personally have good results with “click” on Video and auto on Audio.
But my Audio’s are 1-20 seconds and not offensive. They generally just POINT to a particular item
Thanks again TIM, for your great work
All I can say is… I hate auto-playing audio on web pages, period. I don’t care how loud it is or what it is about – I’m usually listening to music when I surf, and getting it interrupted is plain annoying.
I won’t sign up for any websites with audio, in fact, I close them as fast as I can.
Andrews lastest blog post..Why ratings shouldn’t affect lensrank
I prefer the manual to the auto…..like to be able or not to be able to play what is on the screen….don’t like it when surfing and all of a sudden voices, music or whatever comes out of speakers.
I don’t like the auto play either. If I’m not listening to anything I consider more important, I mute the speakers so I don’t hear it.
There are a couple video/audio ads, one for spider web where some guy screams “Wake Up”, just to get attention and another where there is an explosion. Both I find disturbing, so off goes the speakers and I miss everything else, thankfully.
Gimme A Dreams lastest blog post..I Have Always Loved Bob Newhart Comedy
Thank you, Tim. I love data.
Like the way I like politics..
I want to choose what I want..and that goes for what comes out of my speakers to :-)
I’ve stated this in several posts in forums, NMF and TMF.
Hate it when someone blabbering away when I listen to music og a quiet night alone with the family sleeping and suddenly a hungry marketer shout it out..
And YES I know there is a mute button and a off button and…and…”
BTW, many exchanges have the nice choice of surfing pages with no sound…and StartXchange is one of them…but, hey…if they go autoplaying to…- I can see with my own eyes that urls with autoplaying are getting lots less traffic then the ones I promote without sound (not only StartXchange).
Wow—have to stop now, soon I loose my self in the sentence :-)
Like in democrats most like it…choose and have a say within it all..
But Tim is the chief around here, so lets see if he makes something I don’t like to promote…that is the first time though :-)
Like it or not auto audio gets people’s attention. Probably even more so for the newer people to TE’s if I had to guess.
Firstly I am quite definitely in the NO to auto-playing audio – be it music, speech, video, whatever. Like many people I have other audio I am listening to and find websites sonic assault to be a strong deterent.
That said, I took the deliberate step of disabling audio on my surfing browser – no flash content, no audio content, so I don’t hear it even if I wanted to.
I have no problem with those little ‘can’t load content’ icons
However, as has been said numerous times
You can please some of the people all of the time;
and all of the people some of the time;
but never all of the people all of the time :)
Tracking is key, but it would be cool to track those viewers who didn’t click anything to see why they didn’t – did they have it muted/disabled/were notinterested/didn’t understand what to do?
DeHawkinz
[...] most recent heatmap testing revealed that having a video on a splash page that doesn’t auto play is kinda pointless. You’d [...]
I must admit that each time I do hear an auto audio, it gets my attention, because I have previously listened to something and forgot to mute the audio. Mostly the attention is not in a favorable way.
On the other side of the coin, I can see that it is a powerful marketing tool. Particularly when used properly.
Gimme A Dreams lastest blog post..I Have Always Loved Bob Newhart Comedy
I can’t believe people do not like that cute dancing duck, I have spent all evening comforting him as he was very upset when I told him.
I did tell him he was not going to be axed yet as he has nearly doubled daily signups so there must be some people who love him.
If you like it, think its funny or have any comments he would love to hear what you think, He was thinking that maybe he could start a fan club or something.
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I like the duck, my kid gets up and dances around when it comes on.
On the other hand, people with voices like dentists drills should not do their own (whisper… SpiderWeb) videos!
Thank goodness for NoScript addon for Firefox, you can make those blank out forever, and I’m using a splash page for SpiderWeb now.
[...] in my last page about Auto Playing vs Manual Playing Videos I proved that video that doesn’t auto play is really pointless, and that video that does auto [...]
And she doesn’t have to. There’s such thing as respect for your visitors. They are free to make the decision.
But I suppose auto-playing sound is OK as long as it’s not against the rules of that particular TE.
Andrews lastest blog post..Why ratings shouldn’t affect lensrank
I do if it interests me to do so. But even there, I’m careful about what I click when it comes to sound or even sight because flashing sites can cause migraines as well as certain sounds.
Thank you for asking.
Gimme A Dreams lastest blog post..I Have Always Loved Bob Newhart Comedy
No I don’t click the button, most sites that come up are already playing/talking so no need to click button…….lol