It seems tat when we’re on social media, we’ve been conditioned to think that mobile videos are best when they’re played without sound. We’re looking at you Facebook. The reason why social media, such as Facebook, has us thinking this is because all the videos played through these specific channels are all mute by default. But Snachat has other ideas.
According to Snapchat, two-thirds of the videos posted on their mobile app are viewed with the sound playing along with the video. Snapchat is working with digital ad analytics firm Moat to measure the number of their Snapchat ad impressions were served in view to actual humans with the sound on.
This is awesome for those brands (like Unilever and media buying agencies) that have been pressing digital publishers to only sell them ads that real-life humans actually see and hear. This could completely undo everything that Facebook, and any other publisher, who feels that videos should be seen and not heard.
As we know, Facebook has pushed advertisers to create Facebook and Instagram video ads that can be watched, regardless of if the sound is on or off, to the point of creating a way to automatically caption their video ads. There are publishers who have noticed that 85 percent of the people watching their Facebook videos are doing so on mute.
Despite that percentage, Facebook could find themselves between a rock and a hard place if Snapchat’s claim holds up after brands are able to see for themselves what share of people are wanting to see (and listen to). It’s true that sometimes checking out that auto-playing video that doesn’t have any sound can be nice, but I find myself tapping on the video so I can hear what’s going on.
By checking out Snapchat’s stats, mobile video viewers aren’t anti-audio. Snapchat may cause Facebook to look at themselves and wonder why they can’t be like Snapchat when it comes to audio-filled videos.