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Using video as a marketing tool to showcase your goods and services on your website and social media channels is more popular than ever. As well as being engaging, videos are a great way of increasing brand awareness and driving potential customers to your social media pages or websites. This is proven by the fact that Brightcove’s 2018 Video Marketing Survey found that over half (53%) of consumers report that they engage with a brand after viewing one of their videos on social media, and 66% of Millennials engage with a brand after watching a video in their social media feed.*
If you have taken the plunge and invested in a professional video to promote your business it is important to consider which video hosting and streaming platform is best for you.
On the surface, YouTube and Vimeo look quite similar. However there are some key differences between these video streaming platforms which need to be taken into account when deciding which platform to use for your business.
Audience
- YouTube – Over 2 billion users log in and watch videos on YouTube every month. YouTube is the second largest search engine on the internet, second only to its parent company Google.
- Vimeo – has 240 million monthly viewers and 35 million registered users.
Pricing
- Youtube is free because they make their money through paid advertising. These advertisements are displayed inside the video player, in the sidebar and inside the YouTube app.
- Vimeo takes a different approach and make their money by selling video hosting services. They offer a range of pricing plans starting with the free plan, which is limited to 500MB of storage per week and 25GB per year. There is also Vimeo Plus, Pro, or Business plans. Each of these plans offer different upload limits and features. Because they charge a fee for usage, Vimeo does not place advertisements on your video.
Upload Limits
- YouTube allows you to upload videos up to 15 minutes long, but you can extend this by verifying your Google account. Once you have verified your account your upload limit will be extended to 12 hours or 128GB (whichever comes first).
- Vimeo has upload limits based on the different plans. On the free plan you can upload 500MB per week and up to 25GB per year. You can view their pricing plans here: https://vimeo.com/upgrade
Privacy
- YouTube offers privacy settings if you want to restrict who sees your video. If you mark your video UNLISTED then only people with the URL will be able to see the video and it will not appear in any searches. Marking your video PRIVATE means that only you and other users of your choosing can see the video. The downsize is that you cannot embed videos marked as private on your website.
- Vimeo offers more options than YouTube when it comes to privacy. If you have a paid plan you can restrict video embeds to your own website. You can also disallow videos to be viewed on Vimeo itself and you can password protect videos.
Editing Tools
- YouTube offers some great video editing tools including the ability to add links, annotations, captions and subtitles to your videos. It also has a live streaming feature where you can live broadcast events, news, workshops or whatever takes your fancy.
- Vimeo’s editing tools, while not as extensive as YouTube, do offer the basics. You can add video titles, description, category, tags, license and audience rating. You can also upload captions and subtitles to your videos. Vimeo does not have an annotations feature, so you cannot add links in your videos.
So which platform is right for you?
The answer to this question lies in what you are wanting to achieve. For example, if you are a business wishing to expand your subscriber base and reach a large audience then YouTube will probably be the right choice for you. If you are developing a membership based business, or are selling training online then Vimeo might be more suitable to your needs.
* Reference: https://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-platforms/video-marketing/video-marketing-statistics-to-know/