Eye Tracking + Viral Videos = Marketing Success | Limely

Mary Berry step aside, we have the recipe for success!

That’s right, eye tracking + viral videos = marketing success. Eye tracking and viral videos are the two key ingredients when it comes to advertising. So when one is incorporated into the other, the result is huge. We’re talking millions and millions of views worth of ‘huge’. We bet you wanna know how to do it. So, in the words of Logic, let’s Break It Down.

How Viral Videos Become Successful

There are a list of different thing that decide whether or not a video goes viral. For example, Youtube’s algorithm measures the success of a video on its ‘viewer satisfaction’. Clickbait and dramatic thumbnails aren’t enough anymore for Youtube; you have to keep the viewer viewing. The longer you keep someone watching, the more successful your video will be. We don’t mean to say that you should bin the idea of thumbnails altogether, though. They’re still important. You still need the initial ‘click’. You need to induce the curiosity gap in-between viewing the thumbnail of a video and clicking on it.

The trick is to use lots of colour, be extreme and have a catchy title. This creates the previously mentioned ‘curiosity gap’. But how do you make a viewer stay? You’ve got to edit for the Youtube algorithm. Youtuber Mark Rober says that if he can’t envision the title a thumbnail of a video idea before he creates it, he won’t do it, he’ll bin it off straight away.

The thumbnail promises the viewer something, so fulfil that promise as quickly as you can. Start the video with short, snappy, adrenaline-inducing clips. Youtuber’s often begin their videos ‘in medias res’, right slap-bang in the middle of the action, to preview a ‘what’s to come’ if they stick along.

This short, snappy way of editing has become increasingly popular over on TikTok. The app is responsible for increasing traffic for certain companies (like Little Moons) through viral trends and videos. So think about what this way of marketing can do for your business.

Eye-Tracking

Visuals are extremely important, and not only on Youtube or TikTok. Designing and tailoring a thumbnail for a Youtube video uses the same logic and skills as successful marketing strategies. You have to learn how long visual engagement with different elements last. This is called eye tracking.

Eye tracking reveals a person’s visual attention and subconscious actions, giving you the opportunity to look through the consumers eyes. In seeing how a customer engages with a product, packaging or design, it helps your business become more customer-centric. Overall, it helps tailor a more unique and efficient user experience; be it online or inside a shop.

Eye tracking is used through fancy technological glasses that detect where you are looking through the use of light and visible reflections. Alternatively, you could ‘eye track’, yourself, a more old-fashioned and cost-efficient way, by simply observing the shopper experience, or by taking note of what is important to you as a shopper next time you make a purchase.

How The Two are Used for Viral Videos

Eye tracking is used to help videos go viral by Youtuber’s such as Mark Rober (mentioned before). Rober edits for Youtube’s algorithm. He makes videos that have proven to be successful and have proven to ‘work’ in the past. He often renews and amplifies content. So, he’s watching the data, keeping his finger on the pulse of trends, and jumps at every opportunity. Marketers have a lot to learn from this strategy.

Need someone to showcase your business to a social media audience? Contact our Social Media Manager, Molly, at [email protected], and she’ll get it sorted!