Nowadays, as a web developer you can use background videos as a great way to improve your website’s look. Moreover, it will also make your videos more enjoyable for visitors. Why? Because good videos can tell the story of a business which each business will surely have their own story that can be told better. So, now you are interested in making background videos, but don’t know how to start? Let us guide you! All you have to do is just keep scrolling and reading.

Best Practices for Adding Background Video

The best reason why you use a background video is because when you use it, your website will look better. Therefore, it is tempting to use any video that looks shiny and interesting without considering its impact. Even though those shiny things may contribute you a lack of minimal advantage, in most cases, they are also the biggest factors that contribute you a slower site. Therefore, trading a static image for video must be worth it.

Below are some things to consider:

• Select a short length video that loads quickly.
• Don’t use sound. Sound adds the file size and gives little value.
• Use a placeholder. This is used to anticipate if the video is stopped or can’t be played.
• Replace the video with an image for the mobile experience. You can hide the background video element at mobile breakpoints to reveal the background image. Besides, it will give the best experience for the mobile visitor.

When You Shouldn’t Use a Background Video

For some reasons, a background video is good at grabbing attention. However, instead of focusing on your copy, a background video might take up all the attention on them.

On the other hand, if you are too aggressive with your background video, it will overpower the important content. When you want to present complex ideas, like sales-related content to read, videos can be distracting. In terms of explaining, words are still the best. So, don’t run the risk of distracting or losing visitors with a video.

Choose Useful Over Complex

When we are deciding whether or not to add an element, you have to think about the mistakes that it might cause. For instance, it’s easy to make the mistake of thinking you’ll enhance an experience by sprinkling in some fun animations or by hiding and revealing elements, but you might actually be adding an obstacle.

So, the simplest way to keep thing simple is to make it as simple as possible. Your background video should reinforce the content message, eliminate barriers, and complement the rest of your site’s content. In other words, it should bring out the aesthetic element of the website, not stand alone or get in the way.

The Smarts behind Adding a Background Video

A best-case scenario is when background videos supplement or enhance the CTA.

• Make It Personal

Generally, people want to see other people. It will be easier for users to decide whether they have to take an action, like signing up, making a purchase, or getting in touch once they see a person. Therefore, adding a short video will allow people to visualize themselves working with you.

• Make it Pop

Most of the case, people want to have text layered on top of the background video, so make sure it’s easy to read throughout the entire video loop. Furthermore, you can aim for a strong light/dark contrast between the background video on the copy.

You can also apply a solid, monochromatic filter on top of the video to ensure full, legible contrast. This technique will not only make this look super professional, but the color contrast also makes the text, form, and landing page CTA look impressive. Other method that you can also try is by including a text shadow, or a semi-opaque color block behind the text.

• Keep It Short

It is important to keep the video short. Therefore, it is better to make a video with the length no longer than 10 seconds, but make sure that this short, looping video should be enough to get the point across without impacting the load time.

Sometimes, creating a loop can be challenging, the loop will appear out of place or incomplete if the video is too short. On the other hand, if the video is too long, your visitors can easily click away from the site or to another page before the video’s had a chance to do a great thing.

If you can’t produce your own video, you can search for other places to get stock video clip. Double check the copyrights associated with any video before you use it. However, we would recommend you to always produce your own video to make it more personal.

• Make It Unstoppable

Be confident, as long as you give a good quality and on brand video content, your visitors will likely press play or pause. The best way that you can offer is to play the background videos automatically. This will surely grab the visitor’s attention and keep them interested, as soon as they see the video element.

Don’t Forget the Analytics

It’s important to run a test, such as an A/B test to compare how your page performs with a background video compared with a static image. Just to be safe, you can start by pushing a small portion of your traffic towards the page. However, most usability specialists lean on experience, gut, and personal opinion when deciding what design brings customers satisfaction. This method is, of course, not right as you can use data as a great way to know what your customers actually think, as opposed to what they say they think.

So, have you tried background video in your website? It’s worth trying the method that will surely make your site look more sophisticated and smart. Good Luck!