Do product videos actually increase sales and conversion?

What evidence links product video to more sales?

It is strongest for ads and thinner for product pages. Meta has published test results for video on Reels; for product pages there is no trustworthy single uplift figure, only good evidence about what shoppers need to see before they buy.

In a meta-analysis of 15 split tests of Reels-only campaigns, Meta found that campaigns including 9:16 video ads with audio had 34.5% lower cost per result than image ads. The advertisers were e-commerce, retail and consumer goods brands, including small and medium businesses. It is Meta’s own analysis of one placement, so treat it as a reason to test video on Reels, not a forecast for your account.

On the product page, Baymard Institute found that 42% of users try to judge a product’s size and scale from its images. A few seconds of the product beside a person, or being lifted off a shelf, answers that question faster than a dimensions table.

Be wary of any claim that video lifts conversion by a fixed percentage. The effect depends on the product, and on how well the photos already do the job.

Which products gain most from a product video?

Products whose selling point is movement, texture, function or scale. If a still photo already tells a buyer everything, a video adds little.

• Throws, knits and linen, where drape and weight decide the sale
• Clothing and footwear, where fit and movement matter
• Furniture with a mechanism: a recliner, an extending table, a modular sofa that rearranges
• Products that are hard to judge for size, such as rugs, lighting and large homewares
• Anything that pours, folds, opens or lights up

A framed print or a boxed candle usually needs better photos before it needs video.

Does product video do more for sales on the product page or in ads?

It does a different job in each. In ads, video stops the scroll and fills the vertical placements built for it; on the product page, it answers the last question a buyer has before adding to cart.

When will a product video not increase sales?

When the problem is the price, the delivery cost, the offer, the stock or a slow page. Video also fails when it adds motion for its own sake, such as a slow pan across a product that one photo already showed well.

If visitors leave before they scroll, or add to cart and abandon at checkout, look at the page and the costs first. Why a store gets traffic but no sales walks through those checks in order. A heavy video that delays the main photo can lose more buyers than it wins, so load the photo first.

How do I measure whether a product video increased sales?

Add video to a group of products and compare their add-to-cart and conversion rates with the weeks before, and with similar products you left alone. In ads, run the video against your best static in the same campaign and judge on cost per purchase.

1. Pick products with steady traffic, and a similar group to leave unchanged
2. Note each group’s add-to-cart rate, conversion rate and return rate for the last four to eight weeks
3. Add video to the first group only, and change nothing else on those pages
4. Compare both groups over the same number of weeks afterwards, so a sale or a season affects both
5. In Meta, test the video and the static against each other with an A/B test, not by switching one off

What is the smallest test of product video worth running?

One short video of your best-selling product, used on its product page and in an ad. At Bartley Studio the smallest order is one 6-second video for $430, and one 10-second video is $500, in AUD excluding GST.

Videos come as a 9:16 vertical hook for Reels, Stories and phones, or a 16:9 loop for the homepage and desktop product pages, from 6 to 60 seconds. Each is planned, directed, generated and edited in-house from photos of the product, with no generated spokesperson talking to camera, and arrives in days rather than weeks.