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One of the challenges with video marketing today is optimizing your content for distribution across multiple platforms, all of which present content in very different ways. What works well on YouTube does not automatically translate to TikTok. There are also different format options within platforms, e.g. E.g. YouTube shorts vs. videos, Instagram posts vs. stories. For at least some of your videos, you’ll need to consider how to transfer them from one platform and format to another. Always consider the type of screens your audience will be watching the videos on.
website
You can present videos in any aspect ratio and size on your website. Your audience will view these on different desktop and mobile devices.
However, if you want the videos to be indexed and visible in a Google search, it’s best to stick to the typical 16×9 widescreen aspect ratio. The Yoast Video SEO for WordPress plugin allows you to set a thumbnail and additional structured data to ensure your videos generate traffic.
Additionally, it’s important to ensure that the videos on your website are responsive so that they scale with the rest of the page and display well on phones and tablets without half of the thumbnail disappearing from the screen. If you use a paid hosting platform like Wistia, this will be done automatically, but you’ll need to do some extra work for YouTube embeds to make them responsive.
Youtube
YouTube videos are in 16×9 widescreen format, YouTube short films are in 9×16 portrait format. This makes YouTube Shorts feel “mobile first.” The broader video format has a more cinematic and television-related format.
Keep this in mind when creating videos for both formats. Record the video so that the focal point is exactly in the center of the frame. This allows you to crop it effectively without losing the essential content or quality of the image. If it’s a talking head, leave plenty of space to the sides for horizontal shots and above and below for vertical shots.
If you’ve created a vertical video and want to adapt it for a widescreen format, there are many creative ways to “pillarbox” the video with graphic elements to the left and right of the moving image. Tools like Clipchamp and Wave.video allow you to do this easily. Adobe Premiere and Premiere Rush can also scale this process with template projects.
The same goes for adapting a widescreen video for YouTube shorts. You can add a few bars to the letterbox format video containing supporting text or images. This is a useful alternative to completely cropping the video. Especially if the content doesn’t look particularly good in a different aspect ratio. For example, if the video contains a single wide shot of two people.
Facebook allows for a wider range of aspect ratios than YouTube, and videos featured in the feed can fit all shapes and sizes.
You can post videos in 16×9 (standard widescreen landscape), 4:5 (old TV format but vertical), 1:1 (square), and 6×19 (vertical phone format). On Facebook Stories, the videos are in a vertical 9×16 format.
Therefore, Facebook can accept most video formats originally created for other distribution platforms without customization. Sometimes it can be helpful to convert 16×9 videos to 4×5 with letterboxing and adding supporting text that adds context when the video is viewed silently. Therefore, it’s worth testing different formats for your specific videos and finding out which one gets the best engagement.
The tools for optimizing display with the various YouTube formats also apply to Facebook.
Instagram works like Facebook. It supports multiple formats, but displays the videos slightly differently.
Instagram Reels in the feed are displayed vertically in a 4×5 format. When you click through, the image is displayed vertically in 9×16 format, i.e. as a larger image. You need to create and publish videos that work creatively in both formats. Make sure you can trim it from 9×16 to 4×5 and include the core work comprehensively.
For assets that start out as 16×9 widescreen videos, this generally means letterboxing them with supporting text. For videos that start out as 9×16 mobile videos, this just means making sure that any overlays or animated elements above them are within the video’s core 4×5 frame so that they don’t automatically get cut off by the platform.
Instagram Stories are supposedly the same as Facebook Stories. Videos are only available as vertical 9×16 pieces. Reposting Reels/Feed videos with some supporting text above and below the videos is a common way to repurpose them for Stories.
In theory, LinkedIn supports a variety of aspect ratios. In practice, however, it’s better to stick with widescreen 16×9 videos in landscape format or square 1:1 videos. Vertical 9×16 videos are automatically displayed in pillarbox format.
Stick with 16×9 for videos with wider shots with landscapes, multiple people, and a more cinematic style. For simple talking heads or animations, use 1:1 videos as they take up a little more screen space in the feed.
If you are shooting vertical videos for Instagram stories or TikTok etc. and want to give them further life on LinkedIn, just leave enough space at the top and bottom of the video without leaving too much of it so that it looks good when cropped.
Tick tock
TikTok videos have a vertical size of 9×16 and are designed to be recorded with a phone. Often there is enough space for a whole body, e.g. B. in the initial use case of dance videos. You need to significantly customize 16×9 widescreen videos for TikTok. They tend not to work well if they are only superficially modified through letterboxing.
Accordingly, you need to create videos for TikTok solely with the platform in mind. Although videos used in Instagram Stories and YouTube Shorts are of course well formatted for TikTok.
Best practice principles for optimizing videos on different platforms
With so many social media and video platforms available today, you need to consider where the video will be saved. Do this before recording so you can plan to edit and optimize the content for the device and format in which it will be presented.
In general, videos are one of two types of creations.
These can primarily be cinematic works, i.e. horizontal creations in a 16×9 format that were created horizontally with a camera or a phone. These will feature wider shots, likely different zoom levels and relatively small camera movements. This is the type of thing you typically create for your website or YouTube
Alternatively, they can be mobile videos, which are 9×16 creations shot vertically with a phone. They tend to be closer and focus on a single subject, often with large camera movements. This is what you normally do for TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Stories.
Optimize videos for different platforms and screens
To optimize videos for different platforms and screen sizes, you’ll need to adjust each video type differently to work on the platforms you didn’t explicitly shoot for. Generally, you will need to trim the video or add additional graphical elements in a pillarbox or letterbox to make them fit.
Phil Nottingham is a marketing strategist specializing in video SEO, brand strategy and search engine optimization.
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