A Better Alternative For YouTube Interactive Videos

YouTube interactive video publishing is growing year by year. It is a perfect platform for casual users and content creators who need to grow their audience for free.

With 2.2 billion monthly active users, 38 active million channels, and 122 million daily users according to Invideo , this platform is undoubtedly an excellent channel to grow your audience.

As you may already know, interactive video is a powerful tool for increasing viewer engagement. The switch from a passive to an active role makes the viewer an active protagonist, and the possibility to choose between branching options adds additional value to the viewer´s experience. Keep in mind that the click-through rate in interactive videos is 10x higher than in standard passive videos. Needless to say, a formidable marketing tool.

On the other hand, YouTube interactive videos are not fully interactive. YouTube doesn´t want users to exit their platform and puts a firm limit on third-party options. This is why interactive videos on YouTube are limited and offer a poor experience to the viewer. The same applies to Vimeo.

That is the main reason you should consider using an interactive video platform. These offer tons of options that allow engaging viewers within a sales funnel, an onboarding session, or a learning experience.

 

RELATED READING: 18 Best Interactive Video Platforms

 

How interactive video works

To fully understand the difference between passive and interactive video, you need to know how interactive video works. To turn a regular video into an interactive one, you first need to create a video (or get it from YouTube, Vimeo, or your PC) and upload it to an interactive video platform.

Once the video is uploaded to the platform, you can add a content layer. This layer can have hotspots, quizzes, forms, branching options, questions, and more assets.

These assets will depend on your marketing strategy and the kind of video you are creating. For example, dynamic or static hotspots on featured products in a sales video can guide the viewer into the sales funnel. Or if you are making an interactive video for education, quizzes and forms might be the right choice.

Here is when the magic happens. The final video will have a set of interactive elements designed to engage the viewer throughout its duration. These interactive assets are not fully functional on a YouTube interactive video.

YouTube interactive video Vs. native interactive video platform

If you Google for "Best interactive YouTube videos" the search result will show you the following video:

 

Not bad , but interactive options are basic and with no pretentions.

Now check how an interactive video platform works with this example from Vudoo:

As you can notice, the difference between the experience a viewer gets from a video created with a native interactive video platform is lightyears away from the experience YouTube can provide.

For example, Hihaho features more than 20 interaction types, like questions, forms, tables of contents, ratings, buttons, hotspots, images, iframes, and more. This is a fantastic set of tools for creating interactive video content.

And what about analytics? An interactive video platform gathers valuable analytics to track how your viewer interacts, such as views, devices, clicks, answers, response time, and more data.

Furthermore, some platforms like Stornaway have developed a hybrid integration within YouTube interactive videos. However, these are not fully functional.

Spott.ai makes a different approach by trying to include interactivity through YouTube cards. Still, the final result is not a full-featured interactive video.

YouTube interactive videos in education

When creating an interactive video for education, YouTube is not again the best option.

YouTube suggestions are always active and add distractions that can shift students from their focus. Within an interactive video platform, students are in a controlled environment and not subject to information overload.

Furthermore, analytics data collected about every student can help the teacher to improve individual learning. Also, some platforms like Hihaho provide direct integration with LMS (Learn Management Systems)

Notice that none of these options are available on an interactive video published on YouTube.

Check this video created with Hihaho:

 

YouTube interactive videos in e-commerce

YouTube has rolled out shoppable video features in a strategic move to face Facebook´s, Instagram and TikTok competition and to attract brands to Google´s ecosystem. But the overall user´s experience is far away from the quality and engagement rates you can get with a dedicated platform.

Check this shoppable video created with Spott

Conclusion

Although you can make YouTube interactive videos, the option to create an interactive video with dedicated software is still better.

You will have complete control over your content, with the possibility to add your own branding with customizable video players, privacy, manage monetization options and maintain the intellectual property of your video.

But the best part is how interactive videos help to improve your video marketing strategy. With the granular analytics an interactive video platform can provide, you know who watched the video, when it was paused or forwarded, and more data that can help to fine-tune your video marketing strategy to get the best results.