How to Compress Video Size

Video is one of the best ways to reach out to your audience and tell your stories. Few other forms of content marketing are as effective in terms of engagement. That’s probably why 92% of marketers say that video is an important part of their marketing strategy, and 87% say that video delivers a positive ROI.

However, content creation is only as effective as your content delivery method. A slow and jittery experience will not convince leads to convert. That’s why video compression is such an important topic.

In fact, compressing a video’s size is essential for small business owners who want to use videos in their digital marketing campaigns. A smaller video size will ensure that your videos can be streamed quickly and easily, without sacrificing quality. It will also save you precious storage space and money.

Whether you're creating content for your website, social media, or a video platform like YouTube, you'll need to find a way to compress video size while maintaining quality. Fortunately, there are a number of ways you can achieve this. Let’s dive in.

Why Compress Video Size?

The main reason to compress a video’s size is to make it more accessible to your site’s visitors. The problem is that the data size of a video straight out of a phone or camera is often far larger and of higher quality than it needs to be for publication and delivery. This large file size can result in longer loading times and could mean that your videos won’t even play on some devices or networks. Compression reduces video loading time and file size (and video quality), making it easier to both stream and store.

Additionally, many online hosting services will charge you by the amount of data you store on their servers. Uncompressed video files can cause you to run out of space and can negatively impact the overall speed of your site. This can lead to higher storage and bandwidth costs. Video compression can reduce video file size, reduce costs, and save your business money in the long run.

The Downsides to Free Hosting Platforms (YouTube, Vimeo)

You might think that the fastest and easiest way to make your videos smooth and fast on your site is to simply rely on YouTube or Vimeo for the hosting. With this approach, you can upload your video to YouTube (or another platform) for free. Then, you simply need to embed the player on your site.

Sounds great right? However, there are serious problems with this approach.

Free platforms often monetize your video, placing their ads before your video is played. This can distract your leads and even point them to competitors. Furthermore, because many of these platforms recommend other videos and content, they can actually siphon users off your site. For these reasons, it is better to avoid free hosting platforms and find an alternative to YouTube.

Tools to Manually Compress Video Size

There are a variety of tools available for compressing a video’s size. Here are a few of the most popular ones:

• HandBrake - HandBrake is a free, open-source video compression tool. It supports a wide range of video file formats and is easy to use. To use it, you simply need to download the correct version of the software, upload your video, choose your desired settings, and then click start. The interface of the Handbrake video compressor tool can be intimidating at first, but there are many how-to articles and videos that will get you going in no time.
• Adobe Media Encoder - Adobe Media Encoder is a powerful tool for compressing video size. It offers a wide range of options and settings and can produce high-quality results. In order to have access to Adobe Media Encoder, you will need to subscribe to the Adobe Creative Cloud. This can be an expensive proposition for small businesses. Additionally, this software can also be daunting in terms of the many settings you can change to tweak your compression. However, if you are willing to take the time to learn it, you will be taking advantage of one of the most powerful tools for video compression and export available.
• Wondershare Video Converter - Wondershare Video Converter is a desktop app for Windows and Mac that can compress video size. It offers a range of presets to make the process easier and is simple to use. This tool has a free version and is easy to use, enabling you to compress your videos in three steps: import your video, select your output format, and then click convert.

However, do you know what format to choose? Unless you are a professional video producer with the time to learn these platforms and the perfect settings to get your videos playing fast, the DIY approach may not be right for you. Fortunately, Swarmify's SmartVideo is here to help. If you have videos on your website, Swarmify can make them buffer-proof, converting more leads and increasing sales.

A Few Things to Keep in Mind

When compressing a video’s size, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, make sure you choose the right format for the video. Different formats have different sizes, so make sure you pick the file type that best suits your needs.

Second, consider the resolution. Higher video resolutions result in larger file sizes, so if you want to reduce the file size of your video, you'll need to lower the resolution. However, you don’t want to have a blurry video. That’s why you’ll want to balance resolution with other settings to provide the best experience.

Third, pick the right video bitrate. The bitrate is the amount of data used to store the video, and it affects the quality and size of the video. If you want to reduce the size of your video, you'll need to lower the bitrate.

Finding the ideal combination of these different factors will lead to the fastest streaming experience at the highest possible quality.

Tips and Tricks

Here are some tips and tricks to help you compress the size of your videos manually.

• Use presets - Many of the tools mentioned above offer presets that make it easier to compress video size. Once you find a preset you like, you can keep coming back to it for all your videos.
• Choose the right codec - A codec encodes and decodes the video. Different codecs have different compression levels, so make sure you choose the right one for the job.
• Experiment with different settings - Each tool has different settings that can be adjusted to reduce the size of the video. Experiment with different settings to find the best compromise between quality and size.
• Pro Tip: Use SmartVideo - Swarmify SmartVideo takes care of all video compression, so you don’t have to worry about manually making your file size smaller and then finding a hosting provider to store it. Just upload your videos to the service and they’ll be automatically optimized for streaming.

SmartVideo – Automation For The Busy Digital Marketer

If you don’t have the time to deal with manually compressing your videos and hosting them for your website, Swarmify's SmartVideo is the tool for you. Swarmify provides professional video hosting services that automatically compress and optimize all your videos for lightning-fast streaming. It is truly the perfect solution for small business owners who don’t have the time or expertise to manually compress their videos.

Did you know that around 1 in 4 viewers will experience a stall-out, disrupting their viewer experience? Swarmify enables you to reduce this by a factor of 8x!

Even if your video is already on YouTube or Vimeo, SmartVideo can automatically import your videos from those platforms and store them on our global content delivery network. This provides a more accelerated viewing experience and also means that you can guarantee there will be no distracting ads or links that could siphon your traffic.

Wrapping Up

If you utilize video in your digital campaigns and on your website, video compression is vital. If your videos are compressed with the right settings, you will be able to provide visitors to your site with a smooth and high-quality viewing experience. Compression can also be a great way to save on storage.

There are a variety of tools available for compressing a video’s size, from free and open-source tools like HandBrake to powerful tools like Adobe Media Encoder. These software options can be great if you are interested in manually compressing and storing your own videos.

When using these tools, remember that you will need to experiment in order to find the best format, resolution, bitrate, and codec for your needs. This process may take time but is often necessary in order to find the combination that results in the best balance of speed and quality.

An easier option is to simply rely on a platform like SmartVideo to take care of all video compression automatically. If you’d like to learn more about how you can get buffer-proof, distraction-free video on your site, visit Swarmify and learn more about our powerful content delivery network.