3 Ways to Reduce the File Size of Marketing Videos

by Abe Abbie, Guest Contributor

Do you sometimes wish you were able to reduce the file size of your marketing videos, so that they are easier to store and transfer? While you should still keep a copy of the original around in case you need it, having a smaller version would provide you with more options in terms of how you distribute your videos.
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Top methods to cut the size of your marketing videos.

As you’re probably aware it is possible to reduce the file size of videos. In fact if you want to cut the size of your marketing videos there are three methods in particular that you should consider:

Convert to codecs with better compression rates

• ○ The video codec is a part of its format, and it is what determines the video compression that is used. Newer codecs tend to be more efficient and have better compression rates than older codecs, and that may provide you with an opportunity to reduce the file size of your marketing videos.
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• ○ To put it simply if your marketing videos are stored in an older format and codec, you could convert it to a newer one instead. Remember it is the codec that is important, and convert MP4 to WebM wouldn’t really make a difference whereas switching from a H.264 to H.265 codec could reduce the video to half its size.
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• ○ The one caveat to this option is that newer codecs are less widely supported, so you may have difficulty watching the video on older devices and platforms. Additionally if your marketing video is already stored using a new codec this may not be an option that is available to you in the first place.

Reduce the bitrate of the video

• ○ The bitrate of a video is the amount of data that it uses each second, and as such it determines the file size of the video. By reducing the bitrate you will be able to directly reduce the video file size – by a significant amount if need be.
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• ○ As you reduce the bitrate of a video its quality may be affected. The lower the bitrate the more obvious the deterioration will be, and compression artifacts may start to appear.
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• ○ In short while this option will definitely allow you to reduce the file size of your marketing videos – it comes at a price. If you do choose to reduce the bitrate, you will need to carefully balance the bitrate setting with the video quality.

Extract and save shorter clips

• ○ If your marketing videos are lengthy you may want to consider extracting the parts that you need and saving them as shorter clips. That way you’d end up with short clips that have a much smaller file size than the original video.
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• ○ In some cases this can work quite well for marketing videos, such as when you have a webinar video that is an hour long but only really require two or three minutes out of it for reference. Admittedly this method won’t reduce the file size of the original video, but you will end up with smaller videos nonetheless.

Assuming you choose to try using a newer codec or to reduce the bitrate of the video, make sure you have a converter that allows you do to both. For example you may want to try Movavi Video Converter. At the end of the day it is entirely up to you to decide which one of these methods is most suitable. Now that you’re aware of your options as well as the limitations of each one, you should be able to make an informed decision regarding how you’d like to reduce the file size of your marketing videos.