How to Add Product Videos to Your WooCommerce Galleries (2024 Guide)
Are you looking to take your WooCommerce product pages to the next level? Adding high-quality product videos is one of the most effective ways to boost customer engagement and conversions in your online store.
In fact, studies have shown that featuring a video on a product page can increase purchases by up to 144%! Customers love being able to see products in action before making a buying decision.
In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll cover everything you need to know about adding product videos to your WooCommerce galleries. From the benefits and different video hosting options to step-by-step tutorials for a few easy methods, you‘ll learn how to start leveraging the power of product videos in no time.
Let‘s get started!
Why Use Product Videos in Your WooCommerce Store
There are so many reasons to start featuring product videos in your WooCommerce store. When done right, product videos can be incredibly persuasive and help you sell more effectively than images or text alone. Here are just a few key benefits:
• Boost Sales and Conversions – The stats don‘t lie. Numerous studies have found that product videos significantly increase purchases, conversions, and user engagement. Videos grab attention and persuade in a way that static content simply can‘t match.
• Help Customers Understand Products – Videos allow you to really showcase your products and give customers a complete understanding of features, benefits, scale, and usability. You can demonstrate products in action and from every angle.
• Build Trust and Credibility – Featuring high-quality product videos positions your brand as professional, trustworthy, and credible. Videos allow your brand personality to shine through and help forge an emotional connection with shoppers.
• Improve SEO – Videos keep users on your product pages longer, which sends positive engagement signals to search engines. Properly optimized videos can also rank in video search results and help attract more organic traffic to your store.
As you can see, if you‘re not using product videos yet in your WooCommerce store, you‘re likely leaving money on the table! Adding them to your product galleries is one of the highest-impact ways to level up your ecommerce game.
Video Hosting and Embedding Options
Before we get into the how-to, it‘s important to understand your different options when it comes to hosting and embedding product videos. There are a few main approaches, each with their own pros and cons:
Self-Hosted Videos
This means uploading your video files directly to your WordPress site. While this gives you the most control, it‘s generally not recommended, as video files are very large and can slow down your site or crash your server if you get lots of traffic. Serving up videos also consumes a ton of bandwidth.YouTube
YouTube is the most popular video platform in the world and makes it very easy to upload and embed videos on your site. It‘s free and offers unlimited video hosting. The main downsides are less control over the branding and viewing experience, as well as the potential for ads and suggested videos to display.Vimeo
Vimeo is another popular video hosting platform. While not free like YouTube, its paid plans are affordable and come with advanced customization options, higher quality playback, and no ads. It‘s a great choice for a clean, professional, on-brand video experience.Other Video Hosts
There are a variety of other premium video hosting platforms like Wistia, Vidyard, and more. These often have more advanced marketing and analytics features but higher price points.
For most WooCommerce stores, we recommend going with YouTube or Vimeo. These platforms make it very easy to add product videos to your site without impacting performance. With some easy tweaks, you can create an excellent on-brand video experience.
How to Add WooCommerce Product Videos (Free Method)
Now let‘s get into the actual steps for adding product videos to your WooCommerce galleries! We‘ll start with an easy and free method using the YITH WooCommerce Featured Video plugin.
Step 1: Install and Activate the YITH WooCommerce Featured Video Plugin
First, you‘ll need to install and activate the free YITH WooCommerce Featured Video plugin. You can do this by going to Plugins → Add New in your WordPress dashboard, searching for the plugin name, and clicking "Install Now" and then "Activate."
Step 2: Edit or Add a New Product
With the plugin installed, go to Products → All Products in your dashboard. Add a new product or edit an existing one that you want to add a video to.
Step 3: Scroll Down to the "Product Video" Tab
In the Product Data section, you‘ll see a new tab called "Product Video." Click on this tab to access the video settings.
Step 4: Enter Your Video URL
In the "Video URL" field, paste in the full URL of your YouTube, Vimeo, or other hosted video. The plugin supports videos from YouTube, Vimeo, and any other service that provides embed code.
Step 5: Customize Your Video Settings (Optional)
Below the URL field, you‘ll see some additional options for customizing your video display, such as:
• Hide featured image: Check this box to hide the featured image when a video is present
• Show video in lightbox: Check this box to open the video in a lightbox overlay when clicked, rather than inline
• Autoplay video: Check this box to make the video autoplay on page load
Configure these options as desired. When you‘re done, update or publish the product.
That‘s it! Your product video should now display in your WooCommerce product gallery. It will appear as the first "image" in the gallery slider, with a video play button overlay. Give it a test on the front end of your site.
How to Add WooCommerce Product Videos (Premium Method)
If you want more advanced customization options for featuring product videos, you might consider upgrading to the premium YITH WooCommerce Featured Audio & Video Content plugin. It‘s an affordable plugin that unlocks additional features and controls. Here‘s how to use it:
Step 1: Purchase, Install, and Activate the Plugin
Purchase the premium version of the plugin, then install and activate it in your WordPress dashboard just like you would any other plugin.
Step 2: Configure the General Plugin Settings
Go to YITH → Featured Audio & Video Content to access the plugin settings. Here you can configure options like:
• Video display mode: Choose between inline or modal lightbox display
• Video dimensions: Set the default width/height or aspect ratio
• Audio/Video controls: Enable/disable play, pause, progress bar, etc.
• Autoplay: Enable/disable autoplay on page load
• And more
Spend some time configuring the global settings to your liking. Make sure to save your changes.
Step 3: Add Videos to Products
The process for actually adding product videos is the same as the free version covered above. Edit a product, go to the "Product Video" tab, and paste in your hosted video URL.
In addition to the options from the free version, you‘ll see some new fields like Video Title, Video Description, and Thumbnail. Fill these out as desired – they will display when the video is opened in a lightbox.
You can also add multiple videos per product by clicking "Add Video" to create additional video entries.
When finished, update or publish the product, and your video(s) will appear beautifully in your WooCommerce gallery!
Alternative Free Method: Featured Video Plus Plugin
Finally, we‘ll quickly cover one more free plugin option for adding product videos in WooCommerce. The Featured Video Plus plugin works similarly to the YITH plugins but with slightly different features and settings.
To use it, install and activate the plugin, then go to Settings → Featured Video Plus to configure the options. You can choose to display videos in WooCommerce as well as set global video sizing, autoplay, SEO, and more.
To add a video to a product, edit the product and look for the "Featured Video" meta box in the right column. Paste in your video URL, and you‘re all set! This plugin supports YouTube, Vimeo, and self-hosted videos.
One nice thing about this plugin is that it will automatically import the video thumbnail and other data without needing to enter it manually. It also adds video schema markup to help with SEO.
So there you have it – three solid methods for adding product videos to your WooCommerce store! Choose the one that fits your needs and budget.
Tips and Best Practices for WooCommerce Product Videos
Before we wrap up, let‘s cover some tips and best practices to keep in mind when creating and adding product videos to your WooCommerce store:
• Ideal video length: In general, aim to keep product videos under 2 minutes long. 30-90 seconds is even better. You want to provide enough detail to be helpful, but not lose viewer attention.
• Video content: Focus on showcasing your product‘s key features, benefits, and USP. Show the product from multiple angles and in use. Consider adding text callouts to highlight important points.
• Optimize for SEO: When uploading to YouTube or Vimeo, make sure to include your target keywords in the title, description, and tags. Add captions or transcripts to your videos as well.
• Mobile-friendliness: Over half of ecommerce traffic comes from mobile devices. Make sure your videos look great and function properly on mobile screen sizes. Use large, centered play buttons for easy tapping.
• Accessible controls: Don‘t set videos to autoplay with sound. Make sure audio and video controls are large and easy to use for viewers of all abilities. Provide captions whenever possible.
• Use as supplements: Videos work best in conjunction with traditional product images and text, not as a replacement for them. Make sure you still have high-quality images and thorough text descriptions.
Follow these tips to ensure your product videos look great and perform well for all potential customers.
WooCommerce Product Video Examples
Need some inspiration? Here are a few examples of excellent product videos featured in WooCommerce stores:
• Beardbrand: Beardbrand uses a great mix of product close-ups, lifestyle shots, and text callouts in their beard oil product videos. They quickly highlight key ingredients, benefits, and how to use the products.
• Rent the Runway: Rent the Runway features videos for nearly all their fashion rental products, often using models to showcase fit, movement, and styling options. This is so helpful for online clothing shoppers.
• Nikon USA: Nikon‘s WooCommerce store product pages combine text, images, and videos to provide an immersive experience. Their product videos highlight key features and show the cameras in action.
• Leesa: Leesa‘s product videos for their mattresses strike a great balance between showcasing product details and selling an aspirational lifestyle. The videos are professionally shot and edited.
Do some searching in your own industry to see how other brands are leveraging product videos for inspiration and ideas!
Conclusion
We covered a lot in this in-depth guide to adding product videos in WooCommerce! To recap, featuring videos on your product pages can have a huge positive impact on your store‘s sales, conversions, and user experience.
There are a few different methods for easily adding product videos to your WooCommerce galleries, including using the free or premium versions of the YITH WooCommerce Featured Video plugins, or the alternative Featured Video Plus plugin.
When creating your product videos, aim to keep them short and focused on key features and benefits. Optimize the videos for SEO and ensure they provide a great experience on all devices. Follow the best practices and look to other successful brands for inspiration.
Now that you know the why and how of WooCommerce product videos, it‘s time to give them a try in your own store! Implement them thoughtfully and test the results. Here‘s to taking your product pages to the next level and boosting your online sales!
