AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising

One-Minute MarketerHow Much Should You Spend on Digital Video?

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How Much Should You Spend on Digital Video?

We all know that video is growing rapidly as a way to reach, educate and influence target audiences and stakeholders. How much should you invest in your digital video?

The quick answer is a lot more than last year. In the chart from eMarketer, you can see that the forecasted share of total spending is high, but only 18% at the high and 1.5% at the low.

To me, this is low. Also surprising is that retail is leading the way in percentage of budget. With a shift in e-commerce and contactless sales, video is a powerful medium as close to a personal call as you can get. Video has so many uses in social media, on websites and in email that you must have all your key products covered with information videos and sales videos.

So how much should you spend? We’d like to see allocated 15% to 20% for collecting video storytelling. This budget should be spread out over the year so you spend money and effort each month on telling great stories.

Written by:

Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle. After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant. He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.” Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.” One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board. Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.