Where to Use Your Recipe Videos
Learn where to use the recipe videos you’ve created for your food blog. Watch the video below or keep reading to learn more.
Creating recipe videos is a lot of work, and today I’m going to talk about all the different places you can use your recipe videos to make them worth your while.
You’ll definitely want to think about who your audience is as we go through this. You should know things like do they hang out on Facebook but not Instagram? Do they need in-depth tutorials or are they there to be entertained?
These are important things to keep in mind when deciding what kind of videos to make and where to use your videos.
Where to use your recipe videos
Blog
The first place you should definitely be using your recipe videos is on your blog. You have two choices here, and that is whether to share a long video or a short video.
I personally choose to share shorter videos on my blog. It’s important to think about what’s important to you when you’re deciding this.
Are you trying to get more ad revenue? Or are you trying to be the best possible resource for your readers and give them all of the information possible about this recipe?
If you’re sharing more complicated recipes and you think your readers could benefit from a longer tutorial, then it’s definitely appropriate to share a longer video. You could also consider a shorter teaser video and linking out to the longer version of the video on a platform like YouTube.
Ad networks tend to recommend shorter videos because depending on how long people are on your site this will allow them to see more ads. Imagine someone is on your site for three minutes. They could watch one video and receive one ad, or they could watch three one-minute videos and see three ads as well as get ideas for three different recipes on your site.
Should I put my recipe video in the recipe card or the post?
I think it’s a good idea to put your video in your recipe card because then it gets marked up by SCHEMA which is then recognized by Google and has potential SEO benefits.
There is also a way to put it in the recipe card but have it show in the post. This gets a little more complicated and specific to which recipe card and maybe which ad network you’re using, so definitely check with support in those places or jump over to the Facebook group and I’d be happy to see if I can help with that.
YouTube
Another great place to use your recipe videos is on YouTube. YouTube loves long view times, so the shorter, one-minute hands and pans videos don’t tend to do as well over there.
You do have a lot of options though if you’re shooting hosted style cooking videos or want to repurpose some of your overhead videos.
Hosted cooking shows are a great way to get your face in front of your audience and really make a connection. If a cook-along type video isn’t possible for you right now, consider shooting an intro and outro where you’re talking to the camera about the recipe, then recording voice over for the overhead cooking portion.
You could also just slow your hands and pans videos down and put music over them if that’s what you’re capable of right now. Bundling several similar recipes together for these types of videos can help make them longer and more interesting to viewers.
Another great place for recipe videos is Facebook. Here again you’ll need to decide if you want to share long or short videos, as well as square or 16:9.
Personally I like to share short, square videos because I think they’re more engaging and suited to viewer’s attention spans.
Facebook itself, however, wants creators to share videos that are over 3 minutes so that they’ll stay on the platform longer. If you want to run ads on your Facebook videos, it is also required that the videos be over 3 minutes, so that’s definitely something to consider when deciding what kind of videos to share.
Facebook groups
I also highly recommend sharing your videos from your Facebook page to different groups related to your niche. This is a great way to get more views on your videos as well as likes, shares, and followers.
Instagram is another popular place to share your recipe videos. Again you have a few options. You can share to your stories, feed, or IGTV. Each has different requirements and purposes.
Instagram Stories
You really can’t share a full recipe video in your stories. Technically you could, but I don’t think that’s really what people want to see in their stories, and it could get long, leading to people dropping out of the story.
I think people prefer short, flashy previews or behind the scenes footage in stories. If you really want to share your video in your stories, I would recommend sharing a clip and telling people where to find the rest of the video.
Instagram Feed
You can share a square version of your video that’s under one minute in your Instagram feed. If you’d like this can be scheduled or posted using your computer rather than your phone by going through Facebook Creator Studio.
IGTV
IGTV is for the longer versions of your video, and I would recommend anywhere from 1-15 minutes. The two options here are whether you want to edit a tall 9:16 version of your video, or upload the 16:9 and allow people to rotate their phone to view it full screen.
If you’re planning to edit a 9:16 version of your video, be sure to keep this in mind when you’re shooting, as it can be difficult to get everything in the frame without proper planning.
I also frequently see people repurposing their videos on IGTV and allowing the text to be cut off on either side. I think this is a terrible user experience and is totally unnecessary.
It shouldn’t take you that long to create an appropriately sized video for IGTV. If you need help working this into your workflow, be sure to read my posts or watch my videos on how to use quick keys, how to create titles in premiere pro, and how to resize footage for different platforms.
One of the great things about sharing to IGTV is you can also share a preview of that video to your feed, so really you’re getting it in both places.
You know I love video pins, they’ve been performing really well for my own blog. I personally like to put a square video on top and a square photo on the bottom, and I’ve also been experimenting with the square video in the middle and photos or text on the top and bottom.
Be sure to go read this post if you’d like to see how I create my video pins in Premiere Pro.
I do not recommend sharing 16:9 videos on Pinterest, they just don’t take up enough space and are difficult to see. You could use your 16:9 video to create a tall pin, but I think even there it’s worth the time to zoom in a bit so it’s easier to see.
You could also just share the square version of your video on Pinterest, I’ve done this many times and it still performs fairly well.
I definitely recommend sharing a short version of your video on Pinterest. People are coming there for ideas, not long, in-depth tutorials.
Tik Tok
Tik Tok is it’s own beast, but definitely a platform to keep in mind. I don’t think you could share your recipe videos here and expect them to do well, but I do think you could repurpose some of your footage to better suit the platform.
I find content created in or enhanced by the app tends to perform best on Tik Tok. This is a place to really get creative and try something different.
What I’m doing
Most of my ad revenue comes from videos on my blog, so I’m a big advocate for getting at least a few videos on your site. I also share a square version of the videos to Facebook and of course my tall video pins to Pinterest.
I’m just starting to experiment with sharing longer videos on YouTube, Facebook, and IGTV as well as playing around with Tik Tok.
I hope this helps you decide where to use your videos and which videos would be most beneficial for your audience. You put so much work into your recipe videos, now it’s time to put them to work for you!
Let me know if you have any questions, or head over to the Facebook Group to start a conversation there!