Stop Using Google Drive for Video Delivery!
Recorded webinars are great for generating leads. Especially when people can’t attend a live webinar due to timing or sudden changes to their schedules and priorities.
One way of recapturing those leads is by sharing a link to the recorded webinar. The link is shared by email with the hope that the recipients watch the video and continue on to convert to a qualified lead.
To our surprise we found many companies are using Google Drive to host their recorded webinars. Conversions from these links are low. Below, we’ll discuss why Google Drive isn’t optimal and what the best practices are.
Google Drive fails for webinar hosting in 145 seconds
Google Drive isn't the answer
Very similar to DropBox in that it is a file sharing platform, not a video platform!
You would think that because Google owns YouTube, they would be able to provide a great experience for videos delivered with Google Drive. You would be wrong. This is most likely because Google is in a competitive price war with the other cloud storage providers. If they had to do everything necessary to provide a great video experience across all devices, and couldn’t spew ads all over them, it would completely eviscerate any profit margin. So, what you end up with is a poor viewer experience for videos delivered with Google Drive.
First off, unlike YouTube, Google limits the number of daily views of videos on Google Drive, and this limit varies daily depending on their server load, so you have no idea if that day your viewers will get an error that the number of allowed playbacks has been exceeded. That’s a terrible experience, happens to companies and educators all the time, and is something your viewers won’t see if you deliver with a proper video platform.
The quality of their encoding is average, looks similar to YouTube, but their maximum resolution is capped at 1080p.
This company, Forecastr, just sends their webinar out as a public link to a video on Google Drive, no protection, not secure. You try to download it, and immediately get a warning that it can’t be scanned for viruses because it’s too big and a tiny button to ‘download anyways’. Although informative, a little anxiety-inducing even with a trusted source.
Also, the presentation is as basic as it gets. Just a link to a file. You could also share a folder with multiple videos, but it lacks professionalism and you certainly won’t be getting the same level of engagement as you would using a platform that has a presentation layer for the content where you could add call to actions, deliver multiple webinars to a single library, etc.
So just to recap, Google Drive has a view limit that varies daily, so you’re taking a big risk there. Playback resolution is capped at 1080p, which may work for most people, but not for those wanting to deliver 4K or higher. Encoding quality is average, but not suitable for premium content. No presentation layer to increase engagement or drive a call to action, and a lack of professionalism for webinar delivery.