Google is Testing a New Process Which Would Convert Static Website Assets into Video Content

Google is testing a new process that would enable businesses to create video assets from static website content, making it easier for brands to move into video content.

As you can see from the video, Google’s URL2Video process is able to automatically analyze your webpage assets, and then arrange them into an animated presentation.

As explained by Google:

“Assume a user provides an URL to a web page that illustrates their business. The URL2Video pipeline automatically selects key content from the page and decides the temporal and visual presentation of each asset, based on a set of heuristics derived from an interview study with designers who were familiar with web design and video ad creation.”

Those interviews provided Google’s researchers with insights into common video editing styles and approaches, which have informed the URL2Video creation process.

“Using this information, the URL2Video pipeline parses a web page, analyzing the content and selecting visually salient text or images while preserving their design styles, which it organizes according to the video specifications provided by the user.”

That, as noted, could make it a lot easier for more businesses to shift into video content – and as every social media platform says, repeatedly, video content is the best performing content type online.

• Video is the best performing content type on Facebook
• Tweets with video see 10x more engagement than those without – and Promoted Tweets with videos save more than 50% on cost-per-engagement
• LinkedIn users are 20x more likely to share a video on the platform than any other type of post
• Pinterest users are 2.6x more likely to make a purchase after viewing brand video content on the platform

​Video is also, increasingly, how younger users are engaging, through Stories, and now TikTok clips, which points to this becoming even more of an expectation for brand communications in the future.

It’s not publicly available yet, but Google’s URL2Video process could provide another avenue on this front. Facebook actually provides similar, with its Video Creation Kit, which it launched back in 2018.

YouTube also has a Video Builder tool that facilitates the same. URL2Video would take that to another level, by simply converting your website assets into a brand video.

Basically, if you’re not creating video content, you’re running out of excuses – new tools like these are making it easier than ever for all businesses to put together simple, animated productions that they can use to promote their offerings online.

And with the pandemic accelerating the adoption of eCommerce, that could be an even more important consideration.

You can read more about Google’s URL2Video process here.