Video ads by channel / Website video
Website hero and landing page video.
A silent loop that loads fast and can be paused, and the film with sound on a page Google can index.
The medium
A website video is the one film here that nobody buys media for, so its rules come from browsers and accessibility standards instead of an ad platform. Chrome always allows muted autoplay but plays sound only after a visitor has engaged with the site. Safari on the iPhone autoplays only a video that is muted or has no audio track at all, keeps it in the page only with playsinline, and pauses it when it scrolls out of view.
Speed is measured. A hero video can be the page's Largest Contentful Paint, timed by its poster image or its first frame, whichever arrives first, against Google's target of 2.5 seconds, and the HTTP Archive found the median web page carried 315 KB of video in 2025. WCAG 2.2 adds that motion which starts by itself and lasts more than five seconds next to other content must be something the visitor can pause.
Search is separate again: Google indexes only videos on a watch page, a page whose main purpose is that one video, so a decorative homepage loop does not appear in video results.
The specs
Quoted from the platforms' own pages. The source and the date each was read are under the table.
| Placement | Ratio | Resolution and file | Length | Sound and captions | Safe zone and rules |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hero or background loop (autoplays) | Set by the layout | WebM with AV1 first and MP4 with H.264 as the fallback (MDN); Safari plays AV1 only on devices with hardware decoding | No browser limit; motion that starts automatically and lasts more than 5 seconds beside other content needs a pause, stop or hide control (WCAG 2.2.2) | Chrome always allows muted autoplay; iOS autoplays media that is muted or has no audio track | playsinline keeps it in the page on iPhone; iOS pauses it out of view; no more than three flashes in any one second (WCAG 2.3.1) |
| Explainer with sound (click to play) | Set by the layout | Same codec pair; WebVTT captions in a track element | No limit | Captions for prerecorded audio (WCAG 1.2.2); audio that plays by itself for over 3 seconds needs a pause or volume control (WCAG 1.4.2) | Chrome allows autoplay with sound only after interaction, the desktop Media Engagement Index or an installed site |
| Poster frame and Largest Contentful Paint | Same as the video box | A poster image; a lazy-loaded video fetches only its poster until it nears the viewport | n/a | n/a | LCP uses the poster or the first frame, whichever is earlier; good is 2.5 seconds or less at the 75th percentile |
| Reduced motion | n/a | prefers-reduced-motion: reduce reports the visitor's system setting | n/a | n/a | Scaling and panning large objects can trigger vestibular symptoms (MDN) |
| Google video indexing | n/a | Thumbnail in BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, SVG or AVIF, at least 60 x 30, one stable URL per video | n/a | n/a | Only videos on a watch page are eligible; the video cannot be hidden behind other elements; VideoObject markup |
- Chrome for Developers, autoplay policy, read October 27, 2026
- WebKit, new video policies for iOS, read October 27, 2026
- MDN, web video codec guide, read October 27, 2026
- W3C, Understanding WCAG 2.2: Pause, Stop, Hide, read October 27, 2026
- web.dev, Largest Contentful Paint, read October 27, 2026
- Google Search Central, video SEO best practices, read October 27, 2026
- HTTP Archive, Web Almanac 2025, page weight, read October 27, 2026
- W3C, Understanding WCAG 2.2: Audio Control, read October 27, 2026
- W3C, Understanding WCAG 2.2: Three Flashes or Below Threshold, read October 27, 2026
A website is owned media, so there is no platform sheet: these rows are browser policies, W3C standards and Google's own documentation. The Web Almanac figures are medians across the web, not targets, and its 2024 and 2025 chapters disagree on the 2024 baseline. Our reading of WCAG 2.2.2 is that a loop counts as lasting more than five seconds once it repeats.
How we build an ad for it
Directed by people, made with AI, finished by hand. You approve the script and the sound before any footage is made.
No audio track in the loop
The hero file carries no audio track at all rather than a muted one. Safari autoplays it without a gesture, no audio rule applies to it, and the file is lighter. The sound design lives in the explainer, which the visitor chooses to start.
Five seconds, or a pause control
Motion that starts by itself and runs past five seconds beside other content needs a way to pause it, and a repeating loop runs past five. We either cut a single pass of five seconds or less that holds on its last frame, or deliver the loop with a visible pause control specified for your developer, with a seam that never shows.
The poster is the first shot
The poster may be the page's Largest Contentful Paint and is the first thing a visitor sees. It is composed as a shot, matched to the loop's first frame so nothing jumps when playback starts, compressed hard, and reused as the still for visitors who ask for reduced motion.
Encoded for weight
A median mobile home page carried 512 KB of video in 2025. We deliver an AV1 WebM and an H.264 MP4 for Safari devices without AV1 decoding, at the lowest bit rate that holds the picture, plus a separate mobile cut rather than a center crop of the desktop loop.
Calm motion
No strobe cuts, which WCAG limits to three flashes in any second, and no large zooms or pans, which MDN names as vestibular triggers. Nothing essential lives only in the moving picture, because a visitor with reduced motion switched on may see just the poster.
A watch page for the film with sound
Google indexes video only on a page whose main purpose is that video. The explainer gets its own watch page with VideoObject markup, a stable thumbnail and WebVTT captions, while the homepage keeps the loop; we deliver the files, the captions and the thumbnails for both.
Films that fit
Finished Filmito films, labeled with what each one is. Hover or tap to play.
What to order
A site rarely needs a new hero every month, but a launch does: the loop, the explainer and the cut-downs for the ads that send people to the page come out of the same month of work.
A full minute. Brand film territory. Used in lobbies, decks, hero placements. First cut in 3 days, 2 revision rounds, 16:9 and 9:16 included.
Launch on the pricing page4 unique ads every month. Different angles, not shorter cuts.
Growth on the pricing pageQuestions about website video
Why won't our background video autoplay on iPhone?
Safari on iOS autoplays only video that is muted or has no audio track, keeps it in the page only with the playsinline attribute, and pauses it when it is unmuted without a tap or scrolls out of view. We deliver the loop with no audio track, ready for those attributes.
Can a homepage video autoplay with sound?
Not reliably. Chrome allows sound only after the visitor has interacted with the site, crossed its desktop Media Engagement Index or installed it, and recommends muted autoplay with an unmute option. Audio that plays by itself for more than three seconds also needs a pause or volume control under WCAG.
Does a hero video need a pause button?
Yes, when it starts automatically, lasts more than five seconds and sits beside other content: WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.2.2, at level A, requires a way to pause, stop or hide it. A single pass of five seconds or less that then stops is the alternative.
Will a background video slow the page down?
It counts toward Largest Contentful Paint, timed by the poster or the first frame, whichever arrives first, against a target of 2.5 seconds. We keep the poster light and the encodes lean; the hosting, the page code and the final score belong to your site and your developer.
Will Google show our homepage video in video results?
Usually not. Google indexes only videos on a watch page, a page whose main purpose is that one video. Give the film its own page with VideoObject markup and a stable thumbnail of at least 60 by 30 pixels; the homepage loop stays decorative.
MP4 or WebM for a website video?
Both. MDN recommends WebM with AV1 first and MP4 with H.264 as the fallback every major browser plays, since Safari plays AV1 only on devices with hardware decoding. We deliver both encodes and a poster for each cut.
Keep planning
Other screens, the craft behind the films, and the public prices.
Other channels
- Video ads for YouTubeWritten for the five-second skip, cut as a six, a fifteen and a thirty, and mixed for the television it mostly plays on.
- App store preview videosReal screens only, fifteen to thirty seconds, written for a muted autoplay and a poster frame that sells.
- Every channelThe index and the glossary of format terms.
Craft and proof
Plan your ad
Filmito
Tell us the screen. We build the film.
Six short questions about your brand and where the ad will run. A person replies within one business day with the idea, the price and the date.
Since 2017 · 9,700+ films · 4.8 from 970+ reviews, every one readable