How To Find & Use Stock Video Footage

In this day and age, incorporating video content into your marketing strategy is absolutely necessary. Research has shown that, by 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic (that’s 15 times higher than it was in 2017). But creating solid, valuable video content for your brand doesn’t have to be difficult. Especially when you use stock video footage.

Unless you’ve got tons of extra time, expertise in video production, and a generous budget, consistently churning out high-quality and completely original video content can be a challenge. That’s why one of the best ways to create videos without breaking the bank (or losing your mind) is by taking advantage of stock video footage. And we’re here with everything you need to know to efficiently find and use stock video footage.

How To Find & Use Stock Video Footage

Where to Find Stock Footage

When you’re looking for stock footage online, you’ll quickly find that there are a lot of options (both free and paid). To save you time, we’re going to narrow it down to our top three favorites — and they’re all free.

Pexels

While Pexels began as a source for free photos, it has since expanded into free stock video footage. Their library offers a wide variety of free stock video footage (as well as mockup green screen videos). Any stock video footage that you get from Pexels can be used and edited for both personal and commercial purposes. They even have a daily “trending free stock videos” section that you can peruse for inspiration.

Pixaby

With more than 2.3 million high-quality stock videos (and images), you’re bound to find something that works for any project in Pixaby’s library. One of the best things about Pixaby is that all of their stock video footage is released under Creative Commons Zero, which means you never have to worry about getting permission to use/edit the clips. You’re not even obligated to credit the creator — although it’s always good etiquette to do so. Pixaby’s library also includes HD and 4K videos.

Videezy 

Much like Pixaby, Videezy offers both HD and 4K stock video footage. The best thing about Videezy is its supply of aerial drone footage. While not all of their stock video footage is free, they still have a generous offering of completely free clips. However, it’s important to note that, even with their free videos, they do typically require that you credit Videezy.com when using their stock video footage.

How to Use Stock Video Footage

Now that you know where you can find the best stock video footage, it’s time to get to the question you’re probably asking: how exactly do you use it in your videos? The secret of using stock video footage is to not overuse it.

Once you’ve found the right stock video footage, you want to use it to complement your videos, not overwhelm them. 

Think about the way stock video footage is used in movies. If you’re watching a film that has a scene in an office and right before the scene begins, it shows a shot of the building or a city skyline, that’s probably stock footage. It fits perfectly with the scene that comes immediately after, and you most likely don’t even consider that it might be stock footage while you’re watching the movie. That’s the way you want to use stock video footage in your videos.

You should always use stock footage to seamlessly blend your original video content, not take the place of original content entirely. Stock video footage is perfect to use as B-roll (to establish your setting or flesh out your narrative) or as a background in your video content.

Are you using stock video footage in your video content?

Tell us how you take advantage of stock videos in the comments!

And don’t forget to use Zubtitle for all of your video editing and optimizing needs. Sign up for a free account today and start creating instantly.