Video testimonials get the attention, but written ones are what most businesses actually have. The real question is not which format is better. It is which one each customer is willing to give, and where each one does its best work.
At a glance
| Video | Audio | Written | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How persuasive | Most | Strong | Good |
| Effort for the customer | Most | Some | Least |
| Shows a real person | Face and voice | Voice | Name only |
| Easy to skim | No | No | Yes |
| Works with sound off | With captions | With a transcript | Yes |
| Best for | Home page, social, ads | Podcasts, stories | Product pages, quotes |
Video: the most convincing, the hardest to get
Seeing a real person’s face and hearing their voice is hard to argue with. Video carries enthusiasm and sincerity that text flattens out, and it is the format that works best on social media and at the top of a page.
The cost is on the customer’s side. Many people are uncomfortable on camera, worry about how they look, or are simply somewhere they can’t record. A request that only accepts video will lose those people entirely. If you want more on what makes a video testimonial work, we have a separate post.
Audio: the underrated middle
A voice note keeps most of what makes video persuasive, the tone, the pauses, the laugh, without anyone having to be on camera. People who would never record a video will often leave a voice message, especially on a phone. With a transcript, an audio testimonial can also be quoted as text.
Written: the easiest to give and to read
A few sentences are the lowest effort for a customer and the fastest for a visitor to skim. Written testimonials sit well on product pages, beside forms and in headlines, and they are the easiest to pull a short quote from. What they lack is proof that a real person is behind them, so show a name, and a photo or company where you can.
So which should you collect? All three, on one link
Offer every format in the same request and let the customer pick. You lose nobody to camera shyness, you still get video from the people who are happy to record, and you can lead with video wherever you have it.
That is the default on an Akteora collect link: video, audio only and written, each with the same questions, all landing in one inbox. Video and audio are transcribed automatically, so every testimonial is searchable and quotable whatever format it came in. Here is how to set one up, or start free.
A note on star reviews
Testimonials and star reviews are different things. A review is usually a rating with a few words, attached to a product or a listing. A testimonial is a story you choose to feature. Both help, and the FTC rule covers both. If you already have written reviews from your own customers, you can import them alongside new testimonials, labelled with where they came from.