7 Ways to Make Your Website Stand Out With Motion Graphics

What is motion graphics in design terms? Is it expensive and out of reach for most small business budgets? How can it improve your website design experience and amp up those conversion rates? Buckle up as we answer all these burning questions about motion graphics!

Try to remember the last Facebook ad you’ve seen. Was it a static image? Or did it have some movement added to it? For example, animated text or a slight movement of an illustration or image?

Motion graphic design is the next big thing; ignoring this trend will make your brand seem dated. Moreover, search engines, especially social media, are geared toward this type of design, so you should consider including motion design in your design strategy.

Here are a few convincing stats on website videos and motion graphics:

• 93% of businesses got a new customer base thanks to a video on social media (Animoto)
• Video is the most commonly used format in content marketing. (Hubspot)
• In 2021 54% of ads were animated. (Creatopy)
• Including videos and animated content on your landing page can increase conversions by over 80% (Hubspot)
• Google is 53 times more likely to discover your page if it includes a content-related video. (Insivia)
• If your website includes a video(s), your organic search traffic is more likely to increase by 157%. (Conversion XL)

Now that we have convinced you how present video and motion graphic design are, let's explore what the term motion graphics entails. Next, we'll provide a few ideas on how you can incorporate motion elements into your website design.

What is motion graphics, exactly?

The term motion graphics refers to animation, often with text as a major component. Essentially, it’s animated graphic design.

The difference between motion graphics and animation comes down to complexity. Motion graphics are more limited in how you can make design elements move and for how long. If something requires complex motion sequences, you'd need to hire a film animator.

But obviously, we're not here to make feature films. Motion graphics are a perfect choice for short animated assets for marketing purposes.

Another reason why motion graphic design is so helpful in marketing is that it's a much less expensive alternative to videos. If you want to shoot a professional video, you need a professional camera, sound equipment, and, probably, a studio space. Motion graphics designers only require 1-2 computer programs to create stunning and engaging videos.

Another interesting statistic is that 92% and 83% of people respectively view and watch videos on their mobile phones with the sound off. So, an animated written message can often deliver a much more powerful impact than a person saying it in front of the camera.

Why include motion graphics in your website design?

Your website is the best place to test the waters with motion graphic design. There are two reasons for this:

1. Your website is usually the first point of contact for your customers. Enriching it with videos or motion graphics can improve their first impression and entice them to stay on your website longer.
2. You have total control. We all know that social media channels are prone to glitches, and sometimes the creative can look different on different channels. If you’re just testing the waters with a motion graphic designer, your website is a much safer way to go

One thing to remember about motion graphics in website design is that you shouldn't overdo it. Animated graphics will slow down loading speed, which is one of the most critical factors impacting bounce rates. In fact, recent research suggests that 53% of people will leave your website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. A skilled motion graphic designer will ensure that animated elements are optimized for web use and don't affect loading speed in any obvious way.

Wondering how to make motion graphics yourself? If you want to include them on your website, it’s much better to warrant the help of a professional and avoid a negative impact on your traffic.

And now, let’s dive into some creative ways to improve your website with motion graphic design!

7 ways to use motion graphics on your website

1. Kinetic typography

Let's start with the most basic and oldest type of motion graphic design: moving typography. We've all played around with PowerPoint text animation when making school presentations. Still, you need to step up your game a bit when it comes to your website.

This is a terrific idea for "coming soon" websites. Moving typography adds excitement and mystery to help viewers remember the website (and hopefully come back to it when it's live!).

2. Animated logo

A logo is arguably the most crucial branding asset in your arsenal. An impressive 75% of people recognize brands by their logo, while 60% will avoid brands with attractive logos. However, it takes 5 to 7 impressions for people to remember a brand.

So, how to get people to remember your logo and, therefore, your brand? Make each impression count by getting them to look at your logo longer. With an average attention span of just 8 seconds, you can’t expect an ordinary logo to receive more than a couple of seconds of the viewer's attention. That’s certainly not long enough to get them to remember it.

Instead, try animating your logo in a fun way that will entice viewers to focus on it a bit longer. Need a famous example of this? How about Google's almost daily changes to their homepage and added animations to the logo. However, whatever they come up with, the iconic wordmark is incorporated into the design.  

3. Hover effect

If clicking was the equivalent of "going third base" in high school, hovering was an honorable second. Marketers know how difficult it is to get people to click. The average click-through rate for display ads is just 0.35%.

Adding animation design that's triggered by the movement of the mouse cursor is a fantastic hack to get your audience a tad closer to that click. You'll get them to engage with your website long enough to seriously consider your call to action.

The fantastic thing about the hover effect is that it can be pretty subtle yet significantly improve the user experience. Look at this example of a website for a beauty brand called Lips Love. When you hover over the heart icon, the little hearts are cute and encourage visitors to stick around and peruse the website for longer. The lipsticks that rise up help showcase the products. The change of color on the "Shop" button makes the CTA more noticeable and urgent without being overbearing.

4. Dolly zoom

These terms come from the movies and basically mean zooming in and out. It’s the perfect way to add dynamism to the website and help viewers stay engaged.

One everyday use for this type of motion design is on e-commerce websites. Zooming in allows people to inspect the product better before they add it to the cart.

5. Parallax effect

It sounds like a super fancy word, but the truth is this is one of the most common motion graphic effects in web design today. Essentially, it means that background elements move slower than elements in the foreground, creating a sense of depth in a 2D setting.

It's a well-known statistic that users need only about 50 milliseconds to form an impression of a website. If your website is totally static, there's a very slim chance that you'll keep visitors engaged. A motion graphic design like parallax can help ensure that people stick around for as long as possible.

Take a look at this absolutely gorgeous example. The illustrations are stunning, but thanks to motion design, it feels like stepping into a storybook.

Parallax scrolling is a fantastic way to improve user experience. Instead of dumping information all at once, this engaging motion graphics technique allows viewers to take in chunks of information while scrolling through your page.

This can be particularly useful for service-based businesses to present the key elements and benefits of a service. Just take a look at how fun and engaging this website for financial consulting services is! Even though there's not a bland corporate stock photo in sight, this website still feels professional while making visitors genuinely interested in the content.

6. Small animated illustrations

Remember when we said that motion graphics are simpler than full-fledged animation? This doesn't have to be a bad thing.

In fact, many websites these days use motion graphic design sparingly to add just a bit of visual interest and engagement without compromising the professionalism of their web design.

Here's a lovely web design concept combining parallax scrolling with added motion design. Making a simple line or shape move is not very difficult and won't harm your website's loading speed. However, it can make a simple landing page (including templates you can find online) look more modern, custom, and engaging.

7. Explainer videos

Did you know that 95% of people will watch an explainer video to learn about a product or service? More importantly, consumers are 64% more likely to purchase a product after watching such a video.

But what if you don't have the resources to shoot a professional video or are simply camera-shy? That's where graphic videos can help.

Many people wonder how to make motion graphics precisely for this reason. Short animated videos are a great way to introduce a product and, especially, a service. Take a look at this example found on the ManyPixels website. Since many of our first-time customers aren't familiar with unlimited design, we've created a fun video to make the process easy to understand.

Closing remarks

We hope this list has inspired you to revamp your website with some snazzy motion elements! There are ways to make graphic videos yourself, using templates. Some useful platforms to check out are Biteable, Animaker and Visme. Or you could try to make something from scratch with a professional software like Adobe After Effects.

But be warned: DIY motion design is not for the faint of heart. If you have little to no design experience, you will spend hours trying to create something that, ultimately, will probably look a bit unprofessional. Motion graphic designer hourly rates average at around $50 per hour. So you can see how a single project will cost several hundred dollars.

Is there a simpler, much more affordable way to get basic motion graphics? Yes! With ManyPixels, you can get animated illustrations and GIFs for as little as $549 per month! Since we're an unlimited design service, one of our designers can also create custom illustrations and other graphics that you can then use to create more complex video graphics.

To find out more about how we can help, book an informative demo session with one of our reps!