When used effectively, Google Slides is an incredibly useful and free tool for creating impactful and engaging slideshows. If you’re in the middle of putting together a slideshow and are looking for a way to capture your audience’s attention, consider adding video clips to your presentation!

A short and relevant video clip can break up your presentation while also emphasizing the key points of your message. The thing to remember here, though, is that short and to-the-point is best; don’t subject your audience to a five-minute video to make a point that could have been made with a 15-second clip.

 

Choosing the right video clip to incorporate into your slideshow is important, but so is making sure that the clip actually works when it comes time to deliver your presentation. After all, there’s nothing more embarrassing than running into a tech malfunction in the middle of your talk.

Fortunately, Google Slides makes it quick and easy not only to embed videos into your slides, but to edit them as needed. Not sure where to begin? We’ve got you covered with a few methods below.

How to Embed Video in Google Slides

There are three main options for embedding video in Google Slides. You can add a video directly from YouTube, from your Google Drive account, or an outside source.

From YouTube

Via search

The fact that Google has owned YouTube since 2006 means that many of their products can be easily integrated with YouTube. In fact, you don’t even need to leave your Google slide deck to embed a YouTube video—and this is probably the quickest and easiest way to add a video to your slideshow.

1. Start with the slide where you wish to embed the video
2. Choose Insert from the menu bar and click Video
3. From there, you’ll be prompted with a convenient YouTube search bar. Type in the keywords for the type of video you’re looking for and click on the search icon to view instant search results.
4. Select the video you want to embed, and it will appear on the slide.

Using formatting options on your right-hand side, you can

• Choose the portion of the video you want to show

By default, the entire video will be embedded—but remember, most people don’t want to sit through an entire five-minute video in the middle of your presentation. With that in mind, you’ll probably want to select a brief, engaging, and relevant clip from the video to share with your audience.

• Set your clip to autoplay or mute it when presented

You’ll also see an “Autoplay when presenting” checkbox that you can select if you want your video you begin playing as soon as you get to that particular slide. Otherwise, you’ll need to manually click on the video’s “play” button to begin playback. If you don’t want to replay the sound, mute your embedded video.

• Position your video precisely using the axes

Here is how this method looks like.

By direct link

If you already have the URL of the specific YouTube video you want to use, you can also switch to the By URL tab and paste the link directly.

To move the video around the slide, you also have the option to drag-n-drop it exactly where you want. You can also use the toggles around the video itself to resize it as needed.

You can’t crop the embedded video, so you’ll need to think about the layout of the entire slide to incorporate the video nicely.

After you’re completely satisfied with the YouTube video clip’s size, positioning, and length, simply hit the “Enter” key and you’ll be all set. If you need to make any additional changes to the video later on, all you have to do is click on it to begin editing again.

You can’t crop the embedded video, so you’ll need to think about the layout of the entire slide to incorporate the video nicely.

From Google Drive

Another option for embedding video into a Google Slides presentation is through Google Drive. This method may be ideal if you have a video already saved to your computer or device, but you don’t necessarily want to upload it to YouTube. Embedding directly from Google Drive also comes in handy if you already have your videos uploaded to your Drive account.

If your video isn’t already on Google Drive, follow a few simple steps to upload it. From there, click on “Insert” from the menu bar at the top of the screen and select “Video.” At the top of the box that pops up, you’ll see three tabs: “Search,” “By URL,” and “Google Drive.” Click on the “Google Drive” tab and you’ll immediately see thumbnails for all your Google Drive videos displayed.

Click on the video you wish to add to your slide and hit “Select.” The video will then be added to your slide, and you can resize, reposition, and clip it using the same steps outlined in the “From YouTube” section above. It’s really that simple!

From Other Platforms

What if you have a video from a platform other than YouTube or Google Drive that you’d like to embed into your slideshow? Ideally, if there’s a way to download this video and either upload it to YouTube or Google Drive, that’s your best course of action. If you don’t have this option, though, you can still incorporate an outside video into your slideshow with a little work.

Rather than embedding the video directly into your slideshow, what you’ll really be doing is adding a direct link to the video that you can click on during your presentation.

To spruce things up and make your slide more visually engaging, though, we recommend connecting the URL to a screenshot of the video itself. This way, you’re clicking on a relevant image during your presentation rather than a random link.

To spruce things up and make your slide more visually engaging, though, we recommend connecting the URL to a screenshot of the video itself.

Let’s say you have a video landing page created with Wave.video and you want to show that video during your presentation.

1. To do this, you’ll want to start by finding an engaging moment from the video and taking a screenshot of it. Be sure to crop the screenshot so that you’re looking at just a screengrab from the video itself — not your entire desktop or browser.
2. Once your screenshot is saved onto your computer, return to your Google Slides window, click on the “Insert” tab, and select “Image.”
3. Find the screenshot file on your computer, select it, and add it to your presentation. From there, you can adjust the size and positioning of the screenshot as needed.
4. Once you’re happy with its size and positioning, click on the image and return to the “Insert” tab. Select the “Link” option, paste the URL of your video, and click “Apply.”
5. From there, clicking on the screenshot image from within your slide should open the direct link to your video.

Keep in mind, though, that you won’t have the option of clipping or otherwise editing your video when you use this option. This means that if you have a specific segment you want to show your audience, you may need to find it manually.

The Bottom Line

As you can see, learning how to embed videos in Google Slides is pretty simple. And once you do it a couple of times, embedding videos in the future becomes second nature. As a reminder, though, it’s always a good idea to double- (and even triple-) check your videos to make sure they work before a presentation. This is especially important if you’ll be presenting from a different computer than the one you created the slideshow on. From there, you can make any last-minute tweaks that you may need and move into your presentation with a little extra confidence.

Looking for more information on embedding video onto other platforms, including your own website? Check out the Wave.video blog for more useful tutorials and how-to guides!