Video marketing is a great solution to strengthen your marketing efforts. Viewers engage with video increasingly more than they do with text or photos making video a frontrunner in any marketing strategy. But when it comes to video marketing, how do you know if your efforts are successful? There are an abundance of video metrics you can use to judge your video’s success. Finding which metrics will best help you determine your results isn’t always a cake walk. Here are 5 video metrics that offer the most useful data for measuring your video success.
View Count
View count is the most basic video metric used to measure video success. This measurement is strictly the number of people who clicked play on your video and is an indicator of how far your video’s reach is. If your goal is to have as many viewers as possible, view count will be an immensely helpful piece of data. The drawback of view count, especially when considered alone and not in conjunction with other metrics, is the lack of in-depth information it provides. View count does not take into account viewer demographic or how long each viewer watched your video. So while you may have 100 viewers click play, you will be in the dark about just how much of your information is being viewed and absorbed by each person. This is not to discredit the insight view count data can give you, but only to encourage you to use it in conjunction with other video metrics to maximize your analysis.
Play Rate or Watch Rate
Unlike view count, play rate, also referred to as the watch rate, is a percentage rather than a hard number. Play rate is derived from the number of viewers who actually click play versus the number of viewers who land on the page and do not click play. This video metric helps determine the relevance of your video. If your video is well suited to the page where it is embedded, your play rates will be higher. Poorly placed videos can decrease your play rate if they are not related to the central message of your page. If a client visits a website looking for information about live streaming and the embedded video does not answer a question the client is searching to answer, why would they watch the video? Looking into your play rate provides a clearer picture about the placement of your video. Low play rate can also be an indicator that you are reaching the wrong audience. Especially when sharing videos on social networks, consider which groups and sites will benefit most from and have the biggest interest in your video. Each network hosts very different audiences. Figuring out how to find your target market on each platform is key, and is possible through the use of play rate data.
Engagement
Video engagement gives you an even deeper look at your video viewer data. This video metric indicates the quality of your views, specifically how long your viewers are watching your videos. Is there a trend in where your viewers are dropping off? How much information are they actually receiving if they leave early? Looking into viewer engagement can give you more insight on the effectiveness of your video content. If you notice a pattern in what is causing viewers to lose interest, you can tailor your future content to accommodate their interests and needs.
Social Sharing and Comments
While most social media data is not quantitative, bits are, and the rest still has relevance. Looking at the number of shares is one way to easily measure social media engagement. This video metric is a good indicator of how excited your audience is about your content. Shares are one of the more easily measured social media video metrics as the total is counted for you. Similarly, likes are an indicator of audience approval. Assuming each person who likes the video watched it would be a bit of a leap of faith. What conclusions you can draw from a high number of likes, though is a general acceptance of your company, message, or content. This, like view count, should always be considered alongside other metrics for a more meaningful study. Comments on your video give you more specific feedback on your content. While not as easily charted or measured, finding trends in what your viewers are talking about can be immensely helpful in finding your strengths and weaknesses related to your video.
Conversion Rate
Conversion rate is the highest level of video metric and the one which measures what is arguably the ultimate goal of your video marketing campaigns. This number indicates how many people followed your call you action, whether that be to download a buyer’s guide, investigate a service you provide, or contact you for more information. Your conversion rate tracks how many leads you are generating and allows you to tailor future videos in such a way to convert more viewers in to active, interested leads. One way to boost your conversion rate is to make the viewer’s path to your call to action as fool-proof as possible. Include the relevant links in your video description or in buttons in your video and make sure your video is embedded on a page that makes sense. The less work your viewer has to do, the more likely they are to follow through and complete the process you’ve laid out.
If you can optimize your video analysis to include these video metrics, your analysis will be much more meaningful. With the right data and information, you can transform your marketing campaigns to be the most effective and productive you’ve produced.
What other video metrics do you use? Leave a comment with your answer below!
