The relevance and importance of video marketing in today’s landscape cannot be overstated. A whopping 91% of video marketers consider video an important part of their marketing strategy in 2019, up from 82% in 2017 and 85% in 2018. And to succeed in video marketing in such an environment, quality metrics are key.
Defining Goals
One of the best ways to begin thinking about which video marketing metrics you need to choose is by defining your video marketing goals based on the current needs of your business. Video marketing can achieve one or more of three goals, namely, Awareness, Engagement, and Conversion. The metrics below assess the achievement of each of these goals.
Without further ado, here are the different types of video marketing metrics and their importance!
Awareness Metrics: Do they know you?
The first stage of audience involvement with your brand, awareness is key to eventual marketing success and an important area to keep your eyes on.
Reach
Defined as the total number of people who’ve viewed your content, this metric helps you assess the level of brand awareness being generated by your video content.
Impressions
Defined as the number of times your video content is displayed, impressions tell you how many eyeballs are on your content. A low number of impressions is a good indicator that your content is not reaching the right audience. And a high number of impressions is, likewise, a good indicator that your content is reaching the intended audience and targeted brand awareness is being achieved.
Play Rate
Play rate is essentially the total plays your video receives as a percentage of total impressions. It helps you measure how many people who had the chance to view your video chose to do so and is an excellent indicator of how your target audience likes your video marketing content.
This metric measures how well your audience likes your content. A high share count also means increased reach. The extent of this reach can vary widely depending on who is doing the sharing. Influencers sharing your content can lead to an exponential increase in reach. You can also reach out to relevant influencers with a request to share it in their circles or include a share request in your content to enhance this metric.
Engagement Metrics: Do they like you?
Being aware of a brand is one thing, becoming an active audience is something else altogether. Measuring the latter are the following key engagement metrics that do this by giving you data about actions taken around your video content. The key idea here is ensuring the audience likes the content enough to take action on it.
Watch Time
Judging how engaging your video content in this key metric – watch time. Watch time measures the total amount of time viewers spent viewing your content. Does your content resonate with your audience? Are they engaged enough to watch your content through to the end? Watch time answers these questions.
Likes/Dislikes
If a viewer enjoys a video, they’re likely to Like it. A Like indicates that your content is consistent with what your audience would like to consume. It’s essentially a vote of support for your content. Use it as an indicator that more such content is desirable and will generate engagement with the same audience. Dislikes, on the other hand, are an indication of the opposite. They can mean two things – that the audience either disagrees with your content or didn’t enjoy it, in a more generic sense.
Comments
Comments offer you an opportunity to do some in-depth engagement analysis. Also, as comments require more effort, they are more likely to come from the more involved audience members who may have reacted positively or negatively to your content. Comments are a great way to capture audience sentiment. Also, not only do they offer you valuable feedback on your content but they also give you a chance to interact with your viewers. What’s more, audience members can interact with each other in this space, as well, building a precious community around your brand!
Audience Retention
Audience retention measures the “average percentage of a video that people watch”. Suppose your video content is 10 minutes long. Your Audience Retention on that video is said to be 50% of people watch your video for an average of 5 minutes. Audience retention scores affect YouTube
Bounce Rate and On-Page Time
HubSpot defines bounce rate as the “percentage of people who land on a webpage, but then leave without going to other pages.” On-page time, meanwhile, is the average time spent on your webpage. If a high proportion of people are leaving your webpage (high bounce rate) quickly (low on-page time), chances are: your content isn’t engaging enough or CTA (call to action) not clear enough. It is an indicator of the effectiveness of using video on your webpage.
Conversion Metrics: Will they buy it?
Conversion essentially measures the rate of achievement of the goal set for the video. The inclusion of a CTA at the end of your content is highly recommended for increasing conversion rates. These metrics can be treated as acid tests of your success!
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Is your audience engaged enough to take the action you want them to? Click-through rate or CTR gives you a good indication of this. It is defined as the “number of viewers who click on the CTA or take the next step” in the marketing process. The click-through rate of your content can be improved by how clearly your CTA conveys value and by calling out the CTA in the video. The most reliable way to do this, however, is to produce highly relevant content that leaves your audience hanging on to every word and hankering for more.
Conversion Rate
The final, and arguably most important, video marketing metric is the conversion rate. It measures the persuasiveness of your content to get your audience to turn into a lead or customer. Find out, through A/B testing, if the addition of a video to your landing page increases or decreases conversion rates. This is a crucial part of discovering your cost to acquire new customers.
Traffic Sources and Viewer Demographics
These additional metrics help you stay more informed about the nature of your audience. Is it as you had predicted? Which platforms are they coming from? You can use these metrics to evaluate your strategy and rework it for better results if required. If you are getting high-quality traffic from a certain platform, for example, it would bring returns to focus more on visibility on that platform.
Viewer demographics, on the other hand, tells you if your traffic consists of your target personas or other groups. It also tells you if you’re getting the attention of an audience belonging to the right industry, and if they have the interests as you had predicted.
Conclusion
Metrics are key to video marketing success. Tracking the right metrics of your campaign will act as the right indicator of your marketing strategy. Implement the use of these metrics today, and hence, take your video marketing to the next level, no less!
