We continually get asked by clients “What video metrics should I be using to measure the effectiveness of my visual content?”
So here’s the top seven metrics we recommend you track to establish the success of your content and whether or not it has delivered against your video objectives.
View Count
View count indicates the raw number of how times your video has been viewed and provides an indication of the reach of your video.
This may seem like a straight forward measure but whether a view is classified as ‘a view’ depends on the platform it’s sitting on.
The following social networks count one video view if the video is watched for:
- YouTube – at least 30 seconds of video
- Facebook – at least 3 seconds
- Instagram – at least 3 seconds
- Twitter – when clicked
- Vimeo – when clicked
It’s important to note that on both Facebook and Instagram videos play automatically be default so it’s difficult to be sure if anyone is really watching.
Play Rate
Play rate is the measurement of how many viewers looked at the title and thumbnail of your video (or on Facebook the first 3 seconds) and were compelled enough to click play to start watching your video.
Play Rate is a great measure of how well you’ve done in making your video enticing for videos to watch. You can increase the chance of having a better play rate measurement by trying any of the following:
- Pick an engaging and relevant thumbnail. Don’t necessarily use the title screen, particularly if it’s text on a plain background.
- Pick a title that accurately communicates the content of the video. Think about how you type in a search request on Google.
- Place the video on a page on your website where it has most impact or relevance, as opposed to burying it amongst a host of content where it is ill defined in purpose.
Engagement
Engagement will show you how much of a particular video an individual viewer watched.
This video metric can then be compared with the average engagement which shows how much of your video all your viewers watched.
It’s unlikely that all your viewers will watch until the end, however it’s important to check if they are tuning out before the point of your call to action.
This is useful because it means you can re-edit the content (perhaps by making it shorter or cutting out a section where your audience became disengaged), and redistribute to assess if it now performs better. The advantage of visual content is it’s editable – meaning once it’s been created, it can continue to be tweaked to maximize success.
Engagement metrics usually includes heat maps which show sections of the video where a viewer stopped, re-watched or replayed a section of your video. This is also useful as it can highlight portions of your video that viewers found of significant interest.
Armed with this insight, you can generate new content that amplifies this part of the story or tells viewers more. You could run cut down versions of this content on social where you know they will attract more views… The possibilities are endless.
Social Shares
A fairly obvious and important metric these days is knowing how many people are sharing your video content and across which social channels are they sharing.
Social sharing is a great way of amplifying views and is a solid measurement of how appealing your video is to a broader audience. For example – did they like it enough to share or comment – and did people in their network also like or share?
It’s important with social sharing however, to examine metrics beyond the number of shares and likes. A critical qualitative measure is the comments your video generated – were they positive or negative and what insights can you glean from these.
Click Through Rate (CTR)
Click through rate is not a metric unique to video and as such most marketers already understand its value. It is calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions.
It demonstrates the percentage of viewers who clicked on a call to action and were engaged enough to go where you planned on taking them.
Your CTR doesn’t guarantee that a viewer will take an action but it shows that your video engaged them enough to consider it.
CTR also provides a good indication of who has watched your content through to the end.
If your visual content is generating a poor CTR you could try making your call to action more persuasive and relevant to the content in your video.
Conversion Rate
Conversion is a vital metric to track if you are producing product videos or other videos that have the specific goal of increasing your conversion rate.
Conversion rate measures the number of leads or customers you have gained thanks to your video content.
This may be measured by having viewers complete a form at the end of your video where they enter their email address and /or contact details, or if you drove them to a point of purchase where they clicked through and bought a product.
This metric can be harder to track and requires analytics software attached to your video hosting.
Feedback on your videos
Reading the comments and feedback left by your target audience on your content is a great way of generating a qualitative measurement of how effective it was with your audience.
It’s an ideal way to measure the emotional response to your visual content.
You may not find many direct ways to improve your content from this video metric but you will know how your audience feels and you’ll certainly be able to assess if your content has missed the mark.
Measuring the effectiveness of your video is as important as benchmarking any of your other marketing communications.
If you are only looking at views and likes then chances are you are not understanding the whole picture and may be missing out on further opportunities to increase the effectiveness of your video content.
Burninghouse is now offering video metrics and analytics reports that can help you understand the effectiveness of your visual content. Contact us to discuss how we can start tracking your videos today.