If you want to cultivate an impactful online marketing strategy, you need to utilise video marketing. Why? Companies with dedicated video marketing strategies generate more leads, earn more revenue and build more brand authenticity and authority that companies that don’t.
Sharing video content on social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram will garner much attention. Think about it this way, when last browsing an Instagram account how quickly did you gravitate to a video? Most people see an Instagram video, their interested is piqued, they click on the thumbnail placeholder and play the video.
Video content is powerful. In an all too familiar online aesthetic, video content offers something different. It arouses consumer curiosity, conveys significant information in a succinct and engaging way, and gives brands an opportunity to separate themselves from the competition.
Need any more convincing?
50% of consumers look at a video before making a purchase.
Moreover, the number of businesses employing video marketing as part of their online strategy increased by 10% in the past year alone.
It’s safe to assume that your competitors are incorporating video marketing into their online strategy.
Search engines are similarly attracted to video content. Optimise your video content for SEO and you will reap the benefits, attracting more visitors to your website and proliferating conversions. In the online landscape, a place where 90% of B2B decision-makers use search engines to research commercial decisions, the impact of video marketing can be astonishing.
Video Metrics
On the surface, analysing video metrics seems relatively straightforward. However, many learned video marketers find themselves in over their head, unsure of how best to measure performance.
So, why the confusion? There are many ways to measure video performance. But, stick to the ethos of the broader the perspective, the easier it is to measure, and you won’t find yourself treading water – you’ll propel yourself through the waves.
Set Goals and KPIs
Having clearly defined goals and objectives will help you to understand performance and set realistic targets for improvement. This is where brainstorming with a team of experienced marketers, then communicating intentions and goals with stakeholders is imperative.
Let the team review the goals. This way everyone is on the same page. Communicate intentions and goals with stakeholders so that they know what to expect. Once your goals have been honed, your KPIs will be strengthened. This will help you to acutely define and measure your goals as your video marketing campaign unfolds.
A Basic Overview of General Marketing Goals and KPIs
| Goals | KPIs |
| Awareness | Views Impressions Unique viewers Awareness increase Ad recall increase |
| Consideration | Click-through rate Watch time Favourability increase Consideration increase Brand interest increase |
| Action | Clicks Direct call Sign-up Sales Purchase intent |
Once you have a sound understanding of the relationship between your goals and how to measure each, you’ll be able to design – and tweak – a video marketing campaign that packs a punch.
The Ten Video Metrics to Measure Performance
Interested in learning of the core video metrics that every business needs to employ to measure video performance? Keep reading.
View Count – The view count is the number of people who have viewed your video – though not, necessarily in its entirety. Views are accounted for differently on different platforms. As soon as a video is opened, this automatically increases the view counter. The problem with this? View count may not be accurate, with many of all viewers only watching a percentage of the video.
Watch Time – this tracks the length of time the video was watched. The longer the watch time, the better the content quality and the more likely viewers are to have absorbed your message.
Audience Retention – the audience retention metric tells you how long you have retained viewer interest before they click away from the video. If your video sees a noticeable drop off in consumer interaction after a certain point, this is a strong indication that the content piques but doesn’t hold attention.
Average Watch Time – if you take the total view count and divide it by the watch time, you’ll be able to discover the average watch time. This metric will give you a clear understanding of the best video length to hold the interest of your viewers.
Average Completion Percent – This tells you the percentage of videos that your audience watch. Why is the average completion metric important? It helps you to decide or tweak future video content ideas. Obviously, the better your overall video content is the more likely you are to be rewarded in the rankings.
Play Rate – the play rate indicates how many of the visitors to your page watched the video. This helps you to understand whether you should change the position of your video on the page or site.
Replays – a good video will be viewed repeatedly. The replays metric tells you how often a video was repeatedly watched. You can even check your analytics to see which specific part of the video is being re-watched. Why is this useful? It allows you to identify specific elements of the video that appeals to your audience. You can then tailor future video content around what your audience likes.
Engagement – Like’s comments and social shares are a great indication of how your content is resonating with viewers. Videos with positive feedback and that are shared across multiple platforms have succeed in their intent to influence viewers. Their theme, tone or content should be mirrored on future videos.
Subscribers – the name of the game is to grow your brand profile. The more you grow, the more likely you are to generate more leads and convert viewers into customers. You want viewers to become subscribers – buying into your brand, products or services. This metric gives you a good idea of whether your video strategy is meshing with your social media outreach.
Conversion Rate – if you’re self-hosting a video on your site, knowing the conversion rate will help you to understand how the video is impacting your conversion or opt-ins. The better the opt-in statistic or the more conversions, the more successful your video marketing is.
How to Improve Your Video Performance
So, once you’ve got your metrics in-place, honed your goals and have clear KPIs, how do you improve your video’s performance? Well, here are five ways that you can improve your video performance, even if you’ve hit the ground running right out of the gate!
Transcribe Your Video Content
Providing a video and a transcription on a single page has dual benefits. Viewers can watch the video and / or read a transcription. This enhances user- experience and caters to differing consumer preferences.
In fact, 85% of business executives prefer to read copy over watching videos when making a commercial decision. Want to connect better with consumers? Give them the choice over how they absorb your content.
Optimise Meta Data
By optimising meta data, you’ll increase views and achieve a higher search engine ranking. Video titles and descriptions should be compelling – encouraging click-through rates, perfectly summarise the video content, be keyword-rich, match user intent and feature titles of less than 55 characters and descriptions of 155 characters or less.
Customise a thumbnail that illustrates video content. This attracts attention and generates immediate interest, helping instil confidence and achieve a vast viewership.
Identify Keywords That Populate Video Results
How do you find out if audience demographics prefer video content for specific queries? Easy, complete searches for targeted keywords. If video results appear on the first page, hey presto, users prefer video content. The best example of these types of search queries are tutorials and ‘how to’ guides.
Create a Video Sitemap
While search engine crawlers will find the videos on your site, why not make it easier for them, boosting your own performance by creating a video sitemap and submitting it to Google Search Console.
Make sure that the video title, description, play page URL, thumbnail and raw video file URL that you submit matches the information on your site. Your video sitemap is then good to go.
Want to be a little more comprehensive? You can also submit the video duration, rating, view count, category and live status. This provides Google with additional information to index your video files.
The Schema Markup
Google’s video search function is popular. But so are general searches. If you want your video to stand out in the general search results, use schema markup and you’ll give the search engine the information it needs to prioritise your video and it’ll appear in the general search results, complete with thumbnail and length.
As a minimum, you’ll need to add schema markup for the title, description, thumbnail, and either the embed or content URL. Length, upload date, height and width dimensions are also handy to include. Do this and you stand a good chance of your video being ranked quite favourably by Google.
So, there you have it. How to measure and improve your video performance. Having a good grasp on metrics and knowledge of how you can improve the visibility of your videos will elevate your content above your competitors.
Interested in learning how Jungle Marketing can swing into your business and create video content that promotes your brand and bolsters your Google ranking, contact us today on 0333 300 1299, or email us here.
