You may be aware of the metrics provided on your video hosting and social platforms, but are they really the best indicators of success for that particular video? Here are the top video metrics that will help you meet your marketing goals.
Step 0: Set goals for your videos
To measure a video’s success, you first need to establish success metrics. What are your marketing goals for this particular video? Ideally, you’ll have answered this question before creating the video. Now, take that question a step further. What are the KPIs for your marketing goal? Which video analytics will help you to measure those KPIs?
To know what metrics will best gauge your video’s success, you need to understand what video metrics you can track and when they are most useful.
Most common video metrics: what you need to know
1. Views
Views are the simplest metric to track: how many times users have viewed your video. This can be helpful for gauging overall popularity or reach for your video. However, it can quickly become a vanity metric if the views don’t translate to conversion. Don’t let this be the main or only metric you use to evaluate success.
Pro tip: What constitutes a view varies depending on the video platform. Facebook and Instagram consider a view to be three seconds of continuous play, while YouTube is about 30 seconds of play. With video autoplay on websites, a video must have at least 50 percent of the video pixels in view for the required time. Keep this in mind when considering your metric goals – will your video play on a webpage where the video might be playing off screen, or do you plan to use it in an Instagram ad where it will have many impressions?
2. Play rate
Play rate is a calculation of the number of viewers who chose to play your video compared against the total number of people who had an opportunity to play your video (or impressions). Like views, the definition of a play rate varies by platform. Play rate helps you understand whether people are interested in clicking on your video. If play rate is low, you don’t need to scrap the whole video. Experiment with a more engaging thumbnail, move where the video is discovered or change the copy text around the video.
3. Watch rate
Watch rate is a valuable metric for letting you know how much of your video viewers are watching. If you have a high play rate, but viewers are dropping off before getting to your pitch, your video is not effective. Naturally, shorter videos are finished more than longer videos. If you have a lot of information to convey, the video needs to stay captivating. Again, this can be changed even after completing the video by re-editing to add a more engaging introduction, or cutting unnecessary components.
4. Click-through rate
The best indicator your video successfully converted customers is click-through rate. Click-through rate measure customers who clicked on the call to action contained in the video. While some platforms like YouTube allow you to add clickable links to videos, others do not. One way to track traffic driven by your video is to create a custom URL viewers can only find in the video, and seeing how many arrive there. Including a clear call to action makes it easier for potential customers to know what to do next.
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Spin Creative is a video production company and creative agency helping marketers create winning video and creative strategies that engage, inspire and activate targeted audiences. Spin is headquartered in Seattle with offices in San Francisco and London, serving brands around the globe.
