How to Measure the Success of your Video

How to measure the success of your video

After weeks of planning, preparation and recording your video is now complete. But the work doesn’t stop there. Once you have published your content measuring its success is important. Video metrics should always be collected because they will determine the success (or otherwise) of your video content. As part of your video strategy you should define what metrics you will collect and how you will measure them. In this post we will guide you through the top video metrics that you should collect and analyse as part of your video marketing strategy. 

#1 Number of Views

Although this is one of the most basic metrics it can be one of the most deceptive. View count will tell you how many times that your video has been viewed. When looking at views, they indicate how many people your content has reached. If you want your video to be viewed by a significant proportion of your audience view count is important. The view count metric can vary depending on where the video is published. On YouTube for example, the view count will only be recorded once the viewer has watched 30 seconds of the video. By contrast, on Facebook, a video is included in the view count after just 3 seconds. If you place your video on multiple platforms keep this in mind when you are comparing information. There are several ways that you can increase your view count including:

Sharing your video with your audience using your existing email list and social media
Notifying industry influencers who may be interested in your content can increase your reach
Using paid promotions on channels which are relevant to your industry

#2 Play Rate

This metric will indicate how many web visitors actually clicked play on your video and began to watch it. This metric is an effective measure to see how relevant your content is on the platform where it has been published and how successful it is in encouraging visitors to watch it. If you would like a certain percentage of your audience to play your video, play rate is a good metric to monitor. This is particularly important if the video is on a product or promotional page that explains a training programme or one of your services. Increase your play rate by:

Altering the position and size of the video on the web page
Choosing an appealing and eye catching thumbnail which will be displayed in Google search
Change the copy of the video description to make sure that it accurately reflects the content of the video

Some videos will have different  play rates depending on their content and the type of video that you have created. A video that appeals to a large, general audience will have a higher play rate than those targeted to a specific audience.

#3 Engagement

This is one of the most important metrics that you should measure. Engagement will tell you how much of the video was viewed and is usually displayed as a percentage. An average engagement figure will also tell you how much of your video was watched on average. Using these metrics, you will be able to identify whether your video was watched in full, whether the audience clicked away from the video and at what point. This metric is really useful because you can assess how useful your videos are and the quality of your content. If a significant proportion of your viewers are watching all the way until the end you know that your video is performing as it should. Improve your video engagement metrics by:

Creating clear, concise and short video content
Meet the expectations of your audience – what do they want to see?
Carefully evaluate your engagement to see any points in the video where viewers are leaving and use this to change your content

#4 Social Shares

This is perhaps one of the metrics that you will recognise already. Social shares refer to the number of people sharing your video content through social platforms. Social shares are a good indicator of how appealing your content is to your audience and how willing they are to like, share and comment on your videos. The higher your social shares, the further your reach and the more engagement you should see with your content. Your social shares can be increased by:

Creating content designed to maximise social shares – Think about content that is entertaining, educational or emotional
Give your social shares a boost by asking an industry influencer to share the video with their audience. However, for an influencer to agree to this the content must be outstanding

Keep track of other metrics too not just social shares. Look at likes and comments on your video too and take any negative comments as constructive criticism to help you improve

#5 Click Through Rates

The Click Through Rate (CTR) is the percentage of viewers who click on a Call To Action (CTA) that you include in your video. A click through rate will indicate how successful your video is in encouraging viewers to take some form of action. This could be signing up to your mailing list, downloading an ebook, requesting a demo or making an enquiry of some description. Click through rates can be increased by:

Changing the placement of your call to action at various points in your video content to make it more appealing
Improve your engagement if viewers are not watching your video right to the end
Make your call to action consistent with the video that you are creating

There are so many metrics that you can measure with your video content, it really does depend on what goals you have and what you want to achieve from publishing your content. Metrics are a great way to measure the effectiveness of your videos and over time you can make adjustments to your video marketing campaigns to boost engagement and increase conversions. Nothing will help you better than a professionally produced video and a skilled production team can really give your video strategy a welcome boost.