How do you know your video is working?
We have previously discussed effective video marketing for business on the blog but now we move onto something, probably, even more important. How can you measure if this marketing is actually working? You make a video for a purpose, a reason, it’s not a ‘nice to have’ (well it is!), it’s made to do something. Once you have a good understanding of video marketing it’s about tracking that story, tweaking where need be and getting the most out of your video marketing strategy. The only way to do this though is by measuring the success of your current and previous video content.
As with most things, it depends what you do. For example, training videos and product demonstration videos are produced for two very different reasons and would be distributed in very different ways, so measuring them would be done differently, but the following tips should provide a good basis for measuring different kinds of video performance.
Video retention rates
On average, only 60% of people make it past the first minute of video and 40% make it to two minutes (Video Brewery). If you engage your audience they are likely to keep watching and people only keep using their time watching your video for a reason, because it interests them. If they get to the end, you have captivated them and you are much more likely to hear from that person than the person who switched off after 6 seconds. All good video hosting platforms should have an analytics section where you can track the retention rates. If they are low, ask your media provider why and what can be done, if they are high then well done you! We have a client with over 60 videos at 2 minutes 30 seconds… the retention rate is 75% on them all! Job done!
Hits, leads or customers?
Your SEO service, such as Google Analytics will be able to tell you where your customers are coming from. For example, if you host video content on YouTube and the video has 50 hits and you get 30 people visiting your website from YouTube then 60% are watching the video and clicking through – now that’s a fantastic rate! From them coming in you can then check if they send you an e-mail or buy a product. This hit will have originated from YouTube which means video got you a customer. Obviously, a customer can take many different paths and call to actions but it’s worth keeping track of. If it’s working, don’t break it, it it’s not working, change it!
Where are people watching from?
If you are based in Yorkshire and looking for a Yorkshire audience then why are all of your hits coming from London? Your video hosting platforms analytics section will be able to tell you where people are watching video from and how. It will even break it down to individual towns and cities for you. If you are looking to promote a product in Leeds, but most of your video hits are in Sheffield then you need to rethink how you are publicising the video for that area.
