You’ve hired an amazing video production agency, you’ve used our video marketing tips to plan your videos, you’ve received your shiny new video content, and now it’s time to put it to work. You have your social media strategy in place and you’ve posted the videos to your social accounts. But how do you measure their effectiveness and make sure you’re getting the best ROI on your video productions?
With social media networks generating billions of views per day and over 70% of marketers in the US using video to target customers, it’s so important to measure your success and refine your strategy using real data. Metrics can tell you so much about your audience and what resonates with them, what causes them to engage, and you can leverage that information to reach your goals. Here are some of the most important social media metrics you should focus on to measure the ROI of your video content.
1. View Count and Watch Time
This one seems obvious, but view counts are nuanced. Technically, your view count is the number of views your video has received, and it gives you a broad idea of how well the video is doing. But what counts as a view? Social media networks define how much watch time counts as a video view differently, so here is a cheat sheet:
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram: The viewer must watch the video for at least 3 seconds
Periscope and Snapchat: Immediately after the user presses play or open
YouTube: The viewer must watch the video for at least 30 seconds (or the duration of the ad if it’s shorter than 30 seconds)
3 seconds may not seem like enough time for a person to gain anything from “watching” your video, but Facebook and Nielson have reported that up to nearly 50% of the value of a video campaign is delivered in just the first 3 seconds. Within 10 seconds, that number jumps to up to nearly 75%. Even very short views of your videos, if produced correctly, can be very effective.
Total watch time is still important, and keep in mind that videos with higher watch times are prioritized by YouTube when they suggest videos for users to watch.
2. Engagement Rate
Tracking engagement is similarly high on the obvious scale, but it’s arguably the most important metric for measuring the effectiveness of your videos. The engagement rate is calculated by dividing by the number of times viewers engaged (commented, liked, shared) with the content divided by the total number of views. Pay special attention to the quality of the comments here (did people seem to like the video or dislike the video?). A video post with a high level of organic engagement is a great post to sponsor.
Pay special attention to the rate of social sharing. It is one of the most important forms of engagement because it extends the reach of your video. Facebook reports that 48% of video watch time is made up of shared content.
3. Impressions
Many people will see your video in their feeds but only some will stop to watch and engage. The first technicality you should be aware of is that people will likely be exposed to your video more than once, and those impressions will be counted, but the viewer is only counted once. The number of viewers who see your video is called “Reach.” Reach will usually be lower than impressions. Impressions and reach become important when comparing them to the number of video views your video received. That comparison will tell you if your video was compelling or eye-catching enough to watch for more than 3 seconds. If those numbers are low, consider spicing up the first 3 seconds of your videos in the future.
4. Click Through Rate
This metric is calculated by dividing the number of people who clicked the link being advertised divided by the number of impressions. Conversions are the number of those people who took the action you wanted them to take. This will be the most important metric of a direct response ad.
5. Audience Retention Rate
This is shown as an interactive graph that indicates the number of views at every point in your video divided by the total number of views. This is a great tool to see where your views are dropping off. Check out the content and see which parts are resonating with your audience and which parts aren’t strong enough to keep their attention.
As a video production agency, our job is to help you create the highest quality video content that will help you achieve measurable results. Reach out to us today to get started on your video production in Los Angeles or New York.