What type of video analytics should be monitored for marketing videos?
As a marketer, you'd have to have been living under a rock for the better part of this century to not know how critical video is to a good marketing strategy. So you've probably created a few videos already to support your marketing and sales initiatives, or even your customer success strategies... am I right? Naturally, after a while, you want to check performance analytics on your video content... so you log into YouTube, click on the analytics tab, and then... you freeze.... "analysis paralysis " has just set in.
The reason for your condition? The sheer amount of performance metrics that video is able to provide, while powerful... can also be overwhelming, making it difficult to see how your videos are actually performing.
Whether you're a solopreneur or work for a large corporation, here are some tips on where to start in your analysis to get you moving again, what metrics to look at when reviewing the performance of your video... and most importantly, what actions you can take to improve them.
Types of video analytics to keep an eye on
Who is your audience?
Are your viewers mostly men or women? Married couples or single and ready to mingle? Are they in the 25-34 age bracket or 65+?
When it comes to YouTube, their demographics report will show you who is watching your videos. This data is divided into three categories: age, gender, and location.
So, what can you conclude from this? You'll discover who your most engaged audience is and equally as important... who is not watching. Use that information to modify your video creative to attempt to reach more of the audience you engaged, or reach the audience you missed. Often you can even modify (re-edit) your existing content to do this without having to start from scratch by changing things like video pacing, music, voiceover artist, or graphic styles. If you're not reaching the right audience, try shifting your strategy and focus on subject matters that will.
Where is your audience located?
If you sell donuts in Denver and 90% of your video views are coming from Denmark, your videos may be a Danish viral sensation, but that's probably not going to help your bottom line. Check to see where your audience is to make sure those viewers are located somewhere they can buy your products. One tip to help reach a more localized audience is to use keywords in your video script. Platforms like Youtube will automatically transcribe your audio. This means your video script is indexed as text for search engines, and your videos can turn up as search results on google.
How long are your viewers watching for?
Of course, we wish ALL our viewers would stay engaged and watch our full videos through to the end. But the reality is that doesn’t happen.
Viewers spend an average of seven hours and 55 minutes per week watching online video content. (Limelight)
If a business-related video is less than 60 seconds long, 58% of viewers will watch it all the way through – but only 24% will watch a video that is longer than 20 minutes.
Knowing exactly how long your viewers are staying engaged is useful information. Why? Because if they’re only sticking around for the first 20-30 seconds, you know you’ll need to include the most important information in that window. Your viewers will get the most important details upfront like branding and where to find you, even if they don't stick around for the second half. Want them to watch longer? Just like editing your content to perform better with certain demographics, you can often re-edit your existing videos to achieve this goal without starting from scratch.
Don’t forget about RE-watch time
While watch time is important, you should also consider what parts of your video your viewers are re-watching. Do they stick around for your entire video, or do they only watch specific parts over and over?
Knowing what your audience is watching – and re-watching – allows you to fine-tune your video strategy.
If you notice people re-watching certain topics, it’s likely it piqued their interest, and this is a great way to see what parts of your video content your audience is most interested in. This will allow you to put more of a focus on similar creative or content that's proven to perform when you start your next video production.
What devices are your users using?
Checking your video analytics to see what devices your viewers are watching your videos on is a huge metric you should be mindful of. For example, on average, mobile devices account for 70% of YouTube watch time! Even if YouTube isn't your primary method of video distribution, your audience may still be using mobile devices to view your videos. If that's what your analytics are telling you, you'll want to optimize your videos to perform better on mobile screens. Many video distribution platforms even allow you to have multiple versions of the same video that are optimized for different screen types. This allows your videos to playback full screen on their device without content getting cropped out of the frame.
Are they part of the 70% watching from their mobile devices? Or is your audience mostly watching from their web browser?
Having this knowledge can help you narrow down the best video content to create to produce the best results. For example, if your videos are being watched mostly on mobile, you’ll know to make your video content mobile-friendly.
Engagement rate
Another important metric to monitor is your engagement rate. Your engagement rate will show you the number of viewers who watch your video and when they click away from it.
This can also help you with your video strategy by seeing what content is engaging your audience. Again, when you discover what the most interesting aspects of your video are, you take this and make new content out of it.
Observing where your engagement drops will reveal what your viewers tend to dislike. Even if it's something you're passionate about, you should avoid it in future videos if your audience isn't interested in it.
Do your viewers like behind-the-scenes type content? Or are they paying more attention to tutorials? Whatever your audience is paying attention to is what you should create more of.
Note: When it comes to YouTube, they will rank videos with high audience retention because it shows that these videos can effectively capture the attention of viewers.
Feedback
Most people avoid negative feedback, but these video analytics can work in your favor. If you receive negative feedback on a social platform (for example, if people hide or unlike your video or page), you can figure out which topics don't resonate with your audience and remove them from your content calendar.
Traffic sources
Outside referrals (meaning social media, YouTube, and other sites that embed/share your videos) are all traffic sources to your video.
The source of your video traffic is important data because this tells you HOW your viewers found your video. And discovering which of these sources generated the most views and watch time for you can help you improve your video promotion strategy. Meaning, once you have this information, you’ll be able to better determine which ad promotion sources will be most beneficial to you.
Keywords
When it comes to SEO and search engine rankings, the majority of people think about keywords. But did you know keywords are important when it comes to videos? In video analytics, the most popular search queries that lead viewers to your videos will be displayed.
If these searches aren't exactly related to your video's topic, consider adding keywords to your metadata. And think about creating new videos to address these frequently asked questions to fill content gaps, and you’ll see if there’s a significant difference.
Evaluate your videos CTAs
Not every video campaign will have the same end goal. But if you notice your click-through rates aren’t performing well, it might be time to switch things up and try something new with your Call to action.
Your video's click-through rate measures its ability to entice people to watch it after seeing it on their homepage, recommendation, or trending section. A high click-through rate indicates that your title was compelling and that your video's topic resonated with a large number of relevant audiences.
Typically, you'll see an increase in click-through rates after the initial release of your video. When your subscribers see the video at the top of their home page, they are most likely to click on it. But once your video has spread beyond your core audience, your click-through rate will decrease and tend to plateau.
Video analytics tools
There are plenty of tools available to monitor and identify inconsistencies in your videos. These tools are especially useful for developing and optimizing video marketing campaigns.
If you're still unsure, here are a few video analytics tools you can try:
WISTIA Aids in brand awareness and marketing performance tracking.
TUBEBUDDY
One of the market's best YouTube analytics tools.
VIDYARD
One of the best video analytics tools available.
VIDOOLY
A video analytics tool and marketing suite to learn more about the performance of your videos.
If you still have questions about how to measure video analytics, send us an email! We’d love to talk with you about your video metrics and video needs.
