Video marketing has become a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes to reach and engage with their target audience. But with so many metrics to track, it can be difficult to know which are the most important for truly driving growth. Whether you’re a small business new to video marketing or an experienced marketing professional, understanding the power of the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in video marketing is essential for success. By gauging which tactics move the meter most on these key KPIs, you can ensure your video investment is achieving maximum results. So, let’s dive in and discover the key metrics that you should be tracking to take your video marketing strategy to the next level.
How Does Video Marketing Drive Growth?
Video marketing can have a significant impact on company growth. Simply put, it is more engaging than text and easier to retain. Plus, it helps your business appear in search results from potential customer queries.
Increased Engagement
Watching a video is more engaging than reading text, so it will hold your audience’s attention longer, giving you more time to convert them into customers. In addition, people remember 95% of what they see in a video compared to only 10% when reading text. This keeps you top of mind, improves your brand awareness, and could help with word-of-mouth marketing as they share what they learned with interested friends.
Improved Understanding
Videos are a great way to explain a product or service in detail. A good product demo video or explainer video can distill even the most complicated products or services into easily digestible bites. A recent study shows that when both text and video are available, 72% of customers prefer to watch a video to learn about the product or service. You can also educate your audience on what makes your product or service the best in the market, keeping you one step ahead of the competition.
Higher SERP Ranking
Videos can help your business appear on search engine results pages (SERPs) because search engines view them as an ideal way to answer the searcher’s questions. Just look at the top page of Google for any search. You’ll see a carousel of videos right at the top. Considering the top three search results get over half of all clicks for a given topic, that’s the space you want to be in. Video marketing makes it easier to appear in those coveted spots.
Video content also provides other opportunities to rank for specific keywords through time stamp descriptions, meta descriptions, and snippets. It can dramatically increase the amount of time people spend on your website, which improves your website’s SEO. Implementing a video SEO strategy for your content can help you rank higher overall.
Boosted Website Traffic
Landing in those top spots in SERPs means videos also drive more traffic to your website, improving brand awareness and opportunities for targeted messaging. Because video content is both engaging and easily sharable, you’re more likely to increase your organic reach with video than with other mediums. TOS, or Time On Site, is another metric that factors into search engine ranking and customer conversion. Fortunately for video marketers, users spend 88% more time on a website when it has video.
Increased ROI
While video marketing usually requires more initial investment than other forms of marketing, it can yield significant results both quickly and long term. In that regard, videos are actually a cost-effective way to reach a large audience. When planned correctly, they can also be repurposed across different channels. A 2020 report from Wyzowl stated over 80% of marketers felt video helped them increase website traffic, lead generation, and sales.
Why Are Marketing KPIs Important to Your Video Marketing Strategy?
As Henry Kissinger stated, “If you don’t know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.” Adding video to your marketing efforts has a lot of benefits. But you need to have the right videos in the right places to increase sales. Without measurable metrics, you won’t know if or why your video content is successful.
Setting clear goals and choosing the right KPIs to measure your progress will allow you to put more time, energy, and money into what’s working and allow you to make changes to what’s not.
KPIs to Track In Your Video Marketing Strategy
Video is one of the few marketing strategies that can be used at every stage of your buyer’s journey. At each stage (commonly divided into awareness, consideration, and decision), you’ll want to track very specific KPIs to measure success per that stage’s purpose.
3 KPIs to Measure Video Success at the Awareness Stage
Brand videos and company overviews are great marketing tools to increase awareness. Instead of just listing the features and benefits, you can truly showcase products and services through creative storytelling. In addition, they are a great platform to introduce who you are and what sets you apart to large audiences. Use the following KPIs to target success.
1. Impressions
Impressions are the number of times a marketing message is shown to a potential customer. Even if you see the same online video in your social media feed every day, each time you see it is considered an impression. This metric will help you understand the effect of different marketing channels or how different demographics are responding. Impressions are also a critical component when calculating the ROI of your video. You should consider impressions when striving for increased brand awareness or TOMA (Top-of-Mind Awareness).
2. Reach
Your reach is the number of unique individuals who are exposed to a marketing message. Consider commercials that air during the Super Bowl. Companies are willing to spend top dollar for their spot because they know millions of people are watching, and they’ll be maximizing their reach. Reach is similar to impressions but gives you a clear picture of potential conversions because it measures unique individuals. You should consider reach when trying to turn an audience into potential leads.
3. Brand Awareness
Brand awareness refers to the percentage of people who are aware of and can recognize a brand. Logos and taglines are often enough to identify brands. But in more recent years, companies are leveraging video marketing to make their brands household names. Dollar Shave Club, for example, released a video in 2012 that quickly went viral reaching 23 million views on YouTube. Their ability to reach their customers on a humorous and emotional level made them easy to remember and share. Brand awareness is usually measured through customer surveys, brand search volume, and social media followers.
3 KPIs to Measure Video Success at the Consideration Stage
Once your audience is aware of your company, services, or products, you’ll want to target and measure KPIs that affect your audience's consideration. This is the stage when they consider whether to purchase from you or not. Simply knowing you exist is no indication of intent to buy. But tracking key metrics can tell you how interested your potential customer is.
1. Engagement
Engagement is the level of interaction a viewer has with the video, including likes, comments, and shares. According to Hubspot, 60% of global marketers feel engagement is one of the most important metrics to track to learn about your audience. Engagement can show you what your audience really thinks about your brand. While a simple thumbs-up might not tell you much, an emotionally charged comment (good or bad) will tell you exactly what your audience is thinking and help you adjust your strategy if needed.
Some of the most engaging marketing videos are live videos. This video format is broadcast in real-time, allowing the audience to interact and engage with the content. Many companies turn to Facebook Live, Instagram Live, and YouTube Live to showcase products. This allows potential customers to have a more realistic shopping experience and real-time interaction. Marketers have found that live video is more emotionally engaging than on-demand content because viewers can ask questions and purchase right from the live stream.
2. Video Views
Views of videos are pretty self-explanatory. They’re the number of times your video has been watched by unique and repeat viewers. A high unique video view rate on product videos or testimonial videos may indicate reaching your target audience or having highly sharable content. Tracking repeat video views can show you that viewers may be considering purchasing your product or service. They want to know more about the product and want to be sure past users have been happy with it.
3. Landing Page Conversion Rate
This conversion rate measures how many website visitors respond to a call to action (CTA) on a specific landing page, such as filling out a form or following you on social media. Using the power of video, you can generate landing page conversions and narrow your target audience. Sending video content to those more likely to buy your product will improve your return on investment.
Creating a consistent content marketing strategy will help bring your audience from awareness to consideration. You’ll be more recognizable and build trust with your potential customers through helpful, entertaining, or informative video content.
3 KPIs to Measure Video Success at the Decision Stage
At the decision stage, you’ll gear your video content to assure your potential customer they are making the right decision when they choose you. This can be done with testimonials, FAQ videos, and long-form demo videos, to name a few. At this stage, there are a few key metrics you can track to understand if your marketing efforts are working.
1. Conversion Rate
A strong conversion rate tells you that you’ve reached the right audience. And that your message was clear and compelling enough for them to take action. This could be making a purchase or filling out a form. Using videos on a landing page can increase conversions by 86%. Videos that are targeted to the right audience are more likely to result in conversions and a higher ROI.
2. Bounce Rate
On the flip side, if someone clicks away from your video, they have decided they don’t want your product, or the information doesn’t apply to them. They may not interested in learning more or taking action. Monitoring your bounce rate, especially if you’re testing more than one video, can help you figure out why your audience is leaving and ensure the right videos are getting to the right customers.
3. Repeat Purchase Rate
The repeat purchase rate is often a measure of customer loyalty. This loyalty can increase your customer's (LTV) lifetime value. Using personalized videos, thank you videos, and value-added videos can seal the deal on a customer’s loyalty to your company. Tracking the repeat purchase rate of customers who received your videos can be a huge indicator of your video’s overall success.
KPIs tied to your buyer's journey can provide valuable insights into the decision-making process of consumers and help companies to measure the success of their marketing efforts beyond conversions and sales. But all marketers know tracking your overall ROI is always a top KPI.
4 Factors That Impact Your Return on Investment
No matter what stage of the customer journey you’re looking at, you’ll always want to track your return on investment (ROI). This is the financial return you receive from the video marketing campaign.
1. Type of Video Production
The ROI of video marketing can vary depending on the purpose of your video production. If your video is intended to immediately draw customers to click buy, tracking the ROI can be simple and direct and easy to attribute to your video investment. However, video ROI can also be tricky, as the intent of your video might not be a direct sale. For example, if your marketing goals are to educate your customer with an explainer video or gain loyalty from a new customer with a value-added video, you likely aren’t asking for a direct sale. In those cases, you can measure your ROI with overall brand awareness or intent to purchase in the future rather than direct financial income.
2. Video length
Depending on the type of video content you’re creating, the length may impact how engaged your viewer is. Shorter videos are more likely to be viewed and shared, while longer videos generally only engage folks further along in your buyer’s journey. Identifying who you are trying to reach and ensuring the video that they view is the right length to support the intended outcome is key.
3. Video Placement
Surprisingly, where the video is placed on a website can also affect ROI. The right video placed on a landing page can increase the chances of conversion because it’s the first page the viewer will see. Using videos on the social media channels that your target audience frequents will also increase the number of views and brand awareness. Using videos in direct advertising and in content email campaigns are also effective strategies to increase ROI.
4. Call To Action
The action you’re asking your viewers to take could also impact your ROI. If your tutorial video has a CTA asking viewers to subscribe to your Facebook page, your ROI will likely be lower than if you direct them to purchase an item seen in the video. Every video should have a clear CTA that supports your marketing goals.
Using Metrics to Guide Decisions Will Lead to Business Growth
Video marketing can increase sales by providing potential customers with a more complete understanding of a company’s products or services. When you understand your marketing goals and use the right tools to track key metrics, all of your decisions will be based on what you know is working.
Frequently Asked Questions
What KPIs matter most for social media video content?
Metrics like watch time, engagement rate, saves, and shares can be more meaningful than views alone. For tips on creating videos tailored to each platform, explore our Social Media Video Services.
How do I benchmark video performance across campaigns?
Start by comparing similar types of videos over time (e.g., explainer vs. testimonial), and track performance using tools like YouTube Studio or GA4. Our blog on Video Analytics walks you through what to measure and why.
Can video KPIs help improve future content strategy?
Absolutely. Analyzing drop-off points, audience retention, and conversion rates helps refine messaging and creative choices. See how one client applied this approach in our SquareTrade Case Study.
What role do CTAs play in video performance?
A clear, compelling CTA can significantly improve click-through and conversion rates. For strategies that boost results, check out our blog on The Power of Video CTAs.
We’re here to help you achieve your goals through live and animated video production. If you’re ready to increase awareness, engagement, and conversions, consider partnering with us. Together, we can produce high-quality videos designed to meet every KPI. Contact Levitate Media today to get started!
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