How to Measure Video Marketing: The Metrics that Matter

It’s no secret that video marketing is big right now. According to the latest benchmark report from Wyzowl, 2019 will also be a big year for video, with 78% of marketers saying video provides them with a good ROI. But how do measure this elusive ROI? And should every B2B brand focus on the same metrics? In this article, we’ll try and answer the question on the mind of many B2B marketers: how to measure video marketing?

Here at Oktopost, we recently partnered with Powtoon’s experts for a joint webinar on video marketing. When discussing how to measure video marketing, we broke down video metrics into two main categories that your boss will actually care about: engagement and ROI.

Measuring Video Engagement

If a video is engaging, we’ll want to continue watching past the 30-second mark. For this reason, engagement video metrics are critical for revealing how people are interacting and responding to your video content. In terms of the Facebook algorithm, engagement is also a determining factor in boosting your video’s organic reach.

Here are the metrics you need to track to measure the engagement around your videos:

1. Play Rate

Play rate is the number of times your video was played divided by the number of views it generated. That is, out of all the users who saw the first few seconds on auto-play, how many decided to continue watching.

A low play rate could indicate that your video is irrelevant to the interests of your follower-base. It could also illuminate other discrepancies with your video such as the copy around it, the absence of subtitles, its visual appeal, or simply the network it was shared on.

If you’re just getting started and unsure how to measure video, focus on increasing your play-rates. As Powtoon recommends, you only have the first 3-5 seconds to grab people’s attention, so going for bright colors, close-ups of faces, and any dynamic on-screen movement can make a huge impact.

2. Shares, Likes, Comments, and Reactions

These video metrics come together as they typically indicate the overall popularity of your video.

Comments, for example, can reveal the emotional effect that your video had on viewers. According to Facebook, when people like a video, they’re far more likely to share it later on, which helps get that video in front of more eyeballs.

Shares are equivalent to word-of-mouth marketing – the more a video gets shared, the more your brand is seen as credible, trustworthy, and loveable. Since people share content that reinforces their values and beliefs, seeing those shares on your video means it deserves to be seen by others. In fact, 48% of video watch time on Facebook comes from shares.

On Facebook, reactions offer an interesting breakdown of your audience positive or negative sentiment. From analyzing 100 million Facebook videos, Buzzsumo learned that videos provoking ‘haha’ and ‘love’ are going to gain significantly more exposure than videos that evoke no reaction at all.

3. Click-through Rate

When a URL is included around or within the video, click-through rate measures the percentage of people who were compelled to take the desired action beyond watching the video. CTR is calculated by dividing the total number of video clicks by the total number of views.

Whether it’s at the beginning, middle, or end of your video, a call-to-action must always be included. However, a call-to-action that’s placed at the wrong point in the video or is irrelevant to the topic of discussion could result in a low CTR. Keeping your video short, clear, and concise is crucial for getting viewers to reach the call-to-action.

Another helpful tip from Powtoon is to include merged media – that is, incorporating elements of animation and overlays with live-action video in order to keep viewers tuned for longer.

Diving into viewers’ watch-time trends can help you pinpoint where people are dropping off so you can identify opportunities for improvement.

4. Watch Time

Watch time refers to the total amount of time viewers have spent watching your video. It provides a strong indication of what information viewers saw and missed based on when they dropped off. Tracking watch time also accounts for the length of future videos.

For example, if you’re producing 10-minute videos with an amazing final scene yet the average watch time is 3 minutes… what’s the point of it being there?

In such case, opting for shorter and snappier videos could do wonders to your CTR. As always, try to engage your viewers for a longer period with a compelling story and eye-catching visuals.

Measuring Video ROI

At the end of the day, your VP marketing or CMO wants to see revenue.

If your video drove tons of engagement but didn’t succeed at acquiring new leads or sales opportunities, was it worth the investment?

The answer to this question boils down to a simple formula:

ROI = $ Sales from Video Conversions /
$ Spent to Create Video

To make more sense of this: did you make more than what you spent on creating and sharing the video?

First thing’s first: calculate how much you spent on producing and distributing the video.

This should take into account any tools or external resources you used for the video creatives as well as the cost of advertising or promoting the video.

Next, you can calculate the sales produced from your video by tracking how many leads it garnered. Depending on the conversion types on your website, someone may have clicked your video and then made a direct purchase, requested a demo, signed up to a product trial, and so on.

Out of all the leads you have collected, only some will be considered “qualified” by your sales or marketing team. For example, your video may have brought 50 demo requests but only 10 of those are individuals who fit your ideal buyer profile.

Given this information, you can do one of two things: 1) Assign an estimated value to each lead or 2) Follow up with your sales team to understand how many of those video leads converted into opportunities and closed-deals.

Once you’ve established how much you spent and gained from your video, you can finally calculate the total ROI.

If you’re looking to optimize the conversion rates of your video, here are some great tips from Powtoon:

• Refine your call-to-action. As the golden nugget of your video, your CTAs should make it extremely clear for your viewers what’s the next step you’d like them to take. So keep it simple and exciting.
• Ensure continuity in the visual language. Wherever you’re leading people to after watching the video should feel in line with their expectations.
• Keep in mind your customer experience. Don’t frustrate your customer, make sure your website or landing page makes it intuitive to complete the conversion path.
• Send people on a scavenger hunt. The immediate CTA on your video doesn’t necessarily have to lead viewers to a web form. Alternatively, the video could lead to a relevant blog post, another video, and eventually to a landing page which explains more about your product or service. After all, just because someone watched your video, doesn’t mean they feel ready to make a purchase.

You Can’t Improve What You Can’t Measure

In the words of our CEO, Daniel Kushner, “You can’t improve what you can’t measure”.

Now that you have the right video metrics, it’s a matter of putting them into practice. Firstly, determine your video marketing goal, then understand how you’re going to measure and quantify it.

More importantly, remember that video is not a one-and-done strategy. Based on the engagement and conversion you’re seeing, you need to be making multiple iterations to the same video by enhancing your creatives, changing your CTA placement, and tweaking your messaging.

Want more? Watch our webinar with Powtoon “Unlocking Social Video for B2B Marketing in 3 Simple Steps” for a more in-depth look at how you can optimize videos across every social network to drive business impact.