The most important video metrics

Knowing how to identify the most important video metrics is key for an effective, high-performing video marketing strategy.

Among all these metrics, these eight are central:

1) The number of views.

2) The number of impressions.

3) The rate of users clicking play.

4) The engagement rate, which measures how long users stay glued to a video.

5) The click-through rate on call-to-actions.

6) The subsequent conversion rate.

7) The amount of shares on social media.

8) The feedback.

Never forget, though, that people are behind the data, and tailored, personalized metrics analysis are the decisive boost for any video campaign.

Video is, without a shadow of a doubt, the king of digital content. First of all, for its diffusion: according to Cisco’s Annual Internet Report, in fact, by the end of 2022 videos will make up 82% of global online traffic (cisco.com).

Then, for the familiarity that users have with this medium: according to recent studies, the average user spends about 7 hours a week watching online videos; for 27.2% of people, it’s more than 10 hours a week (source: Statista).

Then there is the aspect of communicative effectiveness: the user who views a video understands and believes 95% of the message contained. As far as pure text communications are concerned, this percentage drops to 10% (source Insivia).

Finally, there are the results in terms of return on investment: – 87% of marketers said they were satisfied with the ROI related to their video campaigns (source: Hubspot).

In short, there’s little room for doubt: video is the most popular content online, the most familiar to people, the one that triggers the most attention and involvement.

And it’s the most powerful weapon in the hands of digital marketers.

But what are the video metrics that marketers must learn to monitor and interpret in order to assess the results of their campaigns in the most surgical way and then improve them accordingly?

Without making too many assumptions, in this post, we will isolate the eight most important and decisive video metrics. In conclusion, we’ll talk about personalization, the ultimate boost to improve all these metrics…in one fell swoop!

1. The number of views

In terms of video metrics, this is the most basic one. It’s a count of the number of times your video is viewed (both in general, and by each individual user). It’s a very broad and unspecific metric, sure…but without an awareness of global reach, there’s no point in pushing the analysis to a more refined level.

A tip, in this regard: try to spread your video across a variety of channels, from your website, to social media (more on that later), to email marketing. Leaning on influencers is a great way to expand outreach!

Important: the data on the number of views, like all other data, should be collected and analyzed with an omnichannel perspective, without missing pieces!

2. The number of impressions

You have to distinguish visualizations from impressions. The latter, in fact, count the estimated number of views, and also involve banner ads, such as Google Ads.

The same applies to social, where impressions constitute the number of times a piece of content has had the chance to be seen by a given audience.

The importance of this video metric involves several aspects: it helps to understand how functional and performing a pay-per-click video campaign is, for example.

And it allows you to measure how often your video appears on social media…and make advertising investment decision accordingly.

3. The Play Rate

This is where we get even deeper and more in-depth, with one of the most important video metrics: the Play Rate measures the percentage of visitors on a page who actually click play on your video and start viewing it.

It’s an important compass for understanding a video’s ability to capture attention.

A lot depends, of course, on the thumbnail that is chosen (or the thumbnail on search engines or YouTube); but also on the consistent and appealing arrangement within a page or a post on social networks.

In short: the context also has a very important weight.

On the importance of thumbnails, previews, and context see our previous post, where we talked about how video can help boost your SEO.

4. The Engagement Rate

Video, as we’ve already seen, has the highest engagement rate of all digital content. But not all videos perform equally well. That’s why it’s crucial to analyze how much a video actually engages the viewer.

The so-called Engagement Rate is the combined result of an average, which calculates the average viewing time and the portion of the video that the average user views.

This is one of the most in-depth and central video metrics because it answers crucial questions, such as how many people make it to the end of the video? Where, on average, do they decide to abandon it? Are there specific parts where these abandonments are recurring? Can we understand the reasons and therefore take action?

Analyzing this data is the starting point for improving the effectiveness of a video, recalibrating it. It also becomes essential for deciding where to place the storytelling hubs that are useful for maintaining attention…and even more so for understanding where to place any call-to-actions.

5. The Click Through Rate

The Click Through Rate (often abbreviated as CTR) indicates the percentage of viewers who click (or tap) on a call to action included in the video.

We can’t underestimate the importance of this metric. A call-to-action can be ineffective because it’s poorly inserted, almost confusing within the narrative of the video. Or it could be inserted too late, when a good part of the users have already abandoned the video.

Or, it could be too early and abrupt, and not have left users with the opportunity to understand what you’re talking about, stimulating their curiosity.

Again, having access to this information allows for better placement of calls to action, resulting in improved conversion rates…which we’ll focus on in the next point.

6. The Conversion Rate

In video marketing, the conversion rate is linked to the click through rate, but it’s important to keep the two aspects separate.

“Conversion” means the successful completion of a process that leads a potential customer to become an actual customer, through the purchase of a product or service, or a subscription, but also – more simply – the answer to a questionnaire and the downloading of a document.

In short, it’s the crowning achievement of a Customer Journey of which click-through is one of the steps.

It’s something that goes beyond the video, and must be investigated with deeper metrics, which must also involve the so-called First-Party Data.

Let’s go back to the previous example. Imagine a call to action inserted too early in a video, when the user has not yet reached a sufficient understanding of the product or service; well: it could attract many clicks…but if the conversion rate is very low, something is not working, and it’s good to take immediate action.

There is also the risk that, in the moment before the purchase, the customer feels “betrayed”: the call to action promised something that turned out to be misleading. And so the Customer Journey stops just before the finish line.

You have to pay the utmost attention to all this, also because you risk breaking the relationship of trust between customer and company, with potentially harmful consequences.

7. Social shares

One of the most important battlegrounds of video marketing is that of social networks, “digital places” that are increasingly populated by videos.

That’s why standing out and making yourself recognizable are essential; it’s also important to make sure that as many users as possible share your video, thus expanding its potential user base.

Warning: it’s not just a matter of circulation (as fundamental as that is). The number of shares also measures the ability of a brand to be on the “customers’ side.” To put it another way: sharing means embracing a message, being a spontaneous, and convincing spokesperson for it, being the bearer of the values that are being conveyed, even before the specific products or services.

Of course, it’s not just about keeping track of shares. It’s also essential to focus on feedback, which is the last of the video metrics we’ve selected for this list.

8. Feedback

Finally, a metric that plays a very important role, but is also very difficult to track and interpret in a broad, comprehensive, and synthetic way: we are talking about feedback, that is, the way viewers react to your videos.

Of course, tracking and interpreting likes and dislikes is simple and schematic.

Much more complex is interpreting – for example – the tenor of comments, the sentiment they express, and the reasons behind these reactions.

It’s complex, of course, but it can be done, with increasingly refined automated systems. Above all: it must be done, because here resides a goldmine of truly valuable information.

Personalization at the heart of it all

Talking about video metrics means focusing on the big numbers. But never forget that large numbers are made up of myriad small numbers. And behind all that cold data, there are always people.

Today, there are cutting-edge tools that allow you to keep all of this together, tracking the behaviors, preferences, and needs of individuals, even when they are embedded in very large and varied audiences.

It’s not just about tracking. But about going further, and building communications tailored to the individual, in a one-to-one mode. That’s what’s happening with the personalized videos offered by Babelee’s platform.

We started with metrics, with data. And here the circle closes, returning to people, the true asset of any company, the front line on which the challenges of video marketing are won or lost.