Ultimate Guide to Measuring Your Video Marketing Efforts

As a business, if you’re not one of the 88 percent tapping into the potential of video marketing, you’re missing a trick. Video is quickly becoming the favorite way to consume content, with 78 percent of people watching online videos every week and 55 percent viewing online videos daily. 

And it’s not just a great way to please potential customers. It also gives back to the business with its positive ROI. 

So if you want to bring more traffic, increased conversions, and more brand awareness to your business, video marketing is the way forward. 

But hang on a moment. 

Before you head off to grab your camera and mic, there’s some groundwork to do. A strategy needs to be in place, and KPIs to establish. Video marketing shouldn’t be any different from any other marketing process—it needs to be well planned, executed, and, most importantly, measured to test its success. 

And that’s where the problem lies. 

Measuring video marketing isn't as easy as your written content. Data is often skewed and unreliable, especially when taken from different channels. 

Chances are you’ll need to rely on insights from social media accounts and YouTube. And although this is useful, it’s essential to look at more than one insight to get a more accurate overview. 

Measure Success Against Goals and KPIs

When it comes to measuring data, it’s easy to fall down a rabbit hole. There’s so much information available, and it’s tempting to use all of it, which can be time-consuming and exasperating. 

The trick is to focus on the data that best matches your goals. Without goals, you'll aimlessly wander the online video marketing corridors without direction. So every video needs a clear purpose. 

Here are some goals to consider:

• Lead generation
• Brand awareness
• Authority and credibility 
• Engagement 
• Conversions 

Match the best measurement data to each goal, and you’re good to go. 

Key Indicators to Track Engagement

Tracking engagement is often the easiest way to measure the success of a video. It’s fair to say there are far more ways to track engagement than to track conversions.

Let’s look at these different forms of data in more detail. 

Likes and Dislikes

Most social media channels allow users to like or dislike a piece of content. And this is one of the most straightforward measurements to track. 

Get a heap of likes, and your content is hitting the mark. Gain a stack of thumbs-down, however, and it’s time for a rethink. 

But a word of caution. 

Likes and dislikes are very generalized. As much as you try to target an ideal audience, anyone can view your content on social media. This means that anyone, regardless of whether they’re the people you’re targeting, can like or dislike. 

How to fix this problem? 

Always compare this type of data with other measurements. 

Shares and Comments 

Having your content commented on and shared is a fantastic way to spread your message. And it’s a strong indicator that the video content is well-received (as long as it’s positive sharing). 

Great content generates shares without any extra work. However, there is another way to gain shares. 

Want the secret? 

Ask for them. Be cheeky and request shares within the content. There’s nothing wrong with popping a reminder in your videos. 

When it comes to comments, it’s good practice to pay heed to what your audience thinks—good and bad. Customer feedback is valuable when planning future content. 

Impressions 

If your goal is to raise brand awareness, the impression count is helpful. It shows how many people have noticed your video on their social media feed, regardless of whether they watched it. 

Low impression counts suggest you’re not targeting the right audience. 

But here’s the kicker. 

If the same person sees the video on their feed more than once, it counts as new impressions—despite the fact it’s the same person. So this data needs to be considered alongside other more robust data. 

Key Indicators to Track Consideration and Conversion 

Engagement rates tell you a lot. But they don’t take into account how well your video is doing when it comes to conversions. 

By and large, conversions are the trickiest video marketing goal to measure. 

But it’s not impossible. 

The following types of data help measure how many people have paid more attention to your video and taken the next step. 

Watch Rates 

Although view rate data will tell you how many people viewed your video, it doesn't necessarily tell you how many actually watched it. 

Watch rates (sometimes known as play rates) show how many people have engaged with your video by watching it through.

You can determine your watch rate by taking the percentage of people who clicked play and dividing it by the total number of visitors who access the video landing page.

Factors that influence watch rate include length of the video and the channel on which it appears. 

Click-Through Rates 

For videos with links that contain a call to action, the click-through rate is a helpful measurement. 

Channels like YouTube allow pop-ups with CTAs, whereas other platforms like Vimeo enable users to place a link at the end of a video. Knowing how many people have clicked on the link is valuable for assessing the impact of a video. 

Website videos are slightly trickier to measure. However, using a customized URL can help discover how many people click from a video. 

If your click-through rate is poor, try adjusting the following:

• Make your CTAs more engaging.
• Check your audience.
• Conduct A/B testing. 

There's never been a better time to boost your revenue with video marketing. 

With over 2 billion active monthly users on YouTube and as many as 57 percent of millennial consumers watching more video ads on social media than on television stations, the potential reach of video marketing is huge. 

But the benefits come when you measure the effectiveness of your marketing efficiently. Because when you know what's working well and what needs to change, you're more likely to hit your goals more quickly. 

Torrey Tayenaka is the cofounder and CEO at Sparkhouse, an Orange County-based video marketing production agency. He is often asked to contribute expertise in publications like Entrepreneur, Single Grain, and Forbes. Sparkhouse is known for transforming video marketing and advertising into real conversations. In addition to Sparkhouse, Tayenaka has also founded the companies Eva Smart Shower, Litehouse, and Forge54.