Video Analytics: 3 Questions to Think About With Video Performance

 

It’s no secret that data analytics have become an integral part of every industry and job function. Companies are placing a greater and greater emphasis on tracking and measuring all facets of their business efforts.

The only problem:  too many people don’t understand what their data means, or what they need to know.

Understandably so, too.

With so much data it can be intimidating to decide what you should even focus on. With video analytics especially, you really need to know exactly how your content is performing at all levels.  The good news is, finding those metrics and interpreting them doesn’t have to be hard any more!

 

All you need are the right metrics to give you actionable insights on your video performance across your organization. To get started, ask yourself these three questions, and you’ll be ready to start being smarter with your video.

1: How is my content performing overall?

This sounds obvious I know, but don’t try and get too cute. Take a look at the basic metrics such as: total views, unique views, and play rate. This will tell you simply how many people are actually watching your video. If your results aren’t what you would like them to be, there are a few things you can do immediately:

• consider its placement on the webpage,
• consider your distribution strategy – are you reaching your target audience,
• consider whether the thumbnail represents the video content, and
• consider the content itself – is it informative or could it be more authentic and engaging.

2: How engaged are my viewers?

Once you have an understanding of your video performance, take a deeper dive to see how your viewers are interacting with your video and content. Use metrics such as: average minutes viewed, average % watched, click-through rate, and total social shares. Ultimately, we all want viewers to engage and to take action. These metrics will tell you whether your content is hitting the mark.

So how do you interpret these metrics?

If there’s a precipitous drop-off at a certain point, or your viewers just aren’t taking action afterwards, you may want to consider either shortening it or re-evaluating the content. Does the content provide value to the viewer, is it relevant, and is it engaging?

Pro tip: There’s a time and a place for long-form videos, but we often hear clients say their goal is to keep every video under 5 minutes long. Learners and viewers today just don’t have the attention span to retain much of the information past this point, so creators are electing to capitalize on this with shorter videos. And even in the case they do need more time to get their point across, they’ll chunk their content into a multi-part video series.

It’s true, every video and content asset has different goals – conversion, awareness, etc. But engagement should be one, if not the, top goal for every video or content piece. So, examine these metrics carefully and see which ones align best with the goals of your video. Then you can determine what needs to change to influence viewers to take action.

3: Which content is performing best?

Lastly, take a look at each specific video, and using the above metrics, see which is performing best. Group your content in categories to see which kinds of video are resonating the most with your target audiences.

For example, say your product-centric videos are performing well, while the thought leadership content is not gaining as much traction.

What could this mean? There are many factors at play that could influence results, but first, I recommend that you begin by reviewing the goals you set for the content. Were they realistic? Did your subject matter align with your target audience needs?  Was your content delivered well and by the right talent?  These are all tough questions, but worth a hard look.  Sometimes, all you need is to recognize that your subject matter didn’t align with your audience or it was delivered ineffectively to find where you went wrong.

Second, examine the distribution strategy for your video. How are  you sharing it –  through email? Social media? Website? YouTube? Can your target audience even find it?  If it’s not performing up to par, there’s a good chance that your distribution strategy is out of sync.  Your placement and audience are simply not a fit.  Another consideration could be the medium.  Video is not always for everyone, so you can also run A/B tests to determine if your website viewers would rather a downloadable PDF, or your 90 second video.

Determining what and which type of content resonates best with your target audiences is a key to successful video and content marketing. Gather insights on your content using these three questions, and you’ll have a better idea of which categories to focus on in the future.

And it’s as simple as that.

All you need to get started on video data analytics is to ask and answer those three questions for yourself. These questions will help you determine your overall performance, how engaging your content is, and what specific content is working best. This is all you need to get started on measure video performance – really.

Now get digging and start learning all the ways you can be smarter with the way you video.

Looking for a video platform that can deliver all of this? Try Knovio.