When it comes to online video, most of the old digital metrics apply, but so do a host of new ones. So how do you know which ones are really telling you something, and which are just data chatter?
Whether you are hosting video on a marketing microsite, incorporating video into a rich media ad unit, or posting on YouTube, the most important thing to clarify is what are trying to accomplish? Because as with every marketing tactic, the performance data that matters most is that which corresponds to your goals.
Below are some of the more important video metrics associated with specific communication objectives.
1. AWARENESS
Often at HP we are launching a new product or service and our goal is to create awareness of it. Let's say you've created a 3-minute video announcing the features and competitive advantages of your product and posted it to a microsite dedicated to the launch. You might be inclined to count visits to the site… and this is a great start, but it's not the same as understanding how many people have watched your video.
For that, we track VIEWS also called "impressions." The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has helped to establish universal standards for such metrics. In this case, a view occurs when a site visitor initiates interaction with a video and begins to receive the content, creating "an opportunity to see" – and to be counted, as well.
UNIQUE VISITORS is the number of distinct visitors to a page and helps illuminate repeat views by a single individual. This is important for understanding both the number of people reached, as well as interest or engagement indicated by repeat viewership.
2. PERSUASION
In our industry, peer recommendations are consistently rated among the most powerful influence levers. And of course, technologists and engineers are heavy users of the Web with high adoption of both video and social media. Thus, getting an influential IT manager, developer, or systems architect to validate your video is worth its weight in gold.
You'll want to track actions that reveal interest and engagement in the form of COMMENTS or RATING. By reading the content of comments, you will get some rich insight into the thoughts and feelings of the viewer. This will help you assess the clarity of your video and how persuasive it is.
SHARING, ADD TO FAVORITES, EMBEDDING and LINKING imply that the viewer has connected with the content and wants to be associated with it. By forwarding your video, he/she is providing a de facto endorsement of it and creating the potential for it to "go viral" — i.e. to receive a dramatic spike in viewership in a relatively short period. (Note: often over-the-top humor or stunts are used to instigate viral impetus. Just be aware that not all attention is good attention. Refer back to your goals and objectives to help you decide how much to dial up the “cool factor.”) Sharing actions are valuable, though, as they are typically targeted at an appropriate and receptive audience.
3. LEAD CREATION
To increase lead creation, compliment your video with a specific call-to-action. Generally, we recommend that you surround your video with additional content and relevant links. This can be done in surrounding text with hyperlinks (for instance, on HP.com) or in a companion unit below or beside your video in external media buys. (In a future newsletter we'll profile some of the hot technologies out there – like overlays – to help make your videos work even harder when it comes to driving leads and sales.) Currently, tracking CLICK THROUGHS to get additional information and REGISTRATIONS that follow a video view are the best ways to assess lead creation. (They can also begin to establish corollaries to sales.) The metric monitored for this is how many viewers were motivated to take action in association with viewing your video, such as clicking on a link and moving to the associated landing page.
While it is not a measure of a lead, per se, tracking the EXIT PATH of a visitor can also be helpful. This literally tracks the path of the viewer as they leave the video. Did they exit the site altogether? Did they watch a subsequent video in the playlist? Did they spend more time on that marketing landing page? This data signals viewer interest in the content of the video and may suggest ways to enhance the context or programming strategy of a video channel – and how that total communication stream in turn influences opt-in or conversion.
CONCLUSION
In the end, it is not always easy to obtain all the information noted above. And it’s often not necessary. Tracking every measure sometimes obscures key learnings or makes it difficult to get the most out of your video strategy. In the end, knowing more doesn’t guarantee success. It’s knowing what matters that really counts.
Please drop us a line if you’d like us to help you set up a video optimization strategy.
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