What Video Marketing Metrics to Track

For your training program to be successful, you need to ensure that it meets the goals it was designed for. And the only way to see if it does is to measure its performance. No one wants to spend hours creating video content to share on social media only to find out that nobody watched it or the number of views is very low.

The common metrics used to measure the engagement of any video include the play rate, the number of viewers, the bounce rate and the conversion rate. But in this guide, we will focus on the metrics that can specifically let you know if your instructional video is performing as expected.

The Video Metrics to Pay Attention to

The following are the four most important metrics to track of you want to determine whether your instructional video is meeting its goals or not;

Plays and Views

Of all the metrics we will be looking at, this one of the most straightforward since it indicates how many times the video has been played. While it may not be helpful as a standalone metric, the number of times the video is played can provide some insights in terms of the engagement the video is getting.

The number of plays tells you if the video is getting watched or not. If the video is getting very few views you can begin to ask questions that will determine what could be causing the low rates. Perhaps there is a technical problem that is preventing them from watching the video. Or, perhaps your SEO was insufficient and your target audience is unable to find the video.

Other than just checking the growth of the number of views, there are other things that you can check for. For example, 40 people may have signed up to view the videos on your website, but you only see 10 views. The reverse could also happen; indicating that people are watching some of the videos more than once.

While it can be hard to get into the specifics of video plays, you can use other data points that can help you paint a clear picture of what is going on with the videos. But to do that, you need to add mor metrics to your data.

Unique Plays

The next metric that you need to look at to determine the performance of the video is the unique plays. While a “play” records the number of times the play button on the video is pressed, a “unique play” filters the additional number of times the same person presses the play button. This is a very important metric since it gives you a clear idea of the number of people who have watched the video and engaged with the content at a specified time.

It is worth pointing out that when the same person presses play on the video on their mobile device and then again on their laptop, the two actions may count as unique plays depending on the video host you are using. You may therefore want to check the video’s hosts documentation to determine if they have the capability to determine these kinds of unique plays.

When you know that your audience is watching the video multiple times, you can gain insight into the following questions about the video and its content;

• Are they watching more than once because the video is interesting, engaging or useful?
• Did they watch the video multiple time because some aspects of it were confusing?
• Is the video being used as a job aid or reference guide?

The answers to these questions can found in other metrics and data or you can survey your viewers to find out why they are watching the videos more than once. Whatever method you choose to answer these questions, it is critical that you find out the answers since they can help you position your videos better in the future.

For example, if people are watching the videos more than once because the content is confusing, you might consider removing some parts of the video or re-ordering the content to make it more effective.

Unique plays are an important metric since they can allow you to understand the impact the video is having ion the audience. It gives you context about your viewers’ behavior.

The Watch Time

The next metric that you want to look at is the watch time. The watch time indicates the total amount of time hat the video has been seen by your audience. This means all the viewers in total, multiplied by the watch time. For example, if one viewer watches 10 minutes of the video and 10 viewers watch 1 minute of the video each, the Watch time would still be 10 minutes.

This metric can help you see if the viewers are watching most of the video and when you combine it with a number of other metrics such as the “Plays” you begin to understand what your viewers might be doing while they watch the videos. Most hosting sites will also tell where the traffic is coming from and the Watch Time metric will tell you where the most viewers and coming from.

From the data you can make conclusions that might affect the videos you create in the future. For example, if a certain demographic is watching your videos more than others, you can choose to create content for that demographic only. Or, you can choose to tailor the content that you already have to attract other demographics that may benefit from tour content.

But it is important to look at the Watch Time metric in combination with other metrics before making any decisions. Analyze all the data points and then make changes to the videos depending on the needs and goals of your audience.

Audience Retention or Audience Engagement

Another very important metric to consider is the Audience retention or the audience engagement metric. Depending on the host you are using, this metric is often depicted as a line graph that goes up as people watch a certain part of the video.

Therefore, if multiple people watch the same section of the video more than once the line on the graph will go up. As fewer people watch that section of the video, the line may drop. By looking at the graph, you can determine the sections of the video that seem to be more engaging and where your audience may be losing interest in the video.

As you can probably guess, this metric can provide a lot of insight into the overall performance of the video. The first is a pretty accurate comparison of how many people started watching the video versus the number of people who may have been watching the video towards the end.

You can also use this graph to determine if engagement with the content spiked at a certain period during the video. From the data gained by analyzing this metric, you can easily determine the sections of the video that the viewers may be losing interest.

Whether they watched the video too many times at a certain section of they stopped watching the video at a certain time, you can clearly determine that something may have happened to cause the change in behavior. Perhaps the video was moving too fast and they had to go back to re-watch some of the sections.

The graph may not be able to tell you why the viewers behaved the way they did. For that, you will need to investigate and even survey your readers.

What to Do with the Data

Now that you have gathered all this data and even surveyed your readers to determine why they watched certain videos or certain sections of the video more than others, it is time to do something with the data.

If you determine that they stopped watching the videos because they were not engaging enough, you can change the content and how the video is made to make it more engaging. This can often involve re-editing the video by removing some of the content or even re-writing the script.

You may also find that a particular demographic interacted with your video more than you though they would. In this case, it may be a good idea to develop additional content that is specifically targeted to that demographic. You can use the data to increase or decrease the content as desired.

Now that you know the metrics to keep in mind when creating video training programs, you are ready to begin creating content that will be beneficial to your target audience and your business.