The Most Important Video Marketing Metrics for Campaign Optimization

‍

Have you set up your video marketing campaign?

Is your content scheduled for posting across different social media platforms?

Now, before you proceed further, you simply must know all the important video marketing metrics that you need to track once your content goes live for the public.

Why does this matter, you may ask?

Well, you did your audience and market research; you are aware of the latest trends that are working on the internet, but what’s the guarantee that everything will be 100% on track? No one can guarantee that. That’s where you roll out your best-researched content, and based on the performance of that content, you optimise your future content.

Let’s understand all the performance metrics that are important for your future optimisation.

‍

9 Essential Video Marketing Metrics You Should Track

‍

Once you get the knack of keeping track of different video metrics, you get a crystal clear idea of what type of content works for your audience. Different social media or third-party platforms provide you access to in-depth analytics details.

Here are the metrics that you can’t skip during your video performance analysis.

‍

Click through rates

‍

Click through rate, or CTR, is one of the most important metrics that reveals the result of your video and how well it hooked the viewer to take a specific action. Many people confuse the number of clicks with CTR. Clicks represent how many times viewers clicked on a specific link or CTA, while the CTR is the percentage of those clicks in relation to how often the video or CTA was shown.

Let’s break it down.

If you have a video ad with a CTA, like "Sign Up Now," and your video is viewed 100 times, but only 5 people click the CTA, your CTR would be 0.5%. This is calculated by dividing the number of clicks (5) by the number of views (100), then multiplying by 100 to get the percentage. Simple, right?

Your video should be engaging enough so that it triggers the required emotion in the viewer, motivating them to take the desired action.

‍

Completion rate

‍

With the ever-reducing audience attention spans these days, making the viewer remain hooked and complete a video itself speaks for the quality and connection your video has established. If you stopped those scrolling thumbs in their tracks, you’ve already got a small win!

Completion rate tells you how many viewers watched your video content from start to finish. It’s calculated by dividing the number of viewers who watched the entire video by the total number of times the video was played, then multiplying that by 100.

Here’s an example to understand better.

If 20 people started your video but only 5 watched until the end, the completion rate would be 2.5%. That’s calculated as (5 / 20) * 100 = 2.5%. This all makes so much sense now, doesn’t it?

Remember: Because of the varied lengths of your video content, it can be difficult to compare completion rates with the best-performing benchmark. So, you must pair it with engagement rates or subsequent viewer actions to really get a well-rounded perspective.

‍

Video plays

‍

An important metric when it comes to analysing your video performance is video plays. It measures how many times viewers click the play button on your video.

Video plays don't focus on the time spent by a viewer on your video. If it gets played even for a second, it will be marked as a positive count.

If a lot of people click play, it usually means they find the topic or content interesting.

Insight: We are like magpies—we like shiny things. People are likely clicking play because the video’s thumbnail, title, or placement caught their attention.

Also, social media platforms promote videos with a higher play count. So work on these metrics rigorously.

‍

View count

‍

Just like video count, View count is another critical metric for your video marketing efforts. It refers to the total number of times a video has been played.

Different platforms have different approaches to count a view. For example, Facebook counts a view after 3 seconds, while YouTube requires 30 seconds of watch time for it to register as a view.

A high view count suggests that your video is reaching a wide audience. It also highlights strong brand visibility and appeal.

Keep in mind: View count doesn’t reveal how deeply viewers are engaged with the content. Someone could watch for just a few seconds and still count as a view.

Also, repeated views or bot traffic can also inflate this number, so it’s important to analyse it alongside metrics like average watch time and completion rate to paint a more accurate picture of your video’s success.

‍

Watch time

‍

Do you want to know the total amount of time viewers have spent watching a video? Watch time is the metric you must track!

There are two aspects to watch time:
Total watch time
Average watch time

For example, if 300 people watch your 9-second video from start to finish, your total watch time would be 2700 seconds, and the average watch time would be 9 seconds.

If viewers are dropping off early, you can identify where the issue lies and tweak your content for better retention in the future. Time is of the essence!

Note: It’s best to analyse it alongside metrics like completion rate, engagement, and shares to get a full understanding of viewer satisfaction and content performance.

‍

Play rate

‍

It can get confusing between video plays, watch time, view count, and play rate. We understand that; that’s why we are explaining it in simple words with an example.

Play Rate is the percentage of visitors who play a video on a web page out of the total number of page views.

For example, if your webpage gets 3000 unique visits and 300 visitors click to play your video, your play rate is 1%, calculated as (300 / 3000) * 100.

For a fact, a play rate of around 15% is considered decent performance.

A high play rate means the video successfully grabs attention.

‍

Social shares

‍

Once your viewer likes your video, there are high chances they’ll share it with their followers or friends. It will help you expand your audience, increase brand awareness, and potentially generate new leads.

When your video is shared, it reaches beyond your direct audience, which helps your brand connect with a larger network.

Keep in mind: Top-of-funnel videos (awareness stage) are likely to generate more social shares than bottom-of-funnel content (closer to conversion). Why? Because entertaining, cheeky, or educational videos resonate more broadly and are more likely to be shared than highly specific or product-focused content.

‍

Conversion rate

‍

You may confuse CTR with conversion rate. Conversions are one of the most important KPIs to track.

While CTR measures the percentage of viewers who clicked on an action button after watching a video, conversion rate measures the percentage of viewers who completed a desired action after clicking on your video’s CTA.

When tracking conversions from video ad campaigns, you can directly measure the impact based on the number of leads or customers generated.

However, with organic video content or educational videos, measuring conversions can be more complex. You’ll have to rely on tools like UTM tags to track clicks and conversions, helping you see which video content is driving action.

Is this all making sense so far? Good, read on!

‍

Return on investment

‍

Every video doesn’t have a purpose to generate an ROI. But when it comes to video ad campaigns, ROI becomes a vital metric.

How much revenue your video generates compared to the costs involved in producing and promoting it becomes important.

Here’s the simple formula to calculate ROI
ROI = [(Revenue Generated - Cost) / Cost] * 100

For example, if your video costs £500 to make and promote and it leads to £1500 in sales, your ROI would be 200%. This means for every dollar spent on the video, you earn two dollars in return.

Here's the math:
ROI = [(1500 - 500) / 500] * 100 = 200%

Keeping up with these important 9 metrics for different video marketing campaigns can be difficult. So, why not let experts handle all the hard work? This is what you can trust Simply Thrilled for. We’ve got you covered!

‍

Simply Thrilled Can Analyze Your Video Performance

‍

We, at Simply Thrilled, have video marketing experts who can help you plan and run successful marketing campaigns. We also help you analyse each and every aspect of your video marketing campaigns so that you can achieve your desired business goals.

Let’s aim for the stars!

Our team stays up-to-date with the latest trends to continuously improve your results; we’re trendy, hip, and cool...

So, from video production to analytics, the whole process is designed to be worry-free for you; we handle every aspect!

Share your requirements and goals with our experts, and let us take care of the rest. Looking forward to hearing from you.

‍