Why Analytics Is a Must for Your Video Marketing
6 Minute Read
It should come as no surprise to any self-respecting marketer that video is king in today’s digital marketplace. Online users spend billions of hours every year watching videos, from YouTube content to short clips on social media to live streams and more. If you haven’t integrated videos into your digital marketing and advertising campaigns, you’re missing out on a huge audience.
Businesses that invest in video often hire videographers and companies that specialize in high-gloss production. These videos may look great, but do they resonate with users who find you online?
If the audience doesn’t engage with the videos you have produced, your website, social media channels, and ad campaigns are not going to fully succeed. Fortunately, the explosion of digital video has also resulted in sophisticated analytics platforms that can help you and your agency monitor how videos perform and make educated decisions about your marketing and advertising.
5 Reasons to Pay Attention to Video Engagement
Assuming that every viewer will watch your video to the end is a mistake. Viewers may only watch part of the video and leave, or they might skip around the timeline. Some won’t click on your videos at all.
These actions signify a lack of engagement on the part of the viewer. If the purpose of video marketing and ads is to tell users who you are and what makes you different and convince them to buy your products or services, videos with low engagement are not getting the job done.
Multiple analytics tools can help you evaluate the effectiveness of videos embedded on your website and used in advertising campaigns on Google and social media sites. Top reasons to start using these tools ASAP include:
1. ROI on Video Marketing and Advertising
High-quality professional video is expensive. Whether the purpose of the videos is to engage the visitors who come to your website or drive leads via ads campaigns, checking analytics can help you determine if you are getting your money’s worth.
2. Number of Video Plays
The most basic measure of whether a video marketing strategy is working is the number of people who click “Play” on the video. Analytics can show you the percentage of users who play the video on a webpage or ad. If people don’t click, you may need to make adjustments to the video, the campaign, or both.
3. Video Runtime
One of the strongest measures of engagement is how long people watch a video before dropping off. If you see a precipitous decline in the number of viewers at a certain point in the video, this could suggest any number of problems: a decline in sound quality, unengaging visuals, an off-putting message, or the bane of every viewer’s attention span – boredom.
4. Video Marketing Costs
Google, Facebook, and many other platforms have robust advertising options centering on video. Each platform has native analytics that allow advertisers to see the reach of video ads, how much each playthrough of a video costs, and more.
These data reveal how effective your ads are at reaching your prospective customers, keeping their attention, and driving leads, as well as what you pay per campaign. If you are sinking a lot of money into campaigns with minimal returns, you and your agency may need to rethink your video ads strategy.
5. Conversions and Leads
Depending on the medium where the video appears and the intended user action, conversions can encompass social shares, clicks to your website, filling out an online form, etc. Whatever your goals, low conversions on a video are the ultimate signal of poor ROI.
Why Aren’t My Videos Performing Well?
You may think every frame of your office walk-through is a cinematic marvel. However, vanity is one of the biggest reasons video marketing and ads fail.
Many businesses use videos to create a larger-than-life image for the brand. These videos typically take the form of dramatic montages, often employing effects such as slow-motion to add gravitas to the footage. Some of these videos run up to 5 minutes long, serving as a kind of mission statement narrated over the video.
The problem: Time and again, we see these videos generate low engagement. They may look nice and present your business in an impressive light, but videos like this do not tend to resonate with today’s consumer.
There are several reasons for this discrepancy between the perception some marketers and business owners have of these videos and the response from consumers.
1. The Diminishing Returns of High Production
The glossy, dramatic presentation in these videos is nothing new. The more people see a particular type of video, the less likely they are to engage with it.
2. Overproduced = Inaccessible
Consumers want to feel connected with the brands that sell products and provide them services. The audio track may say all the right things, but the visual presentation in these videos can be alienating and unapproachable.
3. No Call to Action
It is not uncommon for the companies that produce these videos to overlook opportunities to improve engagement. The video may have a card at the end with the firm’s name, logo, and contact information, but this requires viewers to watch all the way to the end (statistically a rare occurrence).
How to Maximize Your Video Marketing
Delving into video analytics enables businesses and agencies to take ego out of the equation. When you see how your videos are underperforming, it is much easier to make data-driven decisions about how to improve your video marketing and ads.
You may have spent a lot of money on these videos and you may be very pleased with the aesthetic, but it is just as important (if not more) to make sure these videos are supporting your brand awareness and lead generation goals.
Now that you know what kind of insights video analytics can provide, it is important to understand how you can improve the engagement of your video library. The following tips can help you use the video assets you already have, rather than investing in expensive reshoots.
1. Update the Preview Image
A compelling preview image can make the difference between a user pressing play on the video and scrolling right past. Video platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo, and others give you the option to customize the thumbnail image.
Choose a good still shot from the video (with no blurring, image overlay, strange expressions on people’s faces, etc.) or work with your agency to create a custom graphic.
2. Embrace the “Lower Third”
Videographers follow the “rule of thirds” when composing an image. The most important information should appear in the upper and middle rows of the screen, leaving room at the bottom (the lower third) to provide information like your website address, phone number, etc.
Utilizing the lower third for these call-to-action elements (the production company can achieve this in editing) is a good way to engage viewers and provide clear direction without requiring them to watch the whole video.
3. Look for Context
It is normal for the views on a video to decline steadily as the runtime progresses. An engagement rate of around 40 percent halfway through a video’s runtime is fairly standard. However, if 60 percent of the viewers suddenly drop off less than halfway through the video, something is driving people away.
The video may benefit from being shortened, or alternative footage could be used to increase engagement. The production company should be able to make these changes and send you a new version of the video.
4. Position the Video Appropriately
Videos embedded on your website should stand out from other elements on the page. Watch out for a cluttered presentation or conflicting design elements that might make it difficult for visitors to see your video and play it as they scroll.
5. Keep Costs in Check
Digital advertising can quickly become expensive. Communicate regularly with your agency to ensure that costs are controlled and the video campaigns are helping you attain your goals for reaching potential customers and driving new business.
Get Started with Video Marketing Today
Keeping up with consumer trends can be tough. At Twelve Three Media, we stay on the cutting edge so we can help our clients maximize awareness of their brand, drive leads, and generate revenue.
High-quality digital video is just the start of a video marketing and advertising campaign. To get the most from these eye-popping assets, you need to position them so viewers can’t help but click and carefully track performance to ensure you get your money’s worth.
Get the unfair marketing advantage. Reach out to Twelve Three Media today to start building custom marketing and advertising campaigns utilizing digital video!