By adaptive - May 6th, 2014
Homework is done and videos are released – now you need to analyse, track and assess their impact so you can fine tune the future
Over the past three weeks we’ve analysed the importance of a video campaign on social and why it is a trend worth tapping into. We have also examined how to leverage video for a successful campaign and what basic mistakes to avoid. In this, the third and final part of this series, we find out what you need to do to assess the impact of your video campaign, analyse audience responses and fine-tune future video social campaigns*.
Measuring the impact of a successful video campaign is tricky. Not because it is hard to do, but because the way in which the video is used will directly impact the way in which it is measured.
If you have created a series of product-specific videos that you are using to educate consumers and drive conversions, then the choice of hosting platform and resultant clicks will be entirely different from a video created for a brand awareness campaign that is designed to capture consumer loyalty and attention.
“Identifying the right metrics for measuring video depends on the nature of the video and its purpose within the marketing strategy,” says says Martin Nurser, Vice President EMEA Qumu, “If a video is designed to ask the target audience to register on a website to access more content, the metrics may be total number of views compared to click-through rate and finally the completion rate. Video – like any other form of content – must be measured against objectives that are set out before the video is produced. It is only through measurement that a brand’s video strategy will develop over time to become more successful.”
Building your brand will likely work very effectively if your video is hosted on a platform such as YouTube as this is a place where you can exude creativity and draw the viewer into an idea. Here you can use keywords and positioning to rank your video and get the hits, and from there, direct the interested towards your site where you can then host videos that delve more deeply into your product offering.
When you self-host product videos you can use keywords to attract consumers who are already aware of the brand and then give them the information they need in a setting that encourages conversions. It’s easy for them to take the next step on the journey and purchase your product or service. When devising video it is as important to determine its role and also its goal. The result will mean it will be positioned properly and easier to track.
“If you want your video or social media activity to be taken seriously by the business you need to understand what the business is looking for, what key performance indicators (KPIs) other department heads are being measured on,” says Christer Holloman, author of The Social Media MBA Guide to ROI: ‘How to measure and improve your return on investment’, “If your business is all about selling enterprise software, what does the customer journey look like? Do they visit your site, download a white paper, attend a seminar – you need to make sure your video drops the viewer somewhere in that journey with a clear call to action.”
Inside the numbers
Michael Nagle, CEO and founder of enterprise video specialists Mhub, says: “To measure whether video content has been successful, you must have the right video creation and distribution platform, one which allows you to track content sharing and analyse viewing patterns in detail.”
Many organisations use YouTube and/or Google Analytics to assess the success of their campaigns, but there are other ways that can be just as effective, if not more so: Nagle recommends using an analytics platform that works in real time and that can assess how well content thrives in terms of length and subject matter. That way you can see what puts viewers off and what keeps them coming back for more.
“There are lots of different metrics to explore, depending on where you’re hosting your video,” says Charley Caines, Digital Account Manager at Tangerine PR, “If you’re using YouTube or Vimeo, total views are an obvious one, but it’s also worth looking at the number of comments, shares, likes vs dislikes, clicks through to your website, subscribers and viewing time.”
This information, along with demographic data is useful when planning future content as well as determining the value of your current content.
Marcus Cauchi, Sandler Training suggests that over and above your analytics tools, your measurements need to answer the following questions:
- Do you have more people following you on your video channels and other social media?
- Is your content going to potential customers and are they engaging with it, or are your peers and competitors glued to it and using your IP in their businesses?
- Is there a spike or climb when you release a video?
- What is the quality of the enquiries you receive – are they relevant or not?
- Do these enquiries sustain over time or dry up after an initial surge?
Google Analytics or TubeMogul can be used to embed tracking codes to follow your customer’s journey from the video and beyond, and there are also bespoke solutions that can be used internally to provide detailed analytics.
“Video is a very measurable form of content, and the data that can be collected if used correctly is invaluable in developing video strategy in the future,” Nurser says, “Enterprise video solutions can offer detailed analytics on when a video was watched, through what type of device, what location, and whether a video was watched to the end or not.”
“Remember, it will take time to draw any conclusions from these results, if selling more stuff is your goal and if your average sale cycle is three to six months, don’t expect the video to make a significant impact any quicker than this,” adds Holloway.
These tools can be used individually or concurrently to provide you with insight into video performance that you can use to ensure your return on investment increases over time. You will be able to use these metrics to deliver content that speaks directly to your target market and encourages them to take the next step on the journey with your brand.
* All videos used in this piece were leading viral videos over the past year.
[Image Source: Freedigitalphotos.net]