From learning and development to operations, technology, and support — video metrics are essential for tracking the effectiveness of video content.

Learn how to use video metrics to evaluate video content. Analyze and measure performance with these top five video KPIs for tracking and improving success.  

Why Are Video Metrics Important?

Video metrics help you evaluate the performance of your content and where to optimize it. They provide visibility into what’s working so you can replicate those results and boost ROI. 

Marketers can use video performance data to segment their audience, tailor marketing campaigns, and create predictably successful video content. But it’s not just marketing that benefits from employing video metric insights. 

Businesses and organizations use video metrics to:

• Track student or employee engagement with training videos
• Evaluate the effectiveness of customer support demonstrations
• Audit secure communications across departments or branches 
• Maintain compliance within regulated industries
• And much, more more. 

Use Cases for Business Videos + Metrics to Track

5 Video Metrics to Measure Engagement & ROI

1. Play Rate

Play rate answers the first question of video engagement, “are people clicking play?” It represents the total plays as a percentage of the total impressions.

For example, an e-commerce brand includes a demo video on every product page. When visitors land on the page, they can play the video to learn more about the item. If 250 people visit the page and 50 click play, the play rate is 20%.

What Is A Good Video Play Rate?

SproutVideo customers from diverse industries see an average play rate of 30%.

3 Ways to Optimize Play Rate

• Thumbnail: Thumbnails are the billboard for your video. Create a consistent design tone to build trust with viewers. Test various thumbnail elements (graphic elements, text, tone) to see what performs better with your audience.
• Copy: Provide context and improve the viewer’s expectations of the video by changing the video title, description, or accompanying text. Use this copy to convey the value of the video and encourage readers to click play. 
• Content Alignment: Align the video topic with the page where it’s located. For example, the e-commerce brand places a video ad on a product page. It has a decent play rate but the conversion rate is low. The brand replaces the ad with a product demo. The video’s play rate and the conversion rate increases significantly.

On the SproutVideo platform, you can set a custom date range to compare play rate data before and after optimization strategies are employed, making evaluating their effectiveness easy. 

2. Average Engagement Rate

Are people watching your video from start to finish? 

Average engagement rate measures how much of your video viewers watch. It is the most useful metric for determining how your audience engages with a video. Indeed, 60% of marketers use engagement as the key performance indicator (KPI) when measuring success. 

For example, a media company sends a one-minute advertising pitch to ten potential sponsors. Half of the sponsors watch the whole pitch; the remaining half watch 30 seconds.

Therefore, the total time spent watching the video is seven and a half minutes — out of 10 potential minutes. The average engagement rate is 75%.

However, suppose three of the potential sponsors rewatch the one-minute video. In that case, they will contribute an additional three minutes of watch time, increasing the average engagement rate to 105%. In this way, the average engagement rate can be over 100%. 

On the SproutVideo platform, an engagement chart showcases the average engagement rate across the video’s duration. It allows you to determine what parts of the video are most engaging to your audience. 

Note: Average engagement rate is automatically calculated for SproutVideo users. The data graph (picture above) shows average engagement rate at any point in the video.

What’s A Good Video Engagement Rate?

SproutVideo customers from diverse industries see a 58% average engagement rate across a wide variety of video durations.

Note that this data does not include average engagement for rewatches.

How to Optimize Average Engagement Rate

Like the image above, engagement charts are usually on a slope: the largest number of viewers start watching the video and gradually dissipate. 

Look for drop-off points and engagement spikes in the data to improve your average engagement rate. These can significantly inform your video creation process. 

• Drop-off Points: Sudden drop-off points indicate that many people leave simultaneously. Review the video to determine why. Does the information become redundant, overwhelming, or offensive? Identify the culprit and update the video. 
• Engagement Hills: In the graph above, notice the engagement “hills” on the otherwise downward slope. Whereas peaks (sharp engagement increases) may indicate less engagement with the rest of the video, engagement hills highlight sections with increased interest or value added. 
• Engagement Peaks: Similarly, engagement peaks showcase where the most viewers tuned into the content; however, peaks also indicate lower overall engagement with the rest of the video. Determine why viewers are flocking to that part of the video. Often, peaks represent the core informational value the video provides. A more concise video may offer the same value in less time while increasing engagement. 

If you see a change in engagement at a specific timestamp, examine what is happening at that point in your video. Perhaps you:

• Placed a call to action
• Introduced a new character
• Changed music
• Droned on a bit too long
• Provided a nugget of significant value 

The data will guide when to tighten your edits, sharpen your hooks, and refine your message to ensure viewers keep watching the entire video. 

3. Heat Maps

Heat maps display a cool-to-warm visualization of engagement data. It also showcases the percentage of the video content the viewer watched during a single viewing session. 

Heat spots, identified by the warmer colors below, indicate where the viewer rewatched content. Rewatches indicate areas of greater interest or sections of information that are too dense to absorb the first watch. 

Heat maps offer helpful insights into user behavior. When paired with other individual session data, companies can measure the effectiveness of employee training, internal communications, marketing materials, and more. 

For example, a videographer sends their portfolio to a potential client for review. The client immediately writes back to book the videographer. They want to know which video sold the client on their skills. The videographer reviews video heat map data and notices that the client watched a few seconds of many videos but only rewatched one. This information helps reveal what captured the client’s attention, plus the videographer uses this video to sell their skills to similar clients in the future. 

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4. Click-Through Rate

Click-through rate measures the percentage of viewers who click on a call-to-action (CTA) prompted by your video. This metric is important if you use video to encourage specific actions. 

Depending on your video goals, you may want viewers to:

• Follow an in-player call to action 
• Click on the post-play screen
• Select a button or link on the video’s webpage 

When brainstorming effective calls to action, keep in mind that viewers will only click the CTA if it is relevant to the video content already holding their interest.

How to Measure Click-Through Rate

Track unique users to the page where you send traffic, as well as the source of the traffic. Use Google Analytics or your website hosting service to find this data.

Combine this information with video metrics to determine if there is a correlation between viewers watching your video and landing on the intended page or offer. 

For example, a web developer’s promotional video includes an in-player CTA that directs traffic to a contact page. She compares data from her video to the unique numbers of users who visit her contact page from that source.

Her promo video receives 50 unique plays. Her website analytics reveal that ten users landed on her contact page from the link in her in-player CTA. She deduces that her video is producing a 20% click-through rate.

5. Conversion Rate

Conversion rate measures how effectively your video persuades viewers to complete a specific action. This metric is essential for businesses, as it showcases how video affects a bottom line. 

Depending on your video goals, you may want viewers to:

• Subscribe to receive additional resources
• Request a demo or sign up for a free trial
• Make a purchase or become a paid member

For example, a viewer stumbles upon a blog post with a how-to video. During the video, a CTA offers a free resource for new subscribers. They follow the CTA to a sign-up page, enter their email address, and receive the free resource in their inbox.

They successfully converted! 

How to Measure Conversion Rate

To determine the conversion rate: track unique users to the page where you send traffic, the source of that traffic (i.e. your video), and visitor behavior (whether or not they complete the action). You can use UTM parameters to segment the traffic to ensure your conversion rate only considers traffic from users who played the video.

For example, 100 people watch a video. Twenty people click through to a sign-up page promoted with an in-player CTA during the video. Ten of the 20 people who click through to the page sign up. Therefore, 10 of 100 potential people converted, or 10%. 

Use Google Analytics, your website hosting service, and your payment provider (i.e. Stripe, PayPal, etc.) to find this data. Compare this data with video metrics to determine if there is a correlation between unique users watching your video and taking the prompted action. 

How to Use Video Metrics to Improve Engagement & ROI

Video metrics provide valuable insights into what’s working and what needs improvement. Here’s how to use video metrics to evaluate and improve your videos:

1. Employ engagement strategies in a new video or by replacing an old one. 
2. Track and evaluate how each strategy affects performance over a period of time. 
3. Recreate your results to determine strategies that lead to stronger performance.

3 Strategies to Improve Video Engagement

Research shows that the following strategies work across industries and audiences. Discover eight more engagement strategies in our article.

• Hook Viewers in the Opening or Introduction. Why is this topic enticing, valuable, or entertaining? Introduce or illustrate the core idea right away to increase engagement. 
• Expand Video Reach with SEO. Organic discovery puts your content in front of people who are directly seeking it, making them more likely to engage with your video.
• Optimize Videos for the Intended Distribution Channels. If you plan to share a video across multiple platforms, create separate versions to optimize it for each channel.

Keep Reading: 10 Strategies to Improve Video Engagement 

Give your video content superpowers: grab our 30-day truly free trial. Or learn more:

• (Video) 10 Strategies to Improve Video Engagement in 2024
• 15 Live Stream Metrics & How to Measure Success
• 5 Use Cases for Business Videos & How to Track Success

The post 5 Most Valuable Video Metrics to Measure Success appeared first on SproutVideo.

Discover how to use video to achieve your business goals in customer support, learning and development, and more. We’ll also cover the video metrics needed to measure success.

There are countless types of videos a company can produce. Review these video use cases to set clear goals, measure effectiveness, and improve your video strategy. 

Note: The metrics below are common across video hosting platforms. However, we’ll discuss how to effectively improve each metric using the SproutVideo platform. 

1. Sales & Marketing

Goal: Attract new leads, shorten the sales cycle, and increase conversions.

Video was the primary form of content businesses created last year — likely due to the high engagement rate, popularity of video-sharing platforms, and SEO benefits. 

Let’s consider how an e-commerce brand might use video. For its spring clothing line, the company produces videos to target customers at all stages of the buying journey.

These videos might include:

• Product demonstrations 
• Customer testimonials
• Educational content
• About Us/Mission 
• Explainer videos 
• Advertisements 

For example, the e-commerce brand creates a 15-second product demonstration of a sequin-beaded dress sparkling in the sun. 

It’s featured on the product page, across social media, and within segmented marketing emails to one-time dress buyers, new subscribers, and loyal customers. 

Metrics to Evaluate Success

• Play Rate: Measure the effectiveness of video placement, thumbnail, and copy with play rate. A higher play rate increases the likelihood that viewers will absorb the video’s value and fuel their interest in the brand’s offerings. 
• Average Engagement Rate: Determine how much content average users watch to determine the significance of video engagement on purchasing decisions. Use this information to determine highly engaging strategies and recreate them. 
• Domains: Discover which marketing channels drive the most traffic and engagement to your videos. Use this information to optimize the most valuable channels and gain further insight into your audience segments. 
• Conversion Rates: Compare engagement data with your customer relationship manager (CRM) and Google Analytics. Determine the relationship between viewer engagement and increased conversions. Correlate new conversions with a traffic lift from videos. Take this further with individual viewer data: tag users to see how videos influence viewers on the SproutVideo platform. 

2. Employee Onboarding & Training

Goal: Train new hires efficiently and improve employee skills.

Expedite employee training and student education with video-based learning. For example, a national chain of hotels creates training videos for staff in multiple languages and across locations. Onboarding teams and leaders within the organization can share these videos with employees and new hires as needed, in person or virtually. 

Types of videos the company creates might include,

• Screencast videos 
• Company culture highlights
• Educational content
• Day-in-the-life reels
• Live stream events

Imagine the hotel chain hosts a monthly “Welcome to the team” live stream for new employees. The video introduces new hires to executive team members, covers company culture and core values, and presents profiles of employees who have enjoyed career advancement. 

During onboarding, new hires receive a “day-in-the-life” video on their position, how-to videos for learning their job, and a screencast video on using the company’s HR software. 

Metrics to Evaluate Success

• Heat Maps: Course completion is important for L&D teams. With heat maps, they can easily determine if individual viewers completed a video. Review all sessions so that the viewer can track completed videos across multiple viewing sessions. 
• Unique Plays: Proprietary and confidential training materials are usually for internal “company eyes” only. Monitor unique plays to ensure video plays don’t exceed the amount of people with access. If you suspect a leak, determine the cause by investigating individual session data. 
• Viewer Name: Utilize tagging on the SproutVideo platform to easily review all session data for individual users. Once tagged, users will appear by name instead of the Viewer ID assigned to them. Click on their name to see all the videos and live streams they have watched.

3. Internal Corporate Communications

Goal: Communicate across departments and enhance culture.

Internal communications must ensure that proprietary information and intellectual property are kept private and secure. Consider a Fortune 500 company with multiple locations, remote workers, and tens of thousands of employees who must communicate securely and effectively. The company uses video metrics to monitor internal content and protect intellectual property, unreleased information, and proprietary knowledge.   

Other types of internal videos a company might create include 

• Strategy or policy change videos
• CEO-led mission statements
• Financial updates for shareholders
• Department-wide communications

In remote workplaces, companies also use video for virtual celebrations, scavenger hunts, and other team-building activities. 

Metrics to Evaluate Success

• Average Engagement Rate: Evaluate how much content viewers watched. Review how people interact with the video, including what parts they watch and rewatch. This information allows you to review how people engage with important communications.
• Geographic Location: Track viewer location to ensure communications only reach intended parties or branch locations. 
• Unique Plays: Ensure communications reach the intended amount of people. Investigate individual session data if the number exceeds the intended audience size. 

4. Customer Support 

Goal: Provide personalized service and create a library of help videos.

Companies use videos in knowledge centers to provide 24/7 customer support and serve as pre-sales tools. Video is also great for personalizing customer support, as Support agents can send short messages or screencasts to customers that demonstrate the solution to their problem. 

For example, a solopreneur selling a video course on investing for beginners doesn’t have the resources to handle many support requests. However, she learns from past customers and generates screencast videos that address common issues and how to solve them. 

Support videos a company might create include:

• Product-based tutorials
• Screencast how-to videos 
• Video library of FAQs

When the solopreneur, from our example above, responds to support requests, she hits record and talks directly to the customer. This approach saves her valuable time and personalizes the support, increasing customer retention. 

Metrics to Evaluate Success

• Average Engagement Rate: Evaluate how much content viewers watched. Use this metric to determine the effectiveness of support videos. Learn what parts of the footage created “ah-ha” moments for customers. 
• Play Rate: Track how often people watch a video to find a solution to their problem versus reviewing the text of a help article or support email. This data validates the use of video for customer support and helps you optimize your knowledge base by highlighting which frequently asked questions need videos.
• Heat Maps: Discover what parts of the video provide the most important information for solving a common customer problem. Determine when a concept needs to be explained more deeply based on the density of rewatches within help videos.  

5. Regulatory Compliance and Continuing Education

Goal: Maintain compliance with regulatory requirements.

Video training is a common aspect of maintaining compliance within regulated industries (i.e., finance, healthcare, legal services.) For example, a personal finance company creates an online training platform to ensure employees comprehensively understand and adhere to standards. It also hosts live stream conferences to facilitate compliance management across a location-independent team. Types of videos the company creates include:

• Tutorials on compliance management
• Live stream workshops 
• Industry rulings and updates 
• Corporate policy videos

The company can use its secure video hosting platform to closely monitor employee engagement with compliance materials to ensure the information is absorbed. 

Metrics to Evaluate Success

• Viewer ID or Name: Track and review engagement data for each viewer to ensure viewer completion of all compliance materials. An easy way to do this is with log-in protection (or Single Sign-On) through the SproutVideo platform. 
• Heat Map: Review visual engagement data for each viewing session. View all sessions for any viewer to determine if the user started and finished a video later. 
• Viewer Minutes Watched: Track viewer time input for compliance regulations that require certification or continuing education hours. View the minutes watched for a single viewer across live streams and videos using individual session data on SproutVideo.

Dive into the world of video engagement and metrics with our series:

• Video Engagement: 10 Strategies to Grab & Hold Viewer Attention
• 15 Live Stream Metrics & How to Measure Success
• Video Metrics to Measure Performance and ROI

The post 5 Use Cases for Business Videos & How to Track Success appeared first on SproutVideo.