So you’ve produced a great video explainer that will help your target audience easily understand what it is that you do. You’ve thought about where to strategically embed it on your website to gain traction. You had it pinned on top of your social media account. You shared the link to your team.

Now all that’s left to do is track its success.

But how do you know your message is getting across? What key metrics should you be looking at?

In this blog article, I’ll share with you the nine metrics that have helped us in tracking our clients’ video marketing success.

1. Measuring for Reach and Impressions: View Count

If your goal is to get your video — and your brand — out there and be seen by as many people as possible, then you should be looking at this metric.

It answers the question “How many times has the video been viewed?”

Does your video need a little more push to reach a bigger number of people? Here’s what you can do:

1. Share your video content with influencers
2. Embed it on your relevant marketing emails or blog newsletters
3. Share it on social media

While tracking your views is a great way to measure brand impressions and brand awareness, this should not be the only metric to focus on. Focusing solely on view count tends to divert you from answering more crucial questions, like “Is the video resonating well with my target audience?”

2. Measuring for Relevance: Play Rate

Gaining thousands of views does not equate to actually generating money for your business. Your video needs to first engage with the right viewers, your target audience, who will highly likely convert and be your customers.

To track this, you’ll want to look at a metric that’s a more precise predictor that your video is on the right track: the play rate.

The play rate is the percentage of your audience who actually clicked the Play button and watched the video. This helps you track how many people found your content relevant and timely to their needs.

Here are some questions to help you ensure that your video gets more plays.

1. If your video is uploaded in a video-sharing platform, does it have a brief description that reflects the topic?
2. If your video is embedded in your website, is it placed in a readily seen area in the page?
3. Is the thumbnail interesting enough to draw attention?
4. Is the video appealing and engaging?
5. Does the video relate to the webpage content surrounding it?

3. Measuring for Quality: Engagement

Research reveals that engaged viewers were 97% more likely to purchase the featured product in a video. And this is why this is one of the biggest metrics you need to look out for.

Engagement answers the question “How much of the video do viewers watch until the end?” This is expressed as a percentage.

A low engagement rate means your message isn’t relevant to draw the viewer in and doesn’t resonate well enough with them to watch it through until the end. A high engagement rate means your message is valuable and the content is interesting and clear.

Does your engagement rate need a boost? Here’s what you can do:

1. Create high-quality videos
2. Keep the message clear and concise
3. See to it that the video title and description matches the actual content
4. If you have 10 minutes’ worth of video content, consider cutting them to 2-minute clips
5. Take note of where viewers lose interest; this should be the part of the video where they tend to drop off

4. Tracking Word of Mouth: Social Sharing

Whether a potential customer buys from you is influenced by what they see on social media. Are influencers they’re following sharing your video? How many of their friends are sharing it online or making reviews?

A report from Nielsen reveals that “92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family trump all other forms of advertising.”

The social sharing metric gives you an idea how much people are sharing your video content. This is usually measured by the number of shares across social channels.

Why is this metric important?

Social shares build trust and promote awareness. These are marketing efforts that bolsters buyer confidence, which you don’t have to pay for.

Here’s how to make it easy for people to share your video:

1. Craft a catchy and descriptive title that’s ties back to your message
2. Add captions to your video
3. Add a CTA that encourages and compels people to share

5. Driving Action: Click-Through Rate

Your video doesn’t serve its purpose well if it doesn’t drive your audience to take action.

To see if your viewers are taking the next step after watching the video, look at the click-through rate (CTR). This is the percentage of viewers that click on the call to action contained in the video.

Does your CTR need a boost? Here are some easy steps to take:

1. Include a call to action so they will be prompted how to proceed after watching the video. Use action words. Make it visually attractive.
2. Make sure your call to action is relevant to the video content.
3. Make sure the video is prominently placed at the top of your webpage or email so prospects don’t miss out on it.
4. To boost your click-through rate, you need to improve your engagement rate. A low CTR could mean a lot of your viewers drop off even before the video ends, where the call to action is.

6. Tracking Your Lead Generation: Conversion Rate

Conversion is a critical metric you need to measure to know if your video is turning your targeted viewers into leads or customers.

The conversion rate is the percentage of people who converted — signed up for your event, subscribed to your blog, contacted you, or purchased a product or service — post-watching the video.

Here are some tips to improve your conversion rate:

1. Your video should answer a pressing question that they have at a specific stage of your marketing funnel
2. Instil trust
3. Provide valuable and helpful information that will alleviate your audience’s worries
4. Make your video short and entertaining

7. Fortifying a Community: Feedback

Tracking comments or feedback from the viewers is a great way to see how powerfully your video content resonated with your target audience and whether you’re creating or strengthening a community around your brand.

How do you encourage comments on your video and build a community?

1. Create a video that directly answers a target viewer’s question
2. End your video with a direct question or a statement that can spark discussion

8. Impact to Operations

If your video helps answer a frequently asked question or solves a common problem, you can measure the video’s success by tracking the number of support calls or emails your team receives around the topic. If it has reduced, then it’s a good indication that your explainer video has effectively covered the basics.

Another question that can be answered by this metric is, “What financial savings or impact do you get as a result?”

Bespoke according to the project. For example, have the number of calls to a call centre been reduced?

To improve an explainer video’s impact, find areas or topics on your website that are confusing or unclear, then add an explainer video and see if it helps clarify things for your target audience.

9. User Experience: Website Metrics

Website metrics track website improvement after the video is uploaded to the website. This takes into account SEO, page views, bounce rates, etc.

Do your web visitors find your website gripping enough to stay longer? A higher bounce rate is a key indicator that viewers land on your website but exit it without viewing other pages.

If you want higher conversions, adding an explainer video with a compelling call to action is a great way to hook visitors to stick around.

Want to improve your user experience and reduce your website’s bounce rate? Have a look at your landing page and use this checklist:

1. Is the content (both text and video) compelling enough?
2. Is the navigation easy to use? Does it make sense?
3. After watching the video, are the next steps for the viewer clear and easy to follow?

That’s a Wrap!

There you have it — the nine crucial metrics you should know to measure the success of your explainer videos. You don’t have to use all of these metrics just because you can. What’s the metric or metrics that are weighty to the stakeholders? By focusing on those metrics, you and the stakeholders are able to see whether the work is indeed making an impact on your target audience.

Once of you have the data, pay attention to it, learn from it, and improve your content around it.

If you found this article helpful, read about Why You Need to Have Explainer Videos in Your Marketing Strategy.