Knowing how to interpret video analytics is crucial to understanding the performance of your video.
5 Basic Video Metrics
Each video platform comes with video metrics. Some are basic, some are more in-depth. Although most platforms track the same standard metrics, they might be named differently on each platform. Here is an overview of the basic video metrics you need to know about:
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Reach is the number of people your video was served to.
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Views or Play Rate is the number of people who started watching your video.
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Average View Duration, Video Watch Time or Completion Rate is the average length of time people watched your video.
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Conversion Rate is the number of people that completed your call to action.
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Engagement Rate or Post Engagement is the number of people who interacted with your video by liking, sharing or commenting.
The Waterfall Method
When reading video analytics, avoid looking at video metrics by themselves. It’s better to analyse video metrics in the context of each other. Scoring a high number of views doesn’t necessarily mean your video performed well. Perhaps none of your viewers watched for longer than 10 seconds!
At Shootsta we use the “Waterfall” method to interpret the performance of our video. It’s a measurement framework that helps you to understand the impact of your video at each stage of the video journey. There are 5 stages you should be tracking for a holistic overview:
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How many people was your video served to? = Reach
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Of those you reached, how many people started watching your video? = Views or Play Rate
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Of those who started watching, how long did they continue watching your video? = Average View Duration, Video Watch Time or Completion Rate
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Of those who continued to watch your video, how many completed your call to action? = Conversion Rate
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Of those who continued to watch your video, how many liked, shared or commented on your video? = Engagement Rate or Post Engagement
Convert the results of each metric from a whole number into a percentage of the previous stage.
e.g. If your video scored 750 views but you reached 5000 people. This means of those you reached, 15% started watching your video.
This holistic approach can help you identify at which stage in the video journey your audience dropped off. Like water flowing down a waterfall, you want your audience to flow along the video journey as far as possible.
e.g. If 80% of those you reached start watching your video, but only 25% of those same people watched your video until the end, it could mean that your audience didn’t get what they expected to see.
The scores of a successful video
So what is a successful video? What numbers should you be hitting? There is no one-size-fits-all answer. Each video is unique and has its own purpose. Therefore a successful video is one that is able to get as many viewers as possible as far through the video journey as you need them to go.
e.g. Perhaps your video goal is to create awareness around a new product update that is about to launch. In that case a good Conversion Rate or Engagement Rate or Post Engagement might be less important than making sure your video gets maximum Reach, Views and Average View Duration.
Make sure you know how to set a clear goal and KPIs for your video so you can track the right video metrics and figure out the results you need to improve.
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