When I was a kid, there were times that I stayed in the library at break time and solved trigonometry problems, rather than playing football (or soccer, depending on where in the world you’re reading this from).
Don’t get me wrong, I love football — I just love numbers more….and running a video marketing agency, this is a handy thing.
Marketing as a discipline is math + creativity in a boiled down sense. The same goes for video marketing.
Tracking metrics and analysing them carefully can make or break a campaign.
However, of all of the metrics that we measure, the one we care least about are views.
Yep, that’s right, views really aren’t that big of a deal to us . Here’s why:
Marketers are vying for attention of their audiences via the content that is published and simply, a view does not equal attention.
A view on Facebook for a view is counted after 3 seconds. That large number you’re proud of? Go check the video insights and have a look at the number of views that were 3 seconds long — that number isn’t so impressive now, is it?! Don’t forget many people still autoplay video on Facebook. If they stop the video and move on after 5 seconds — should that count?
On YouTube a view is a little more ambiguous but it is generally accepted that a view is counted after 30 seconds. But if your video is a 7 minute tutorial who cares?
Do you see how measuring the effectiveness of a video by views can be very misleading. Large view counts can still deliver small return on investments — and the roi is what it is all about.
So what metrics do matter?
Well that depends on your objectives but generally, engagement rates i.e. How much of your video is being watched, ensuring your target audience is watching the video (not randoms), shares (for influence) and what is the viewer doing after having watched your video (did they follow your call to action).
Now that’s a bit of a crash course in video metrics that count but it is more helpful than just cheering every time you get an extra 1000 views on the counter.
Key Takeaways:
