9 Basic Video Content Metrics That are Commonly Misinterpreted

Choosing relevant video content metrics is vital to the success of your project. But picking relevant metrics isn’t exactly straight forward.

There are thousands of metrics to measure your digital video content analytics. You can see how many people viewed your video, for how long, and if they were moved to share it with their peers. But as you’ll see, metrics are a tool. Just like a fork isn’t the right tool eating soup, some metrics aren’t the right tool for your video content goals.

Your time, effort and creative juices have culminated in a video Scorsese would be fond of. The world agrees, your video goes on to break 10,000,000 views on YouTube! But you get an email from your boss with a subject line that’s not very cheery. He asks to meet to discuss the unimpressive metrics of your video.

We’ll break down metrics into three categories to give you a better idea of how metrics can be misleading and why the bossman might be upset.

The Basic Metrics

View Count

As the name implies view count is the number of times your video has been viewed. It’s also the most deceptive metric. Based on the platform (YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, etc…) view count is measured differently.

Let’s use your video that reached 10m YouTube views as an example. Those 10m views mean that your video was viewed for at least 30 seconds, 10 million times. It could have been viewed 100 times by 100,000 people, or 100,000 times by 100 people.

Watch Time

Watch time is best used to compare one platform to another. It’s the total amount of time (hours/minutes) your video content has been viewed. Since the video in our example lives on YouTube, we know that 10m people watched at least 30 seconds of your video. Watch time takes that count a step further. It’s a calculation of the total minutes viewed by those 10m people, plus everyone that watched for less than 30 seconds.

Measuring watch time against average watch time gives you an idea of how niche your message is.

Average Watch Time

Watch time / number of views = average watch time. In an ideal world, your average watch time will equal the exact length of your video. But in the real world, people have short attention spans and kids who spill things. Also, a video might not appeal to the masses. Comparing your total watch time to your average watch time is a nice little hack for gauging the mass-appeal of your video.

Engagement Metrics

*Most blogs and professionals lump engagement into one metric. But we believe engagement constitutes an array of actions.

Play Rate

If your video lives on your website, this is the most important metric to track. Play Rate measures the percentage of viewers who clicked the play button on your video. 9 times out of 10 your goal will be to drive traffic to your website. Play rate is an excellent indicator of the quality of the traffic you’re receiving, the quality of your web design, and the relevancy of your landing pages.

Social Shares, Likes and Comments

Social is the most satisfying engagement metric to measure. It’s also the best judge of video quality and marketing execution. The more likes, shares, and comments (the holy grail) your video receives the more feeds it will continue to populate. The big social media companies have put a ton of resources into optimizing what their users see. So it’s safe to say that if your video is picking up steam, then you’ve created some high-quality content!

Bounce Rate

Your video is steamrolling through social media. In addition to your 10m views on YouTube, you’ve broken seven digit views on Facebook. Better make room on your shelf for some obscure video marketing awards.

In your video, you demonstrate your latest and greatest invention – Swiss Army Flip Flops. Stylish and functional, they’ve become an Internet sensation, and a case study in the fashion industry. But your Facebook description only has a link to the homepage of your website. Hundreds of thousands of people clamoring for your flip-flops land on a webpage with a model dressed in high heels.

Those thousands of viewers (now potential leads) leave your site immediately. They didn’t want to see high heels. They wanted to buy a pair of Swiss Army Flip-Flops. That, in a nutshell, is bounce rate – it’s bad. It’s the people who come to your site then leave immediately. Keep your bounce rate low by sending traffic to a relevant webpage.

Lead Generation Metrics

Click-through Rate (CTR)

CTR is an in-between metric; I debated bunching it in with engagement metrics but decided that if your goal is lead generation, you absolutely must measure CTR. Click-through is an action that a viewer takes after watching your video. In the example I’ve been using your video is hosted on YouTube. On YouTube, we’d measure CTR by the number of people who clicked the link in our description divided by the total number of viewers.

Side Note: Descriptions are a vital part of your video content. Saying, “Click the link below” within your video is super cheesy. You’re limited in character count, so the first sentence of your description should compel viewers to read more.

Conversion Rate

Of those who clicked your call to action, how many completed the intended action? The answer to that question is your conversion rate. Conversions might be sales, newsletter sign-ups, or simply users creating accounts. An analytics engine like Google Analytics typically performs conversion tracking. If you host your video on Wistia, you could use their unique email opt-in feature.

Conclusion

Now that you’re a metrics pro you should have an idea of why your boss is upset. Metrics are tools that if used correctly can build a grand palace. On the other hand, misinterpreted metrics will leave you looking like a confused dog. A video might go insanely viral, but without a clear and compelling call-to-action, all those views go wasted. It’s vital to develop an all-encompassing strategy for your video content before you begin filming. With the right strategy, 10,000 views can generate 10x more return on your investment than 10m views.