VIDEO MARKETING ROI CALCULATION
After investing time and resources into your YouTube and video marketing, it’s important to know that you’re getting the results that you want. After all, the point of any marketing effort is to yield positive results for your brand, so being able to track growth will help you improve your marketing strategy moving forward. Fortunately, the built-in analytics feature on YouTube, as well as other applications, makes it easier than ever to measure the success of your video marketing efforts.
Before measuring the success of your video marketing, however, it’s crucial to first set some goals. Setting goals allows you to measure the ROI of video marketing by:
- Determining whether or not you’ve succeeded. Often, business owners will rely on the number of video views to determine the success of their video marketing campaign. Unfortunately, video views only tell part of the story and are not a firm indicator of video success. For instance, a 5-minute video with a million views might seem like a success, but knowing that 97% of the audience stopped watching after the first 3 seconds would change your perspective. Setting realistic goals from the get-go will make it easier to calculate the ROI of your video marketing.
- Giving your strategy focus. Without a goal, it can be difficult to measure ROI because you don’t know what to measure. By focusing on a specific goal, you can measure the return on investment values.
- Understanding your holistic marketing strategy. Chances are that video marketing is only a part of your overall marketing strategy. By understanding your goals for video marketing, you can measure how this impacted the larger picture.
Once you’ve determined your goals and pursued your video marketing efforts, use the goals and built-in analytics available to measure success. For instance, if a goal of a particular video was to get more interaction on other social media sites, such as Facebook, see if your Facebook page experienced a spike in activity after the release of a video. Remember, typically the response from a video will be front-loaded, leveling off and building slowly after the first 72 hours.
Furthermore, if you set a goal for each video, chances are that there was a strong CTA for that specific video. Whether it was to subscribe to your channel, make a purchase, visit your website, like your business on Facebook, or something else, measuring the interaction from viewers will help you determine ROI. If you have been releasing videos regularly, be sure to compare metrics video-to-video. If one video is more effective than another, analyze what made that video different from your previous ones. Being able to analyze each video before comparing it to your overall strategy allows you to make adjustments to bolster your video marketing efforts moving forward.
If you’re confused by YouTube analytics or are looking for more information, then feel free to seek the advice or guidance of a video marketing effort. Those who helped you produce the video will also be able to provide insight concerning metrics and your PR outcome. As always, remember to incorporate your video marketing into all aspects of your online marketing plan!