Updated January 12, 2023
Reading Time: 3 minutesVideo Metric Tracking
With more than 70 percent of U.S. marketers planning to use social video ads, and various social media videos getting billions of views daily, it is important that you create a refined social video marketing strategy. This strategy needs to be based on research and data. When expanding, measuring, and improving your social media strategy, tracking the right social video metrics is extremely important.
Keeping an eye on your video metrics will allow you to understand what the viewers are connecting with and how you can improve to increase engagement. Boosts your video’s ranking. Though not all networks include detailed metrics like Youtube, it is simple to track views and viewer engagement on all social media platforms.Here we’re going to show you 6 different metrics to help improve your understanding of making video a success on social platforms.
Social Video View Counts
Before we start, here’s a cheat sheet of what counts as one video view on the main social media platforms:
Facebook: 3 seconds
Twitter: 3 seconds
Instagram: 3 seconds
Snapchat: Immediately upon opening
Youtube: 30 seconds
With that in mind, let’s discuss some other important video metrics that you need to remember when creating video content. Now, knowing the length of time it takes for a view to count, you need to make sure the content exposed in that short time is captivating enough to keep people watching. The longer the user views the video, the more the person should become engaged. Data from Facebook and Nielsen highlights that 75 percent of the value of a video campaign is often achieved in the first 10 seconds of the video. So make it count!
Social Video Metrics that Matter
There are many social video metrics to consider that finding the right one is tough. From sound quality to click-through rate, there is much to research when creating a video.
Here we’ll show you 6 important things to track:
Watch time. This is the total measurement of time that all viewers have spent watching your video.The average time watched will show you how much of your video viewers are actually watching. This can help you compare the viewers’ interest between the various videos you’ve posted–then you can adapt your strategy accordingly. An example–you’re creating 30-second videos, but your viewers are done watching after 20 seconds. It’s then time to try condensing your videos!
Average percent. Tracking what percentage of your video the average viewer watch. This metric will show you if your video is connecting with the intended audience properly.
Audience retention-Presented in a graph, this metric shows you that x-percentage of viewers viewed x-percentage of your videos. You can see if there’s a common drop off at a certain point in your video. If this is the case, take a look at what’s happening in your video at that point and work out why people are dropping off.
Sound on vs. sound off. How many viewers are actually listening and watching your video? Turning the sound on is a point of engagement when the video starts muted. YouTube has recorded that 96 percent of the videos posted are watched with the sound on and almost 85 percent of Facebook videos are watched with the sound off because this is a function of autoplay. If most viewers aren’t listening to the sound of your video, focus on the visual message of the video instead.
Social sharing. This metric measures how often people share your video social, by links, tweets and facebook shares. When viewers are sharing your content, it’s being extended for further engagement.
Click-through rate and conversion. Click-through rate is the ratio of how many users click through to your website in comparison to the number of people who were exposed to your video. Conversions show the number of people who a specific action based off of your content.
There are many different metrics you could keep an eye on when creating your social video strategy. Are you monitoring any of these social video metrics for your videos?