What's the best way to assess the impact of your video content?

1 Define your objectives

Before you start measuring anything, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish with your video content. What is the purpose of your video? Who is your target audience? What are the desired outcomes and behaviors? How do you align your video content with your overall marketing or communication goals? By defining your objectives, you can set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals that will guide your assessment process and help you evaluate your success.

2 Choose your metrics

When it comes to tracking and measuring the impact of your video content, you need to select the most relevant metrics depending on your objectives. Metrics are quantitative indicators that show how your video is performing in terms of reach, engagement, conversion, retention, and satisfaction. Some of the most common metrics for video content include views, watch time, play rate, completion rate, click-through rate, social shares, comments, likes and dislikes, and feedback. Views are the number of times your video was watched. Watch time is the total amount of time your video was watched or the average time per view. Play rate is the percentage of visitors who clicked play on your video. Completion rate is the percentage of viewers who watched your video until the end. Click-through rate is the percentage of viewers who clicked on a link or a call to action in your video. Social shares is the number of times your video was shared on social media platforms. Comments are the number of comments your video received from viewers. Likes and dislikes are the number of positive and negative reactions your video received from viewers. Lastly, feedback is the qualitative responses you received from viewers such as surveys, testimonials, reviews, or ratings.

3 Use the right tools

To collect and analyze the data from your metrics, you'll need to use the right tools for your video content. Depending on where and how you distribute your video, you may have access to different tools and platforms that provide analytics and insights. For example, if you upload your video to YouTube, you can use YouTube Analytics to see detailed reports on your video performance, audience behavior, and traffic sources. If you embed your video on your website, you can use Google Analytics to track how your video affects your web page performance, bounce rate, and conversions. If you use a video hosting service, such as Vimeo or Wistia, you can use their built-in analytics features to monitor your video engagement, retention, and interaction. You can also use third-party tools, such as Vidyard or Vidooly, to get more advanced analytics and reports on your video content.

4 Analyze the data

Once you have the data from your metrics and tools, you need to analyze it and interpret it in relation to your objectives and goals. Look for patterns, trends, correlations, and anomalies that can reveal the strengths and weaknesses of your video content as well as potential opportunities and threats. Ask yourself questions such as how your video compares to benchmarks and industry standards, what the main drivers and barriers are for its performance, how it affects audience behavior and perception, what best practices can be learned from it, and what gaps or challenges need to be addressed.

5 Take action

The final step in assessing the impact of your video content is to take action based on your analysis and findings. You need to use the data and insights to inform your decisions and actions for your current and future video projects. You need to optimize your video content, distribution, and promotion strategies to enhance your impact and reach your goals. You need to test and experiment with different variables, such as video length, format, style, tone, message, call to action, and platform, to see what works best for your audience and objectives. You need to communicate and share your results and recommendations with your team and stakeholders, and solicit their feedback and input. You need to monitor and measure your progress and impact regularly, and adjust your plans and actions accordingly.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?