Business organizations have adopted corporate videos as a handy method of relaying messages within and outside organizations. It means that when all the parameters are set correctly, a good video can help to raise the brand’s visibility, engage employees, and even boost the company’s profits. However, the process of creating videos costs much, and that is why it requires a big amount of investments. This is why it is crucial to assess the return on investment (ROI) on such materials to determine its true effectiveness of your video content. 

Here is an overview of the critical factors and the approaches in determining the ROI of the corporate videos. Measuring these video performance indicators will go a long way in feeding the Video Marketing Optimization Model and therefore assist in the formulation of informed decision making on the value of the current and future video projects.

Both the project goals and objectives must therefore be well defined at the onset and linked to the desired KPIs. 

Before filming starts, it is a good practice to lay down clear objectives and measurable outcomes that you want to attain with the video. Example video goals might include:Example video goals might include:

• Grow the number of units sold, leads, sign-ups or other desired actions on the website by 15%. 
• Improve brand recognition by 20%.
• Increase the average training satisfaction scores by employees by a percentage of 30%

Link goals to other business strategy and outline guidelines for establishing video success indicators. Many of the KPIs used by corporations relate to video views, engagement, conversion rates, brand lift studies, and so on. We will describe them further in this post and highlight other metrics, which can be used.

Understand Your Target Audience 

The objectives of the video have a direct impact on success measurements and the target audience of the video. As a result, marketing communication objectives will be significantly different for an externally-oriented marketing video and an internally-oriented, educational employee video. 

First, make sure that you have identified the purpose of the video and its intended viewers. Ask the following:  

• This leads to the question of who needs to view this video? It was clear that external customers were a less significant focus compared to internal teams.
• What are the objectives, goals or purposes for this audience? Sales ,branding, learning and development,etc. ?

Audience alignment is linked with the videos’ objectives, tactics, resources, and, finally, evaluation criteria.

Below are the five essential KPIs that should be tracked:

As with any measures, prospects are almost infinite, but refining focus to a few critical performance indicators helps to avoid an information overload. Track progress over time on these 5 must-know video success metrics:Track progress over time on these 5 must-know video success metrics:

1. Views

A basic metric of video exposure that measures how far your content is getting. Look at views on a per video basis, comparing it across multiple stations, including YouTube, social media, website players, etc. Establish view targets per channel.

2. View Time/Duration

Helpful for evaluating video performance or adoption by the target audience. Gauge the average time viewers spent watching and the bounce rate. They should focus on the segments that are performing well in terms of viewership so as to encourage more viewership of the particular parts.

3. Impressions  

For hosted videos count the impression, which refers to the number of views of the content. This showcases reach potential.  

4. Engagement

They also include the interaction metrics such as shares, comments, likes. Indicates viewer interest and likelihood of being persuaded into taking an action.

5. Conversions

The Holy Grail! Achievement here directly relates to video objectives, such as subscription, contact requests, orders, event registration, and so on. Link the video reach with the trends in conversions in the long term. 

Tip: YouTube Analytics should be fully utilized as they are built-in for sound reporting.

Direct Feedback: Conducting a survey on a group of viewers to get their direct opinions on the issue.  

Whereas, ratings give objective figures about the viewership, viewers provide qualitative data about them as per their insight. Create pre and post-video watching questionnaires which should include rating scales and multiple choices as well as a few questions requiring writing answers.

Ask target groups on:

• Level of enjoyment 
• Areas of confusion
• Knowledge gains
• Pre-implementation intent

For surveys, it will be important to align them with the objectives of the original video and the expected response. For example, the survey for an employee training video might include self-rating questions for the subjects, about the increase in their capability after viewing the video. 

Conduct Brand Lift Studies 

A bit more complex, but revolutionary – Carry out a brand lift study to assess the changes in the key brand indicators of your audience compared to those who have not encountered the branded video. Most suitable for assessing effects on the awareness, perception, attitude, purchasing intention and other variable before and after the exposure to the video. This entails establishing a control group and the method to use for the comparison of results for the effectiveness of the intervention.

This action should allow us to separate Video from other factors and see its true impact on the results.

If a metric is tied to a larger goal such as increasing sales or website visits, it is often best to understand how your video influenced that particular metric independent of other factors.  

Base line the performance before introducing the video live during the first few lessons. Next, contrast to a later time with the video released and promoted through various platforms and channels. Most of the difference probably links back to video impact as any notable variations must be associated with the latter.

This goes to confirm that it is mandatory to conduct metric benchmarking at the initial stages of isolation of impact studies, prior to video filming and distribution.  

In the model, Continuously Analyze and Act on Insights is a crucial activity that involves analysis of relevant data and making subsequent decisions.  

Don’t let your metrics remain as a neat pile of digital information in your reporting dashboard unused! Make it possible for the stakeholders to request for access to reports and get information of health metrics against goals at any given time. Put measurement insights into action via:Put measurement insights into action via:

• The outcomes of the performance can be further evaluated through monthly review meetings in which high and low points are discussed.
• Recognition of the best scenes and personas that are generally performing better for amplification 
• Signals for poor performing videos for newer techniques
• Content improvements or strategic shifts in viewership of low-performing videos 

The continuous review and healthy dialogue allows for the most potential bang for the video buck or at least the maximum potential of the video.   

Key Takeaways

Just a reminder, when calculating return of investment the earnings that should be attributed to the corporate video production as a standalone product rather than the company’s general operations should be considered. Do not rely on the number of views that have been attained to give you direct proof of the achievement of business objectives since the videos’ distribution.   

Struggling to start is one of the main challenges of implementing a set of key metrics for tracking. Ensure those goals and KPIs match up with audience needs, set early tracking expectations, differentiate between other variables, and make adjustments. Now, play the button for demonstration of video content return on investment.