New Metrics for success in Video Marketing.

Video marketing is a big field encompassing many kinds of video presentation, including branded videos, pre-roll and interstitial advertisements, and product demonstrations. Increasingly, budgets are shifting to this (relatively) new category. In part, this is due to a growing recognition among media planners that video marketing can deliver cost-effective and high-bar results. But what are these results, and how are they best measured?

Recently, there has been a greater push to define video engagement metrics in a more concrete manner. In order to compare and contrast the ROI of different video-based and non-video-based marketing tactics, the industry needs a new and better definition for video engagement, sensitive to the new ways in which people behave and interact online. This definition can be used to set the expectations of what one can expect from any video marketing effort.

We can’t use old definitions to flesh out new engagement metrics.

In the domain of video marketing, formats like interruptive ads in contextually relevant placements (e.g., interstitials played during episodic content) typically offer higher value than regular in-page video ads. This value, in turn, is most accurately described using metrics other than click-through rate — metrics like reach and frequency.

Even this, though, provides an incomplete picture. Reach, frequency, click-through rate, and other traditional metrics can’t capture, for instance, the value of someone sharing your branded video content with their friends and other networks. As a result, more and more marketers are moving forward on defining clearer video engagement metrics.

As a start, they’ve been focusing on two key objectives: 1) incorporating more granular measurements of user behavior, and 2) tying patterns of user behavior to bottom-line results like increased brand awareness or sales. In turn, the convergence of these two areas informs a higher-level understanding of total video engagement. Granular stats like viewer drop-off rates among demographics exemplify this new understanding; a brand could use this metric to verify that its videos are resonating with the same demographic that represents its traditional audience.

While there’s still a long way to go, marketers and service providers are iterating quickly in order to refine these new video engagement metrics. It’s very likely that these formulas will continue to be tweaked and improved as marketers continue to run and measure their video campaigns online.

by Tyler Willis
Tyler Willis is the 22-year-old director of marketing for Involver, a company that distributes, tracks and optimizes video campaigns on social networks. Prior to Involver, Tyler attended digital film school, and operated a consultancy that helped top social application developers grapple with virality, engagement and monetization for their apps. He writes about the intersection of video and social at http://blog.involver.com and can be reached at ty***@in******.com.
Courtesy of http://www.mediapost.com