Video ROI is still an elusive concept to many publishers. What KPIs do you even consider when weighing whether a video was successful or a bust? And how can you maximize video ROI so that these projects can be completed quicker and bring in the most positive results possible?
If these are some of the questions that keep you up at night, you’re in the right place. We’re here to demystify how to break down the ROI videos can reap, so the next time you’re producing a project, you know exactly how effective is it — and what audiences it resonates with the most.
1. Know exactly what video ROI you’re aiming for
One reason that video hasn’t been as widely embraced by C-suites thus far is how difficult it seemingly is to assign KPIs to projects and accurately measure them.
But, as discussed in our webinar with JW Player, “How to scale video content for maximum ROI,” it pays serious dividends to conquer your fear and frustration with video.
That’s because viewers retain 95% of messages when consumed in this dynamic form, compared to just 10% with plain text.
You’ve probably heard that your goals should always be SMART, as in Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.
Yet when it comes to video, it’s those first two parts that fluster producers and company execs more than anything.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
When planning your video content strategy, pinpoint which metrics you’re aiming to move with each piece you produce. The ROI videos produce depends almost entirely on knowing the exact KPIs you’re targeting, and not all videos are meant to do the same thing.
Consider the following measurable goals when planning so you maximize the ROI videos get:
- Boosting subscribers
- Increasing leads
- Making more sales and/or higher-value sales
Using UTM links and proper goal attribution in Google Analytics will ensure you understand the value of your videos and the landing pages they live on.
You can also aim for video ROI in other areas, like:
- Amplifying brand messaging and awareness
- Upping engagement (think comments on YouTube – the kind ones)
- Educating your audience (from potential leads to current customers)
- Helping employees save time and improve practices
Knowing your intended results before you invest time, money, and energy into creating content is crucial for maximizing video ROI.
2. Get inside your audience’s collective mind
You have to understand your audience’s needs and desires to truly know what to deliver to them in your videos.
That means using the right kind of motion and emotion to inspire and compel them to take the actions you want them to.
To increase the odds to connecting, keep videos short. Attention spans have been measured to be as low as eight seconds. Aim for 47 seconds on average for the length of your videos.
You should also attempt to use images of people and objects that you believe resemble your ideal customer.
With tools like Wibbitz, you can have anyone on your team easily source high-quality stock video footage and create short, digestible clips that can go a long way in improving the ROI videos bring in.
Check out this video created with Wibbitz that uses tantalizing food footage and clips of a family enjoying a barbecue meal to appeal to people looking to maximize the awesomeness of their summer cookouts.
3. Ensure your distribution strategy is solid
The 80/20 rule shows up in several ways when it comes to video. For starters, you’ve likely noticed that you derive the majority of your traffic from just 20% of your content.
And, if you already invest in video, it’s likely that this kind of content represents a large chunk of your top-performing 20%.
To maximize your video ROI for your most successful creations, it’s vital to set up your distribution strategy in a way that also follows the 80/20 model.
That means for every 20 minutes you spend creating content, you spend 80 minutes (or 4X the amount of time) promoting that piece of content.
Unfortunately, far too many companies that invest in video forget that they need to invest even more time and energy into distributing this powerful content out into the world. And to the right people, at that.
You may have spent 10 hours creating one particularly potent piece of video. Now, spend the next full work week disseminating it through the most strategic channels so you get the most bang for your production buck.
Finding the right audience for your videos ROI to be is also easier than ever these days.
Targeted social ads enable smart marketers and publishers to narrow their focus to an incredibly granular level, while remarketing lets you reach people with strategic ads in their social feeds after they’ve visited certain landing pages on your site.
Don’t forget to add clear CTAs to all your videos if you’re hoping for viewers to take specific actions after consuming your content.
4. Reduce costs by reusing and repurposing videos
Ask any content strategist what separates the best content marketers from the rest, and they’ll tell you that it’s how focused their teams are on repurposing and reusing content.
Face it: content creation can be a grueling process, and it’s a major time-suck for your team, no matter how stellar the finished product may be.
That’s why you need to squeeze as much as you can from each juicy piece of content you create.
As you’re creating, consider various ways you can utilize the same piece of content to spread the ROI videos generate across multiple channels.
Could you use produce one video that can serve as evergreen social media ammo for regular reposting and simultaneously live on a static sales landing page? Perhaps you can also use the same video in your sales emails to make a better impression with prospects.
Beyond that, consider how you can take existing footage from finished videos and rework it to quickly create something new out of virtually the same materials.
A strategic video production tool like Wibbitz gives you access to tens of millions of high-quality clips of stock video footage you can easily repurpose from video to video.
5. Measure, measure, measure (and analyze)
In order to maximize your video ROI, you need to know the costs and gains related to each piece of content.
For starters, figure out how much the company is spending on employee salary related to time invested in the project. Then, deduce how much the company has spent on additional resources and equipment to produce something.
From there, you get to the fun part: measuring all the positive ROI videos brought in.
There are plenty of KPIs related to videos you can measure, including:
- Total video embeds
- Ads clicks and skips
- Number of plays
- Total video completions (you can also measure 25% completes, 50% completes, etc., to see where viewers drop off)
- Time spent watching
Beyond that, you can also attribute video ROI to metrics like unique viewers, plays per viewer, viewers by country, and other demographics to help you better understand the ROI videos generate relative to each segment you target.
Stay focused on setting the right goals for each piece of content you produce and accurately measure the results, and you’ll be well on your way to boosting the ROI videos bring in for you.