Experiencing a lack of engagement and results from your video? The Internet and social media are full of video posters who scratch their heads wondering where they went wrong when producing and distributing their content. Without the right tools and knowledge, it’s impossible to find the answer.
Seeking ways to pinpoint the weak spots in your video so that you can learn from your mistakes means you’re on your way to a successful future video. Let’s talk about what you can do to capture and maintain viewer interest in the future by learning about your current video’s weak spots.
Make Data Your Best Friend
Data is king for analytics, and content creators and marketers everywhere depend on it to learn about user behavior regarding their videos, websites, paid ads, and more. If you’re looking for the answers to what is working and what isn’t working in your video, then you must turn to analytics.
At the same time, looking at data can be daunting and confusing for inexperienced content creators. To help you make sense of the analytics, let’s break down the data into practical applications.
Are People Watching?
First and foremost, you’ll want to know if anyone is clicking on your video. You’ll be able to find in the data how many views your video has achieved. If the numbers aren’t where you hoped they would be, then you should ask yourself a few questions:
- Are you posting your video where your target audience spends their time?
- Does your video have an engaging thumbnail graphic?
- Have you made it easy to find and click on the video?
- Does the video cover a topic that your target audience would be interested in?
On some platforms, people may click or see the video, but it won’t be considered a “view” unless they’ve watched for more than a few seconds. Make sure you understand the particulars of the analytics service before you begin interpreting the data.
The Whole Video?
In many cases, content creators get a significant number of views, but those viewers do not watch the entire video. Looking into the data is key to learning about common parts of the video where most viewers decide to stop watching. On some platforms like YouTube, you’ll be able to see this information clearly in the analytics dashboard.
Take note of the times in the video that most viewers left. If most viewers left the video after a few seconds, the beginning of the video was not engaging enough. You might be drawing in the wrong target audience or the video might take too long to get to the point. A common mistake I’ve seen is a video that begins with a logo. Let me be clear: 10 seconds of a logo at the beginning of a video is a waste of 10 seconds.
If viewers often leave somewhere in the middle of your video, it’s likely that the video is too long, poorly made, or paced unevenly. Long videos have the potential to be engaging throughout when executed properly, but this can be difficult to accomplish. If you’re stumped, you can learn more about common mistakes that affect videos’ success to find answers for your viewer drop-off.
On the other hand, viewers might leave in one spot for a good reason: they take action. To know whether their exit was good or bad, analyze their behavior in the next section.
What Do They Do When It’s Over?
If your viewers have made it through the entire video, or they leave to take action, then you should be proud – you’ve produced a successful video. How do you know by looking at the data?
The proof that your viewers take action can be found in the analytics on some platforms like Vidyard or Wistia. Data can show you the demographics of viewers, where they’ve come from online, and where they go after they’re finished. This kind of information is key to learning more about your audience and whether the video is successful.
Ultimately, you’ll want to analyze your call-to-action phrases (CTA). Does your audience often click out of your video at the same time that you tell them to click on a link or contact you? Do they go to the next step in your marketing or sales funnel once they’ve finished watching?
Having all this data helps you get great insights into your videos and implement changes to future videos so that you can keep getting better engagement and results. If you have any more questions about how to read video data, contact Monzo Media Productions.
