When beginning any marketing campaign it is important that you feel it’s going to be money well spent. In most cases this means that it’s likely to return a healthy return on investment, as well as being something you’re proud to show off.
With video marketing and many other marketing campaigns, it can be a challenge to pin point exactly if it’s delivering you a financial return on investment. Plus it’s effectiveness is very dependent on how well you are utilising the video in the first place…
So let’s recap on the many places you should be sharing your videos online.
- Website pages & Landing pages
- E-mail marketing campaigns
- Google Video adwords (YouTube adverts on the Google display network)
- Social media posts
- Paid adverts on social media
- Blogs or Vlogs (video blogs)
- Reference to videos via print adverts & offline media
One great way to measure success of any marketing approach is to collect as much data and statistics as possible – giving you a clearer indication of the engagement generated.
There are several ways you can see statistics and track how well your video is performing:
- Track number of views and engagement levels via Youtube’s analytics feature.
- Run Google Video Adwords campaigns – This is strangely affordable and offers analytics too.
- Use split testing – for example try sending marketing emails with & without a video hyperlink. Which emails get a higher open rate? Research shows a video usually helps a lot.
- Ask new enquiries how they found you – ask them if they watched the video & what they thought of it?
- If you use Google Analytics on your website you can monitor several aspects. Firstly if the video has helped increase dwell time, that’s how long people stay on your website. Secondly you can track the customer journey, if they watched the video & then went through to ‘contact us’ (for example).
- Find out if your videos are displaying in Google search results when searching for your keywords. Try searching using an ‘incognito‘ browser window. The more search results that display and are associated with your business the better! It’s knocking your rivals further down the search page(s).
- Ask for feedback from friends, clients and strangers – ask them for honest feedback and if they think your videos portray you well. Tweak them if you can.
Here’s a screenshot of Youtube’s analytics feature, taken from one of our most popular videos.
A final observation…
Measuring ROI shouldn’t just be about counting numbers! Other considerations should include whether a video helps with brand image or brand awareness? Does it aid user experience on the website, playing its part in generating enquiries… An informative video may offer that little extra nudge to turn a browser into a buyer… people like to feel confident they are making the right decision by using your services. Again the best way to track this is to ask them directly, how did you find us? what made you decide to pick up the phone? Usually people will answer this honestly, and most people will understand exactly why you’re asking. Can you utilise short questionnaire emails? Importantly, make notes of the answers on a spreadsheet or CRM system.
As with most marketing approaches, investing in video content is just one piece of the pie… it’s a large juicy slice and a highly important ingredient, but on its own it’s not likely to bring home the bacon. Video must be combined with other ingredients for true success.
To conclude – Video marketing offers more than just a ROI
Although the above suggestions may not all give you direct figures to calculate a financial ROI, it does however show how the use of video can play an important role in generating leads, closing deals, & giving clients more confidence to choose you. If you’re goal is to generate revenue using video, then it can be done but it must be implemented properly with a long term plan – speak to an expert.
For more knowledge & advice on how to implement some of the above techniques, or to discuss how elDRAW Creative Media can work with you to create effective video content for your company…
Written by Chris Wardle – Director & Lead Videography of elDRAW Creative Media Ltd