The 11 Video Marketing Metrics You Really Should Be Tracking

Video content is probably the single greatest thing since Google. There, I said it.
It’s become very clear in recent years that it is important but did we know it would be THIS important?
According to YouTube, they have over one BILLION users, and one BILLION hours of videos are watched on the platform every single day.
Those are some bonkers numbers ya’ll! How could you NOT be running out to buy everything on Zach’s killer office studio list, right now?
Ok, I’m sure I don’t have to sell you on the importance of video marketing much, but I do want to offer some advice.
If you still need to get your video studio supplies and strategy together or even if you already have a few videos under your belt, you need to monitor their performance.
You need to know if people are watching and, if they are, if it’s contributing to your bottom line.
This all comes down to metrics so, in this article, we are going to talk about what metrics you should look at and what exactly they mean.

First Things, First: Set Goals!

This may sound redundant if you are already investing in inbound marketing, but your goals are critical. The backbone of all that we do, goals tell us what we're working towards and help us evaluate how good of a job we're doing.
Charting your goals and milestones is best done through metrics, but video marketing metrics are a lot like those of websites -- There’s a lot to measure, but that doesn’t mean they’re all valuable or speak to your specific goals.
For instance, let's say you're trying to grow revenue from your website. You see your website traffic could be doing GREAT and don't understand why your revenue isn't growing. Traffic isn't the right metric to be measuring your success by -- conversion rate is. 
Videos are the same way. If you're trying to generate leads from your videos, but only track the number of views, you'll never be able to know if your video is actually working towards your lead generation goal. 
If people aren’t converting it isn’t what your buyer personas want to see, or if the wrong people are viewing your videos, the views don’t carry much clout.
You need to focus on the right metrics that are actually pertinent to what you’re trying to achieve. Measuring these metrics and understanding how they relate to your goals is a crucial piece of the jigsaw puzzle of video marketing and I’m here to help!
I am going to discuss which video metrics are relevant to common marketing goals and a little about what each of them.

Awareness & Reach Metrics

So, awareness. This goal is all about getting knowledge of your brand out there to your target audience.
The metrics below relate directly to this; identifying how many people are actually being exposed to your video and in turn your brand.

Views

View count is just that; it’s the number of times your video has been “watched” by an individual.
A view is counted as 30 seconds on YouTube, 3 seconds on Facebook, and 3 seconds on Instagram. This is a very deceptive metric as you can see by the wide range of what counts as a view. I mean, it’s possible to watch a video on Facebook or Instagram accidentally for 3 seconds.
This tricky metric can be great if you have a viral video that you want the world to see without an end goal, but if you are a company trying to reach a specific audience, not so much.
Treating  “view” count more like what typically would be considered reach would be is a good rule of thumb.

Play Rate & Replays

If you are like most, you have videos embedded on your website.
Play rate is how many times a user clicks the play button on these videos (though this is anywhere, not just on your website).  
It is an excellent barometer for how well videos are placed on your website.
Facebook doesn’t have an embed option, but you can still see this metric as “Clicked-to-Play” in your video insights breakdown. This is important for Facebook due to the fact that many have autoplay turned off.
Replays are an even bigger deal than Play Rate. It’s just what it sounds like; the viewer liked your video SO MUCH that they had to watch it again.
This could be a great compliment and testament to content, or it could also indicate that people didn’t understand the message in the first watch. Be wary of taking this metric to heart!

Shares

The ultimate compliment, the share! The viewer liked this video so much that they wanted other people to see it.
The more your videos are shared, the more people see them, and the larger your reach.
If your videos aren’t getting shares, it never hurts to ask in the video. Just invite the viewer to share with someone whom they think would enjoy it too.

Impressions

Impressions are a great way of seeing how many eyeballs are actually on your content.
For clarification, impressions are the number of times your content is displayed, whether it was clicked or not, and is used on Facebook and most paid platforms. Impressions also counts each time a person sees your content.
If your video doesn’t have many impressions, it's a good indicator that something is likely off about how you're trying to reach your audience (i.e. posted in the wrong location). If they never see video then there’s no way for them to watch it, after all.
If you have a ton of impressions, but very few views, that may mean your subject matter isn't a right match for the audience it is getting in front of. 

Video Engagement Metrics

This one is going to be a quick overview because most of us are very familiar with how engagement metrics typically work and they are typically the same for most major social platforms.
Engagement is about taking someone from a passive viewer to an active one. It shows that your content struck enough of a chord to spur an action/reaction.  They're interacting with your content and communicating with your brand, not just ignoring it.
If this is your goal, these are the metrics you should pay attention to: 

Likes (& Positive Reactions)

If viewers thought this was a great video, they will “like” it. This is usually an indication of agreement that the video content is on par with what the viewer would like to see.

Dislikes (& Negative Reactions)

This is an option on YouTube (and now Facebook). It can indicate that either you disagree with the subject matter, or you generally didn’t like the content.
Because of this ambiguity, this is another metric that would require further investigation.

Comments

Comments require more effort and therefore can give you more in-depth insight into viewers sentiments, both good and bad, towards the video.
They can offer valuable feedback on the content you created and give you an opportunity to engage in conversation with your viewers. Even better, it allows viewers to engage with each other building a sense of community around your brand. 

Watch Time

Now, this is where you want to spend a little more time analyzing.
There is no denying that seeing a high view count or reach feels great. So many people are watching your video, and you get excited.
However, this is a vanity metric. If you want to see if your video is actually resonating with your audience, then a great place to start is watch time, or the time spent watching your video.
YouTube calls this metric, “estimated total minutes spent viewing your content,” while Facebook calls it “Minutes Watched,” and others say “duration watched” but they are all the same thing.
If your video is 10 minutes long and viewers are only watching for 1 minute, this is a good sign that your video content isn’t engaging with your audience and in turn, likely isn’t speaking to the right audience.  
On the other hand, if people are watching all the way through; you may have just hit the mark!

Conversion Metrics

If your goal is conversion, always include a type of call-to-action at the end of your videos. Direct viewers to different parts of your landing pages to take the next steps.
While the first metric you thought about when I said Video Marketing Metrics probably wasn’t click-through rate or Conversions, they are one of the most important when it comes to the success of your work.

Click-through Rate (CTR)

Just like with websites click-through rate and conversions will measure just how many viewers were engaged enough to be interested in what you are trying to get them to do.
To be clear, CTR is the number of viewers who click on the CTA that you have at the end of your video or follow through to the designated next step.
While you can see how long the viewer watched in the Watch Time metrics of your videos, the best indication of if your audience is watching, and that if your video content is effective all the way to the end, is if your CTA is clicked.
And to do even better than that -- If they convert on your website and do the action the CTA was requesting then you have hit a Grand Slam!

Buyer & Behavior Metrics

So, you’ve made a ton of videos. You have them on all your social platforms; You’re getting likes, comments, and shares. Your play rate is awesome; your watch time is through the roof!  
But is it as you predicted? Are they coming from the locations you thought they would? OR were you all wrong?
The metrics below, though qualitative, offer valuable insight into your strategy and how to improve it.

Traffic Sources

This one may seem like a no-brainer, but traffic sources within the platform can be a game changer.
If you are getting a lot of good quality traffic from YouTube, maybe you should do some research to optimize your visibility. If you get more traction on videos that are in a playlist, then create several more and see if you can replicate the success.
This will also give you insight into where those who are enjoying your content live, and how they consume media. Using this to your advantage you can plot your next campaign with this in mind.
Then comes the questions, are you reaching them on the right platform? If you see in your metrics that you’re getting the most traffic and views from YouTube but focusing on Facebook, this is a good sign that you should pivot your efforts to focus on YouTube.

Viewer Demographics

Analyzing who is watching your videos is no different than who is visiting your website. It’s THE most important part of the puzzle.
If you look at who your viewers are you can see if you are hitting your targeted personas. Are they coming from the sources you thought they would? Are you hitting the right age group, industry, or interests?
If you aren’t, then figuring how to direct your videos to those who are should be your first order of business.

Conclusion

Video content isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Learning how to use these key metrics to your advantage will set you on a path to having highly successful video marketing campaigns.
Creating great video content isn’t about being the next YouTube star! As a marketer for a business, you need to ensure the goals you set are being achieved. Just deliver great content to your targeted audience, engage them, push them down the sales funnel, and you’re golden!
Now get out there and start making some great marketing videos!

Originally:  https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/video-marketing-metrics

Getting Results with PPC Advertising

PPC Advertising is a skill which requires mastering but there’s no reason why anyone from outside the internet marketing world cannot master it given the right advice.
Follow our step-by-step guide below to learn how to get results with your PPC Advertising.

Choosing Your Keywords

Choosing Keywords – Be Specific

One-word keywords are searched for most frequently but also have the most competition and are consequently the most expensive. Avoid general terms such as ‘marketing’ or ‘gifts’ and instead target more specific keyword phrases such as ‘low cost marketing ideas’ or ‘gifts for boys’ – they may receive less traffic but your cost per click will be considerably lower.

Use the Negative Keyword Tool

One often neglected way of increasing your click-through rate and reducing untargeted traffic is to use the negative keyword tool. Enter individual keywords that you don’t wish to be found for. For example, if you’re selling a product you may not wish to appear in the search results when someone enters ‘free’ – therefore add ‘free’ to your negative keywords.

Location Targeting

If you target UK consumers only target UK people. Similarly if you can only cater for people in a certain town or within a certain distance of your location specify this to receive more highly targeted traffic.

The Advert Text

Write Different Ads for Different Keywords

If you’re an online store selling a variety of products set up different ads with different keywords for each product. Link the advert directly to individual product pages rather than the homepage – this takes potential customers straight to what they are interested in, resulting in a higher conversion rate.

Include Keywords as Title Text

Include the keywords that people are searching by in your ad title text. Too many companies include their company name in the title – this doesn’t describe what the user is looking for and will result in a lower click-through rate.

Use Title Words in the Ad Description

Don’t be afraid to repeat some of the title text in the description below – research shows that descriptions that include words from the title obtain click-through rates of up to 50% higher than those that don’t.

Always Run More Than One Advert

Every individual keyword campaign that you have running with only one advert is a wasted opportunity. You should always run at least two different ads at any one time, testing different titles and/or descriptions. Often a slightly different title can produce significantly higher click-through rates.

Setting up a Campaign

Set a Budget and a Cost Per Click Limit

Always set a daily budget and a cost per click limit or huge expenses can be accumulated over a very short time. A reasonable cost per click will depend on the competition but as a general rule start in the region of £0.10 – £0.15 per click, a figure that you can increase over time once your keywords have been tested and optimised. Similarly, always start with a small overall budget and increase it over time once you have a good idea of the ideal keywords and cost per click.

Turn the Content Network Off To Begin With

There’s a huge debate regarding the relative merits of advertising on the Google content network, but in general it’s best to initially turn it off. Once you have your campaign optimised for the search network you can then begin to test advertising in the content network.

Track More Than Just Click-Throughs

With Google you can track more than just click-throughs, yet many people don’t take advantage of this. Ultimately you’re likely to be interested in resulting sales or registrations. Therefore track these actions through using Google’s free tracking tools – it’s just a case of inserting HTML code into the relevant page(s) on your website.

Additional Tips

Avoid the Number 1 Position

Don’t become obsessed with seeing your ad ranked number one in the sponsored links. Ads ranked at number 1 receive more traffic but also considerably more untargeted traffic – being ranked third for example is likely to be far more cost-effective.

Don’t Be Afraid of Reducing Click-Through Rates

You can write a great appealing advert description but if it doesn’t describe your product properly then you’ll be receiving many untargeted click-throughs. If you’re trying to make a sale don’t include the word ‘free’ – in fact, why not go one step further and include the price in your ad description.

Don’t Forget You Can Pause Campaigns

New websites in particular often have initial teething problems, perhaps with functionality errors or temporary down time. Don’t needlessly waste money attracting visitors to a website that isn’t ready – remember that you can always pause pay per click campaigns.

Looking Beyond PPC Click-Throughs

Look Beyond PPC to your Landing Page

It’s all very well writing the best ad description and bringing the most cost-effective traffic but if you haven’t tested your landing page then you’re probably losing out on many potential customers. Try out different pages to see what works best.

Test, Test and Test Again

Finally, constantly review the performance of your ads, keywords and landing pages. Continually try out new ad text and landing pages – over time you’ll be able to improve your cost-effectiveness by up to 500%.

The Top 3 Financial Metrics That Should Matter to Agencies (& How to Track Them)

The framework for financial analysis has evolved substantially since the arrival of easy-to-use big data tools.
As a result, there is a lot  of differing advice on how to identify “important” financial metrics within your business.
This can make the topic seem intimidating, especially for marketers, but it doesn’t have to be.
If you read my last article, you know I come from a financial discipline as opposed to that of  a seasoned digital marketer. This means I am very data-oriented and precise when it comes to making decisions. This is a bit at odds with most marketing reporting.


Most of the key performance indicators (KPIs) marketers  focus on evaluate brand awareness, driving leads, and engagement rather than overall business health and growth like most financial metrics.
While those KPIs are extremely important, they tend to only measure progress towards a specific, defined goal within your marketing channels. They’re only a piece of the puzzle.
My goal is to help you improve the financial literacy of your organization as a whole.
The goal of this article is to help you, as a marketer, identify and analyze financial metrics to improve individual project profitability, client satisfaction, and overall company health.
There’s quite a few, but in this article,  I will highlight the top three that I believe marketing agencies, specifically, should start tracking today.

1. Profitability

This metric shouldn’t be much of a surprise. As every business owner knows (and most of their team members should know), in order to keep the lights on, your company needs to make money.
From a marketing agency perspective, there are several different profitability metrics that I recommend you start tracking immediately (if you aren’t already).
First, is gross profit, which your agency is already tracking this gross profit on a consistent basis.
Analyzing this metric helps you understand how much your company is truly making from every dollar of revenue and further identify areas where you can be more efficient. For example, if you can cut an unnecessary tool or find a more affordable one.
It can be calculated by subtracting your costs of goods sold (customer success salaries, agency tools & tech, client travel, etc.) from your total revenue.
Second, you want to also be able to track profitability on a client and project level.
This will help to identify the type of projects that make the most money for your company, highlight your most valuable products or services, and help to deliver better value to your clients.
Lastly, for service agencies, the hardest part about calculating project profitability is figuring out how to track client deliverables from a cost perspective, in other words, how much time and resources go into fulfillment.
At IMPACT, we track the value we deliver to our clients using a point system, as opposed to the traditional time-tracking methodology, however, both methods have the same goal.
Ultimately, your company needs to be able to track and allocate the time your employees spend on every client deliverable. This information will allow you to calculate profitability at the project and client level.

2. Accounts Receivable Aging

Profitability is very important, but before you can begin to focus on profits, you need to attract new business, sell your services, invoice them, and THEN...dun dun dun... collect payment.
Collections is what we call, in finance and accounting, accounts receivable.
Simply put, the accounts receivable aging report will show you a detail of all unpaid invoices, the related client, and how old the receivables are.
It’s a tricky task for a client service agency to handle collections in-house. As Controller here at IMPACT, it’s part of my job to make sure  we as well as our vendors get paid on time.
However, I was hired as employee #60 and the first in our financial department.  Most small companies do not have the luxury of having someone like me in-house to make sure everything is getting paid on time.
As a result, you typically will see more client success team members bearing the responsibility of selling AND collecting.
As most of you probably can understand, this can potentially put your team and client in an awkward position and worst case scenario, harm your long-term relationship.
My recommendation would be to use a tool like QuickBooks or Bill.com to automate and streamline your invoicing process.
Not only will these tools automatically sync into your accounting systems for easier bookkeeping, they will allow you to easily send payment reminders via email, track your invoices on an individual level, and track the aging of your receivables (overdue, unpaid invoices) in real-time.
Accounts receivable management is a very important area of focus for any agency. If you are able to understand how long it takes your clients to pay on average (DSO, discussed below), you can better manage your company’s cash flow.

3. DSO (Days Sales Outstanding)

As your company starts to grow, you will also notice your accounts receivable account growing as well.

While you may be tempted to jump to conclusions about your collections process, it’s important to take a step back and analyze further.
Normally calculated monthly or quarterly, Days Sales Outstanding, or DSO. It tells you how many days, on average, it takes to receive payment from the invoice date. So, for example, if your average payment terms are Net 15, a DSO of 15.0 days would indicate a healthy, efficient collections process.
It’s important to understand your collections process and how long an average customer takes to pay in order to avoid any unexpected cash flow issues. For example, you want to collect payment for work completed as soon as possible so that you can use the cash to grow your business.
DSO is calculated by taking the ending Accounts Receivable for the period divided by the total Agency Sales Revenue for the period, multiplied by the number of days.

I am constantly thinking of new ways to improve our business processes here at IMPACT. One initiative is to sign as many new and existing clients up for ACH (aka Automated Clearing House, these payments are usually instant ).
Not only does this ensure timely payment, but it also can also potentially save you and your client some money on credit card processing fees/interest. A “win-win” as they would say.

Becoming a Numbers Nerd

In the interest of improving our overall financial literacy, let’s take a moment to digest all of that.
This is by no means an all-encompassing secret guide about three magical financial metrics that will transform your business overnight. That doesn’t exist. Every single business is different.
However, we fortunately have an amazing community of entrepreneurs, marketers, and agencies here at IMPACT, all learning and iterating as we go.
As for you, I’m happy to help you figure out the right financial metrics that do work for you and your organization, how to track them, and how to improve.
What financial metrics are you tracking and how is it working for you? If you ever want to talk numbers, feel free to email me at echoma@impactbnd.com because I am an actual nerd!

Originally: https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/financial-metrics-marketing-agencies

26 Ways to Increase Your Website’s Conversion Rate

1. Web Statistics Packages – most web businesses have one but most don’t use it to its potential. Find out how long people are spending on your site, what keywords people search by, which page they leave at, and where people click on the screen. An excellent free option is Google Analytics.
2. Eyetracking – where do people look on your site? Maybe many don’t see the important registration button or spend too long looking at the ads instead of your site? ClickHeat is a free open source heatmap statistics application.
3. Click Mapping – this refers to where people click. What action do you want people to take when they visit your website? Are too many people clicking on unimportant links? Or are people skeptical and clicking on your ‘About Us’ page to find out more? Click Mapping can provide an invaluable insight into what your visitors do and what they are thinking.
4. Surveys – don’t be afraid to ask for feedback from your customers. No one knows why they bought your product better than them.
5. Copy Your Competitors – this shouldn’t be your main strategy but if one of your competitors is doing something right then don’t be afraid to copy it. Copying their good points and improving on their bad points can be an effective strategy in the short-term.
6. Product Placement – identify your top selling products and make sure that they are positioned at the top of the relevant product pages. These products are obviously popular so make sure visitors to your website actually see them.
7. Top Sellers Web Page – go one step further and create a web page of your top-selling products. It uses the concept of safety in numbers. People feel reassured when they know that other people have purchased the product that interests them.
8. Have a Guarantee – buying online is still seen as risky by many people, especially when it’s something that traditionally needed to be seen first and tried first, such as clothes. Have a guarantee and make it as generous as possible. Many people won’t take it up, but the increase is sales could be significant.
9. Phone Number – display a phone number in a prominent position, preferably on the home page and not tucked away on the ‘Contact Us’ page. People like to know that if they are any problems they can speak to someone so make sure they know that you have a contact phone number. Don’t worry, hardly anyone will actually call the number.
10. Testimonials – many businesses don’t bother with testimonials because they say that anyone could fake them so their customers wouldn’t believe them anyway. The evidence actually shows that people do value testimonials, particularly those from the media. To increase the credibility of your customer testimonials try to include their full name and even a photo if possible.
11. Information Above The Fold – research shows that people expect all the important information to be right there in front of them when they visit a website. In fact, many people never scroll down meaning that if important information is down there it’ll never be seen by them. Take into account different screen and resolution sizes when evaluating what aspects of your website are above the fold.
12. Images – vitally important if you’re selling products, don’t leave anything to guess work. You wouldn’t expect people to decide to buy a t-shirt in a store having seen it lying flat on the ground. Try out different images or, better still, offer a selection of images, including different angles, the product being used or worn, and so on.
13. Don’t Have Tiny Images – let people zoom in on images so they can clearly see what they’re buying.
14. Image Captions – one thing that research shows is that people do read image captions. This is valuable information and something that should be used to your advantage. Display captions under products reaffirming the benefits of the product. For example, if you’re selling large gloves insert ‘Never let your hands feel cold outside again’ in the caption.
15. Adopt A Customer Mindset – what are the common objections or worries from your customers? Bring peace of mind by addressing them all.
16. The Registration Form Length – do you really need all the details that you’re asking for? Long registration forms are an obstacle. Don’t let them be one for your business.
17. Timely Reassurance – whenever you ask for information or a booking confirmation provide a timely reassurance, such as ‘We’ll never sell, rent or share your personal details” and “Product is fully refundable if not satisfied.”
18. Accept Telephone Orders – people like to have a choice when deciding how to purchase a new product. Some people are still concerned when it comes to buying over the internet, partly illustrated by the huge numbers of people who research products online before setting off to the shops to buy them. Therefore start accepting telephone orders. May businesses don’t realise how easy this is to set up through getting a PayPal Virtual Terminal.
19. Discount Deterrents – boxes such as “Enter your Promotional Code” can actually turn away people who don’t have a code. If possible remove this.
20. Credibility Logos – if you’re a small business the chances are that someone who finds you through the search engines has no idea who you are, and as a consequence you need to build their trust. One excellent way of doing this is to piggyback on the credibility of existing brands through displaying their logos on your site.
21. Show Your Face – people actually like buying from small businesses. Show who’s behind the company in the ‘About Us’ page instead of portraying your company as a large faceless organisation.
22. Small-Scale Viral Marketing – after an order is placed low cost viral marketing techniques can be used, such as “Recommend us to 5 friends through entering their email address below and we’ll give you 10% off your next order.” It won’t increase your conversion rate but it will increase the value of each customer to you through having them spread the word and encouraging repeat orders.
23. Different Browsers – is everyone seeing what you see? Check what your website looks like in different browsers.
24. The Length of Tests – when testing two different ads or layouts don’t end the test too soon. Quick judgments can lead to wrong assumptions. Split Tester is a good tool for this.
25. Content – use the word ‘you’ so that it’s as if you are speaking to your customers.
26. Test, Test and Test Again – finally, don’t be afraid to continually test different formats and ideas. If something doesn’t work your conversion rate may fall temporarily, but for everything that does work you’ll have a higher conversion rate forever.

Originally:  http://www.marketingminefield.co.uk/increase-your-website-conversion-rate/