Almost overnight, videos have gone from nice-to-have to the lifeblood of B2B marketing.

But just because video marketing is more accessible and scalable than ever, doesn’t mean it’s easy. If you’re going to invest the time, budget, and resources into a high-performance video marketing strategy, you need to know that it’s actually performing.

Today, we’re diving deep into how the right video metrics can make it easy to evaluate the strength of your video strategy, including the core key performance indicators (KPIs) to track to make sure your B2B video campaigns are moving in the right direction

Get expert insights on B2B marketing. Join our Donuts & Demand series and learn proven tactics from leaders at Mailchimp, DocuSign, Refine Labs and more.

Video metrics are data points used to analyze and track the performance of video content. These metrics can provide insights into the reach, engagement, and effectiveness of a brand’s videos, and help inform decisions on content creation and strategy.

Alright, you’ve recorded your videos, spruced them up with your own custom branding, and distributed them far and wide across a variety of marketing channels.

Now it’s time to buckle down and start tracking. Let’s take a closer look at the key metrics to help you track your success from YouTube to TikTok, and everywhere in between.

The total number of views on your videos—a.k.a. your view count—is a crucial metric to measure no matter where you’re distributing your video content. But different platforms have different ways of measuring those view counts.

Here’s how the major platforms measure a view, according to the folks at Sprout Social:

• YouTube: When someone intentionally watches your YouTube video for 30 seconds.
• Facebook: When someone views your video for 3 seconds (same for Live videos).
• Instagram: Video views count after 3 seconds. Live video views count as soon as someone joins the broadcast.
• Twitter: When someone watches your video for 2 seconds with at least 50% of the video player on their screen.
• LinkedIn: Also 2 seconds with at least half the video in view.
• TikTok: As soon as your video starts playing in someone’s feed

One common question when optimizing your video strategy is how long your videos and snippets should be to maximize your engagement metrics. The answer will always depend on the unique context and placement of each video, but according to Wistia’s latest State of Video report, attention spans could be getting shorter.

The data found that engagement rates peak for shorter videos, decrease for videos between 5 and 30 minutes in length, and significantly drop for videos that are an hour long.

Here’s the average engagement rate broken down by video length:

• >1 minute - 50%
• 1-3 minutes - 48%
• 3-5 minutes - 47%
• 5-30 minutes - 39%
• 30-60 minutes - 26%
• >60 minutes - 17%

And now, everyone’s favorite. Your click-through rate and/or conversion rate let you know how many people are taking the desired action after watching your video.

According to Wistia’s findings, videos that run over five minutes often see higher conversions and click-through rates (CTRs). This suggests that while shorter snippets might be more effective for elevating engagement on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn, longer content may be key to gauging intent.

The report also found that:

• The best place to place a conversion opportunity is within the first or final quarter of a video.
• The top conversion opportunities in videos are annotation links (45%), call-to-action (CTAs) (40%) and email capture forms (15%).
• Email capture forms have the highest conversion rate at 23%, followed by CTAs at 13% and annotation links at 1%.

Your play rate is the ratio of viewers who press play to watch your video vs. those who scroll past it. And it’s a great indicator of how well your video thumbnails, titles, and placement are capturing the visitor’s attention and enticing them to watch.

The data from Wistia found that in addition to more conversions, longer videos also tend to get more clicks per page visit compared to shorter videos.

Here are the play rate benchmarks by video length:

• >1 minute - 23%
• 1-3 minutes - 12%
• 3-5 minutes - 17%
• 5-30 minutes - 35%
• 30-60 minutes - 50%
• >60 minutes - 58%

Video completion rates are the holy grail of audience retention. This metric lets you know exactly how well your videos are performing, going beyond average watch time to help you understand the number of people viewing your videos from beginning to end.

Data shows that completion rates were highest for videos of 1 minute or less (66%) and tended to average over 50% for videos of 1-2 minutes (56%).

50% of viewers also completed videos that were 2-10 minutes in length, while the completion rate for videos of over 20 minutes was 22%. This is further proof that the longer they watch, the more intent your prospects may have.

In a do-more-with-less marketing and sales environment, tracking the right KPIs is everything. Not only does the right set of video metrics help you understand how your video marketing strategy is performing, it can also help you elevate your video performance at each stage within your marketing plan.

If you’re actively using video for lead generation, or as part of a broader account-based marketing strategy, you can use your video metrics to gauge a prospect’s propensity to buy and stack rank your leads based on that information.

Then of course, there’s the buy-in angle. With powerful KPIs to guide your campaigns, it’s much easier to justify your marketing plans to approving managers.

Ready to choose your metrics and start getting even more ROI out of your video marketing efforts? Let’s explore some of the top strategies for improving your video metrics.

As hard as you may try to encourage your audience to attend live, the reality is that many of your prospects will be consuming your video on-demand.

That’s why it’s crucial to optimize the playback experience by using compelling, error-free copy for any voiceovers you’re adding to your videos. According to data from wistia, videos sporting closed captions enjoyed a 3% uptick in viewer clicks in 2023.

Data has also shown that adding captions boosts viewer affinity by 95%, recall by 58%, likability by 31%, and uniqueness by 25%. That’s quadruple the benefits with one simple add.

Of course, you also have to take your platform into account. For example, on TikTok, adding text descriptions to offer additional context throughout the video can help increase engagement.

The data also found that for videos featuring customized thumbnails, the play rate jumped by 7%.

With a custom thumbnail, prospects can easily spot your brand anytime you share your registration page URL on other sites, including social networks like LinkedIn. The thumbnail image will show up in your post, enticing readers to clickthru and watch.

Experimentation key to success with video marketing. Today, 31% of businesses are relying on A/B testing to compare video elements like music, length, or the addition or omission of an intro.

So where should you start? According to Wistia’s findings, more than a quarter of the businesses surveyed (26%) are using A/B testing to find the best placement or wording of video CTAs or lead forms to see what works best.

According to the research, the three most popular types of videos last year were: product videos (43%), educational or instructional videos (38%), webinars and live events (35%).

If you’re like most B2B marketers, you probably have a strategy for your product videos and live events. But is there more you can do to educate or inform your audience?

Don’t let valuable insights and expert tips decay in an archive file somewhere. Repurpose your long-form video content like webinars, podcasts, and virtual events into short-form educational videos that showcase your company’s credibility and personality.

As much as we all love impromptu videos from our favorite creators on TikTok, the bar for quality video has gotten significantly higher.

You can’t afford to skimp on production value. With professional grade video production tools, you can get a high-quality output without having to shell out for a professional crew.

With the right video marketing and event tools, you can use your event KPIs to fuel high performing videos that boost your reach and engagement.

For example, in Goldcast’s event platform, you can dive into data on which segments of events are resonating with your target audiences, then use a content repurposing platform like Content Lab to create, share, and track your video content across multiple platforms.

Goldcast tracks more than 16 activity triggers to help you gauge engagement and understand which parts of your events should be repurposed across channels. After the event, you can add all your recordings to a central on-demand hub where your event videos can continue generating leads and engagement long after their original airing.

Book your free demo to find out more about how Goldcast can help make events a top-performing channel, or try Content Lab today to see the power of video repurposing in action.