The power of video advertising can be traced back to 1941. Bulova, a watch company based out of New York, aired the first-ever video during a baseball game. Television did pedal the market for video advertising, but the real game-changer was the internet.
Our world is confined within the digital boundaries of social media. Against the backdrop of the declining television popularity, YouTube viewership has gone through the roof. People relentlessly scroll tons of content in the form of videos. In light of this trend, marketing professionals must understand and exercise effective video engagement tactics that work.
What is Video Engagement?
Explaining what video engagement is can be a tricky job. Likes and views matter, but other parameters truly define your video engagement strategy. And understanding these intricacies is the first step towards achieving excellent video engagement results.
Think about the last time you visited any social media — be it Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. You must’ve liked some pictures, read some posts, and paused for a while to watch a video. We tend to pause and judge if the video is worth our time, then we decide whether to watch it entirely or just leave. Smart marketers often lay enough emphasis on the two most important things — attention and retention. Every marketer wants to grab your attention towards their brand and retain you to sell what they are producing. Video marketing, without any doubt, is the best way to grab someone’s attention.
Measuring Video Engagement
There are several tools and analytical metrics that will help you to measure video engagement accurately. While some provide you figures, others can give you a strategic insight. Essentially, you need to define your objectives before diving into the complicated world of metrics. Know what you want to achieve in order to focus on a specific metric. Tracking everything can be an overwhelming task; hence, focusing on individual aspects can be fruitful and painless.
- Views
It is easier to get fooled by views. A staggering number of views doesn’t always translate into a prolific business outcome. For instance, a single view is considered on YouTube if you watch that particular video for more than 30 seconds. While on the other hand, Facebook considers only 3 seconds. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to take into account the platform on which you want to publish the video.
- Length
How long a video has been watched is a great way to gauge your videos’ engagement rate. However, it is not always necessary that effective engagement is only possible when a video has been viewed completely. A video can do its job in the first few seconds; some consumers get convinced earlier that they don’t feel the need to watch the entire video.
How to Improve Video Engagement
- Quality
The digital world is nothing but content noise. To stand out and present yourself, you need to make sure that your video is top-notch. Leave no stone unturned. Unless you have confidence in your video advertising strategy, getting into metrics and daydreaming about outcomes serves no purpose.
- Introduction
The saying ‘first impression is the last impression’ applies here too. Catching full attention with a persuasive, interactive introduction can successfully drive greater engagements. Start with a statistic or something compelling to incite curiosity.
- Subtitles
You need to understand that there are different types of viewers for your video. Some people like to watch the video in low volume, while some may not turn on the volume. In such cases, including subtitles turns out to be useful.
- Thumbnails
Thumbnails, for some people, are the deciding factor whether to watch the video or not. Thumbnail is the first thing that the user glances upon before playing the video. An interactive image or precise description can encourage the user to click on the video.
- Diverse Platforms
Every platform is made to serve a unique purpose. Taking into account the content, objective, and target audience, a perfect platform must be chosen. On the other hand, if you intend to publish the video on all platforms, you should consider tinkering or changing the video format tailored to the respective platform.
- CTAs
Call-to-actions are essential in raising brand awareness. It allows you to get potential leads. You can simply ask the viewer to follow social media channels, subscribe to newsletters, and so on.
- Questions
A video is a one-way communication channel. But you can make it two-way. How? By asking the right questions during the video. Depending on the content, questions can be framed in several ways. For instance, if you are selling a fitness product, ask why fitness is important. Ask a question and request the viewers to answer in the comment section. Surprisingly, you will have a better understanding of users and their perspectives and demands.
- Emotions
Just running through stats and facts can be overwhelming for viewers. Tap into customer sentiments instead. Strike a chord and touch upon real-life aspects to hook them emotionally. Make them understand why you are selling what you are selling. This way, they can relate more to your products, eventually resulting in high viewer engagement.
In-Video Engagement
In the wake of the emerging state-of-the-art technologies, video advertising and engagement have a promising future to serve the advertising ecosystem. Source Digital’s Source Activate Moments (SAM) is one such futuristic technology that is changing the game. It monetizes engagement and measures audience engagement uniquely. It lets you tap and activate moments (events or things) happening in the video in the exact moment. To put it in simple words, it allows you to engage with the content in the video.
Source Digital is a data-driven content engagement company offering cutting-edge data management solutions and immersive experiences. SAMs enable advertisers to tell the viewer about different events occurring in the video. For example, it allows the viewer to know the location, provide an opportunity to purchase apparel someone’s wearing in the video, or simply display any advertisement about the contents, products in the video. Sounds interesting, right? This phenomenal technology has paved the way for brands, content developers, and marketers to involve real-time engagement via any device type. SAMs is an embedded technology; hence, unlike conventional advertising, it doesn’t bother the viewer with frequent, unwanted pop-up ads.
SAMs empowers advertisers and owners with an opportunity to grasp customer interests. As a result, it lays the foundation for brand loyalty by generating personalized customer engagement. It allows customers to initiate the engagement, which is not possible with other technologies. Therefore, it narrows down audience drift and presents actionable metrics about user behavior.
Conclusion
Video is one of the most preferred content forms not likely to be going anywhere soon. Technology is striving to offer real, immersive interaction experiences, and video is the only channel that offers this. While it is necessary to consider metrics and views, video engagement strategy encompasses a broader set of nuances. It is vital to figure out customer behavior and its profound impact on the business.
Videos are great ways to boost engagement, but you need to monitor the way users are consuming your video content. Analyze the target audience, needs, their feedbacks. Orchestrate a video strategy grounded on human-centered design.
