Return on investment (ROI) is the most powerful tool in a marketer’s arsenal. It’s how you demonstrate to management, investors, and board members that the work you do is making a positive difference in the success of the company.

Unfortunately, when it comes to video, many marketing experts are unsure how to demonstrate ROI beyond simple metrics such as number of views. But measuring the results of your marketing videos is actually a lot easier than you think.

As long as you know your goals, which KPIs to keep an eye on, and the tools that help you measure those metrics, you can easily demonstrate your ROI for every video.

Here are three tips for measuring ROI.  

Set Goals

85 percent of the U.S. internet audience watches videos online, and by 2021, Cisco predicts that every second, 17,000 hours of video content will cross global IP networks. To measure your piece of this large pie, you first need to set goals for your marketing videos.

Saying that you want a video to “go viral” is not a goal. Instead, you need to set S.M.A.R.T. goals—goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. For example, a SMART goal could be, “I want to gain 30 more subscribers each week for the next month through my video content.” In this way, you know exactly what you want your videos to achieve.

Before setting your marketing video goals, think about your company goals and then match them up. In this way, you’ll have results that your management team wants to see and be able to maximize your video content marketing investment.

Common video marketing goals include:

• Increasing click-through rates
• Driving brand awareness
• Increasing website traffic
• Improving engagement metrics
• Increasing conversion rates for more paying customers
• Developing brand trust.

Determine KPIs and Metrics

52 percent of marketing professionals worldwide say that video has the best ROI of all content types, because it’s easier than you think to track the return on your investment. The key is figuring out the KPIs and metrics that you’ll need to measure in order to total up all the gains and costs of your video marketing content.

First, let’s take a look at the main KPIs you need to pay attention to:

• Views
• View-through rate (complete views / impressions)
• Subscribers
• CTA clicks
• Conversion rate
• Social sharing/comments
• Total cost to produce/publish

After determining your KPIs, you then have to work out your ROI with a simple formula that tabulates your gains and costs. The basic equation is:

You need to total up all of your gains and subtract all of the costs used to get those gains. The way you do this is by using a relevant attribution model. In this way, you can see which sales had the first engagement with your company from a specific video, so then you can see how much money your company earned from those sales and use this equation (outlined above).

To help you get started, we’ve also outlined how to count the “gains” of your video content based on your objectives as well as how to count the “costs.” Not all of the gains and costs listed below will be accurate for every video. However, you should consider each gain and cost on the list, assigning a monetary value according to your lead value and lead conversion rate, to determine your final ROI number.

Implement Measurement Tools

To help you measure your KPIs, there are many paid and free tools available that you can implement to track everything from conversion data to view metrics, engagement, and more. These are a few of our favorite measurement tools that can use alongside your killer content marketing videos.

Facebook Analytics

When posting a video on Facebook, you can use Facebook analytics to quickly and easily determine how that video contributed to your overall reach and engagement. Basic video metrics provided by Facebook include:

• Average view duration
• Impressions
• Video views
• Engagement
• Click-throughs

When setting up a Facebook video ad, you can also track conversion rates, as long as you place the appropriate back-end-data on your website as well.

YouTube Analytics

YouTube also has a built-in analytics tracker for all videos and it can go as granular as you want it to. There’s basic information on each video such as views, watch time, engagement, subscribers, and shares. And you can also get more detailed and go down to estimated earnings (if you play ads) and then track referral traffic to your website.

Google Analytics

Setting up Google Analytics on your website is one of the best ways to track your video metrics. For direct upload (embedded) videos, you can track video completions, time watched, total viewers, and more. You can also track videos hosted via 3rd party services such as videos hosted on YouTube and Wochit through “Event Tracking”, which lets you monitor actions, views, and more.

Conclusion

It’s possible to show your management team that your video marketing efforts are valuable and impactful by measuring ROI. The key to success is setting a goal for each video, determining the appropriate KPIs, and then implementing the right measurement tools to track your results. From there, it’s just a matter of demonstrating your ROI.