What are the key metrics for measuring video marketing success?

Over the past five years, I’ve worked intensively on over 300 video marketing projects for various clients. Through this experience, I’ve identified three key metrics that are crucial for measuring the success of a video: earned views, watch time retention, and comments. Here's why each metric matters and what it reveals about your video’s performance.

1. Earned Views

Earned views occur when someone watches your video ad and, within seven days, interacts with your linked YouTube channel—by watching another video, subscribing, or engaging with your content. This metric signifies that your video left a lasting impression and met a need for your audience beyond mere entertainment. It’s particularly valuable for driving sales because it demonstrates how well your content resonates and compels further action.

2. Comments

Among all metrics, comments are often the rarest but most insightful. Viewers leave comments only when something in the content deeply resonates with them—whether it aligns with their interests or challenges their beliefs. A comment reflects a strong emotional connection to the video. This makes it an invaluable metric for awareness campaigns, as it indicates how effectively your content sparks meaningful engagement and conversations.

3. Watch Time Retention

Watch time retention reveals how well your audience stays engaged with your video. Interestingly, this metric often prioritizes the strength of your content’s idea over production quality. If the concept is compelling, viewers are likely to stick around, even if the visuals or editing are less polished. High retention rates indicate that your video direction is on point and aligns with your audience’s expectations.

By focusing on these three metrics, you can better understand your audience, fine-tune your content strategy, and create videos that truly deliver results. Each metric provides a unique lens through which you can assess not just the performance of your videos but also the depth of their impact on your audience.

To check if video marketing is working, watch these main things. Views show how many people watched. Engagement checks likes, shares, and comments. Watch time tells how long they stayed. Click-through rate shows if they went to the next step. Conversion rate asks if they did what you wanted. Each one tells a piece of the story, but all together, they show the full picture!

There are numerous metrics available to gauge the success of a video, each offering a different perspective. On YouTube, many content creators often emphasize views and subscriber counts as key indicators. However, before you can attract views and grow your subscriber base, you need to create content that genuinely engages your audience. So, how can you tell if people truly appreciate your video? Based on over a decade's worth of experience, one of the most crucial metrics to consider is retention. This metric reflects how long viewers stay engaged with your video, providing valuable insight into its appeal and effectiveness. Therefore, if you want to actually succeed on YouTube - start by understanding what your retention looks like.