• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, September 11, 2014

According to a study sponsored by Vidyard, and conducted by Demand Metric to explore several aspects of video marketing and the emerging role of video marketing platform technology, 95% of this study’s participants report that video, as a form of marketing and sales content, is becoming “somewhat or far more important” to them.

The general assumption in the marketing community today is that video is an important and valuable form of marketing content. To validate this assumption, study participants were asked to rate how the importance of video, as a type of marketing or sales content, is changing in their organizations.

The Changing Importance of Video as Content           

• Far more important…63%
• Somewhat important…32
• Nor changing            …5

Source (All report data):  Demand Metric, September 2014

An analysis of the study’s data provides these key findings:

Large companies are leveraging video more heavily. Over one-third of large companies produce more than 100 marketing videos annually, compared to just 4% of small companies and 5% of medium companies that produce videos at this pace.

Marketing Videos Produced Annually

• Less than 5…25%
• 5-10…26
• 11-50…32
• 51-100…9
• More than 100…8

Over 70% of respondents claim that video performs better than other content for producing conversions, and almost half state the ROI of video is getting better, says the report. However, over one-fourth do not know the ROI for their video marketing efforts.

Conversion Performance of Video

• Much better…19%
• Somewhat better…52
• About the same…27
• Somewhat worse…2

How is ROI of Video Changing

• Better…48%
• Same…25
• Declining…1
• Unknown…26

86% of study participants are using some form of measurement of video marketing effectiveness. Those using intermediate to advanced measures of engagement are producing more videos, reporting substantially better conversion performance and getting better ROI.

Video Content Effectiveness Measures in Use

• None…14%
• Basic…48
• Intermediate…24
• Advanced…14

While it is encouraging that 86% of this study’s participants are using some form of measurement for video content effectiveness, says the report, most are just using basic measures of consumption. To know with precision how well video performs and what kind of ROI is attached to video marketing efforts requires tracking the right set of effectiveness metrics, which can be categorized as:

• Basic: these are measures of consumption, such as views or shares, and they are relatively easy to capture. However, these metrics aren’t indicators of engagement; and as such, their usefulness is limited, says the report.
• Intermediate: these are basic measures of engagement, such as average viewing duration. With these metrics, insights into video viewing behavior begin to emerge.
• Advanced: these metrics include views by embed location, viewer drop-off rates, viewing heat maps or attribution to sales pipeline. With these metrics, precise determinations of revenue impact and ROI can be made.

Companies invest in what they feel is strategic and will produce a return. The study investigated the budget for video content as a means of assessing its strategic importance and overall value.

Video Content Budget

• Significantly increasing…16%
• Slightly increasing…53
• Staying the same…28
• Slightly/Significantly decreasing…3

When looking at this budget data and isolating just the 69% of study participants that indicated their video content budgets are increasing, importance and metrics are roughly the same as for the full survey sample. There are two notable differences in this comparison, however:

• Conversion performance: 90% of study participants that are increasing their video content budgets report slightly or significantly better conversion performance of video content, compared to other types. The comparable conversion performance rate for the full survey sample is 71%.
• ROI: 60% of study participants that are increasing their video content budgets report that the ROI of video is getting better, compared to just 48% for the full survey sample.

Either of these two outcomes of video content usage are sufficient to warrant an increased investment in video content, opines the report. The fact that video content produces both of these outcomes makes it easy to see why so many organizations are putting more of their budget dollars toward video content.

This study has already established the value of video in producing conversions. It stands to reason that the consumption of video is also an effective indicator of lead quality or business opportunity, says the report. There’s little doubt that having data at the individual lead level about video content viewing has value when virtually every participant indicated such in the survey.

Value of Video Viewing Data for Individual Leads

• Great value…54
• Some value…42
• Little value…4

Concluding, the report says that, as a type of content, video is still very much on the rise with its importance continuing to grow. This study has shown that video converts better than other forms of content; and this performance certainly contributes to an improving ROI for video. Quality video is also getting easier to produce and the cost of doing so is coming down. For all of these reasons, the decision to invest in video is an easy one.

For additional information about the study, please visit Demand Metric here.