Over-the-top Metrics
Recently audiences’ attention has started shifting from traditional television to alternative video-viewing options. Using internet-connected devices to keep up with the hottest entertainment content has become increasingly popular. That’s why video producers started paying closer attention to the success of their published digital content — and this success must be measured, quantified and analyzed.
Digital Media publishers need to know how to reach their viewers and grow their audience. This is why understanding metrics is key in curating content.
So, if you are seriously considering “going over-the-top”, you need to decide what kind of metrics you’d have to keep track of in order to make sure you are succeeding in sharing content with the right audience, on the right platform, and at the right time.
Whether you are a content producer or a developer, you have to carefully select your content, and platforms, where you’ll share it with your audience. Keep in mind that before you start publishing you have to think about the types of content metrics in order for the channel to be successful. Paying close attention, analyzing, and evaluating your findings will be especially beneficial if your video material has ad integrations.
What do you say if we move on to some real life examples of certain metrics one of our clients is interested in tracking?
First, let’s look at the total views of videos published in your channel. Total views can be tracked for various purposes: to get an idea of what platforms are more popular among the audience; to compare which countries rank the highest in your content distribution. The number of views will give you an idea of how wide your reach is. The results can either be juxtaposed with channel’s competition, or for cross-platform comparison. If your video library supported by ad content, total views’ numbers will aid you in strategy and marketing planning.
In this example you can see that Roku and Xbox One are more popular than the rest of the platforms combined. According to Megan Clarken, the EVP of Global Watch Product Leadership at Nielsen:
“Cross-platform audience measurement is critical for advertisers looking to leverage the trend of increasing over-the-top video consumption.”
“We believe all TV will be streamed, and with it all TV advertising.” — Scott Rosenberg, vice president of advertising at Roku.
If you want to reach higher numbers in views, we suggest paid promotion across various social platforms, share videos with your followers, influencers, and research other platforms, that support over-the-top video delivery. Think about including links to your content in emails, and newsletters.
In the following example you will have an opportunity to see and to measure the geo-international popularity of the content. Now, we are looking at the example of total views across the world. There are two diagrams below with and without the audience from the United States. Keep in mind that the number of people watching the content will be bigger in the United States due to the higher number of the total population residing in respective countries. Another interesting trend you might have noticed already is the dominance of the countries with English as a primary language. The content of this particular video app is in English, and the audience numbers will depend on the audience’s level of comfort with watching content in its original language. That is why United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and South Africa are at the top of the list for total views.
The second metric we are going to cover in this blog is a video play rate. This popular and important metric reflects a total number of people, who click on a video and play it upon landing on a page, where the video is displayed. Both context and quality of the material presented in the video are necessary parts to consider, when choosing video’s location, relevant placement in channels’ libraries, and adding related content playlists. Experimenting with content, and gathering feedback are good strategic approaches to figuring out how to make your content relevant and engaging. Viewers’ interactions with videos should be taken into account as well, to further improve consumers’ experience, and publishers’ ROI.
Here is an example of how many times a video has been played during the two months. There is a 32.74% increase in plays, which is an encouraging result reflecting growing interest in content. This type of data can be used in cross-comparison between episodes and libraries to help with content editing, and adding improvements to keep the trend going up.
If you are looking for ideas on how to improve video play rate, consider changing video’s embed location or craft a new message to accompany a video. Experimenting with videos’ placement should not be as intimidating as it sounds. It is better to keep your content fresh and updated. Rotating featured videos, adding new episodes will get viewers attention and interest. It will show you care about your viewers, and want to serve them the best and the most relevant material. Tracking video plays increases the chances of video app being used.
For comparison here is the example, how the number of app launches increased in the same manner as the number of video plays during the same two months.
“Data is overwhelmingly the new currency” — Jason Lynch
Individually-tailored content will drive traffic to a channel, and digital media producers have to keep up with the analytics tools to keep audiences engaged. Maintaining and building relationships with people, who opt out for OTT solutions to satisfy their video craving needs is not always easy. We hope that understanding how certain metrics work might help in building stronger channels and relationships with your fans.
We didn’t want to overwhelm you with too much information right off the bat; that’s why, we’ll talk about other important metrics, such as quality of experience, geographical distribution, and bit rate in part 2. Starting with total views and play rate gets you a step closer toward mastering analytics and the meaning behind the results. And last but not least, metrics analysis will help you with smarter ways to monetize your video app, because it provides conversion data for ad impressions, viewer and subscription numbers.
TV Apps 101 is a regular series where Odd digs a little deeper into streaming technologies, video app development, and why it should even matter to you. Interested in taking the next step in media distribution? Let Odd Networks connect your fans with your content by delivering your videos to multiple screens.
