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So, you’ve been doubling down on video marketing, but when it comes to proving its ROI (Return on Investment), you are scratching your head?
How do you figure out which videos are really driving value, and how do you convince your boss or clients that it’s worth the investment?
87% of video marketers say video has directly increased sales, but getting the numbers to back that up isn’t always easy.
As the CEO of Zebracat, an AI video platform, and as a serial entrepreneur, I’ve spent over a decade learning what works in video marketing and what doesn’t.
Today, I’m going to show you how to create high-ROI videos, track their ROI, and present video marketing ROI to your team. Let’s get started!
What is Video Marketing ROI?
Video Marketing ROI is the return you get from the money you spend on making videos.
It’s not just about sales—it’s also about how videos help people notice your brand, engage with your business, and build trust.
In my 10 years as a serial entrepreneur, I’ve seen that by tracking things like views, clicks, and how many customers stick around, you can see how videos help grow your business over time.
Evaluating the ROI of your video content helps you figure out if the money you’re spending on making and sharing videos is paying off.
Why does it matter? Because 49% of marketers feel the costs of video marketing are on the rise, you need to know which videos are worth the investment to reach your business goals.
Basic Formula for Video Marketing ROI
Video Marketing ROI (%) = [(Revenue Generated from Video - Cost of Video Production) / Cost of Video Production] x 100. Here's a breakdown of how to apply this:
Revenue Generated from Video: Determine the revenue or value attributed directly to the video. This could be from conversions tracked back to the video, increased sales, or leads generated.
Cost of Video Production: Add up all expenses related to creating and promoting the video, including production, editing, distribution, and ad spend.
Calculate ROI: Subtract the cost from the revenue, divide by the cost, and multiply by 100 to get the ROI percentage.
For instance, if you spent $2,000 on creating and promoting a video, and it brought in $5,000 in revenue, the formula would look like this:
In this example, you’d have a 150% ROI, meaning the video generated 1.5 times what you spent on it.
Pro Tip
If your goal isn’t direct revenue but brand awareness, use metrics like view count, engagement rate, or click-through rate to assess impact.
You can also consider the lifetime value of customers gained through the video for a more long-term view of ROI.
The formula is simple, but 60% of marketers say it gets tricky when you factor in other forms of value beyond just sales—like engagement, brand awareness, and building long-term customer relationships.
Key Metrics to Measure Video Marketing ROI
Tracking the right metrics is key to measuring your ROI of video marketing. Here are the most important ones to focus on:
1. Engagement Metrics
Engagement metrics are some of the most telling indicators of how your audience is responding to your video content. These include:
- View Count: The total number of times people watched your video. It’s a basic sign of reach.
- Watch Time: How long viewers spent watching your video. This shows how engaging your content really is.
- Audience Retention Rate: The percentage of people who watched your entire video. A higher retention rate means your content keeps them hooked.
- Social Shares, Comments, and Likes: These social signals show how much your audience is engaging with your content and whether they’re excited to share it.
More engagement leads to better brand awareness and sets the stage for future sales. High social shares and comments mean your content is resonating, which can help boost the ROI on video marketing.
2. Conversion Metrics
While engagement metrics tell you how people are interacting with your video, conversion metrics tell you if they’re taking the desired action. These metrics include:
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): This shows how many viewers clicked on your video’s call-to-action (CTA), such as a link to your website or a product page. The formula for CTR is:
- Conversion Rate: This indicates how many viewers actually completed the desired action after watching the video, such as signing up for a newsletter, downloading an app, or making a purchase. This is a direct indicator of ROI.
- Leads Generated: The number of potential customers your video brought in.
3. Revenue
Revenue is the ultimate goal when it comes to measuring video marketing ROI statistics. Views and engagement matter, but nothing beats seeing the real dollars your video brings in. Here’s how you can track revenue effectively:
- Direct Sales: Use tracking tools like Google Analytics or Facebook Ad Manager to trace whether a customer purchased a product after watching your video.
- Attribution Models: Use tools like Google Analytics (multi-channel funnels), Adobe Analytics, Salesforce or HubSpot to see how each video and marketing touchpoint contributes to a sale throughout the customer journey.
4. Social Sharing Metrics
These metrics specifically track the reach and engagement of your video on social media platforms, including:
- Shares: How many times people shared your video, which helps it reach more viewers organically.
- Comments and Likes: Engagement on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn shows that your content is resonating with your audience.
Social sharing expands your video’s reach without extra marketing spend, boosting ROI of video marketing.
Remember, don’t rely on just one metric. A well-rounded approach—looking at engagement, conversion, and revenue metrics—gives you a complete understanding of your video marketing ROI.
For example, high views may mean your video is reaching a lot of people, but if conversions are low, it might not be hitting the right audience.
And if you only focus on revenue, you might miss important insights for optimizing future campaigns.
Expert Tips to Maximize Your Video Marketing ROI
Here’s how to make sure your videos deliver real results:
1. Invest in High-Quality Production
High-quality videos build trust with your audience. When viewers see a polished product, they’re more likely to buy, leading to more sales and better ROI.
However, making high-quality videos can be expensive.
From hiring a copywriter for catchy scripts to filming and editing, it takes a lot of time and money.
That’s why 75% of video marketers use AI tools to help create or edit their videos.
AI makes it easier to get better quality in less time, especially for marketers who aren’t great at video editing.
Tip: Try AI tools like Zebracat to make professional-looking videos without spending too much.
Did you know that Zebracat is an AI text-to-video tool that over 50,000 marketers, business owners, and content creators are already using to create videos faster and get higher ROI?
With Zebracat’s simple and powerful features, you can just type your idea, script, URL, or even use your voice to turn it into engaging videos in minutes.
This AI tool, combined with easy editing capabilities like in CapCut, does the hard work for you—all you need to do is fine-tune at the end.
As a busy CEO, I’m frustrated with low ROI from my freelancers' videos. I want to create videos faster with more views, engagement, and leads, but they struggle with it.
So, we built Zebracat Zebracat to scratch our own back, but now I see it’s too good to keep to myself!
In June 2024, we launched Zebracat on Product Hunt, and it became the #1 product of the day. Marketers and business owners were blown away by how easy and effective it was.
We’ve earned thousands of 5-star reviews on Product Hunt, 4.7/5 rating on Trustpilot, 4.8/5 on Capterra, and 4.7/5 on G2.
So if you’re looking to create high-ROI videos without the hassle or high costs, give Zebracat a try.
2. Repurpose Content Across Platforms
Don’t let your video sit on just one platform, like YouTube.
Share it on Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook to get a higher ROI without spending extra.
This way, your content reaches more people without needing to create a bunch of new videos.
I worked with a small tech company that was worried about the cost of making videos.
We reused one webinar by cutting it into shorter clips for Instagram and LinkedIn.
This simple trick increased their engagement by 15% and saved them money because they didn’t need to create new content from scratch.
Tip: You can use tools like Later, Social Bee, or Repurpose.io to schedule content in advance.
Or you can break longer videos into shorter clips to increase exposure and save costs.
3. Leverage Data to Improve
Analyzing data helps you tweak your videos. Looking at how your video performs can help you make better videos in the future.
Things like how long people watch and when they stop watching tell you what’s working and what isn’t.
A friend of mine who works in marketing was struggling to figure out why her explainer videos weren’t keeping viewers around.
After looking at her YouTube Analytics, she found that most people stopped watching after the first 30 seconds.
By tweaking her videos to get to the point faster, she managed to increase the time people spent watching by 20%.
Tip: Use tools like YouTube Analytics to see where viewers drop off, then adjust your content.
4. Optimize for SEO
Just like a blog post, videos need SEO to be found.
Adding the right keywords to your titles, descriptions, and tags will make your videos easier to discover.
Tip: Add keywords in titles and descriptions, and include transcripts for better search engine ranking.
How to Present Video Marketing ROI to Executives or Your Clients
As a CEO, I’ve learned that when you present video marketing results to top executives, it’s all about keeping it simple and focusing on what really matters: making money, being efficient, and growing the business.
A lot of marketers get caught up in the little details, but executives and clients just want to know if it’s working. Here’s how to get their attention:
1. Focus on High-Level Metrics
The best marketers know that executives care about the big picture. They don’t want a deep dive into the technical stuff; they want to know how the videos are helping the company.
The three key things you should focus on are:
- How much money your videos made: If your video campaigns brought in a lot of revenue, that’s the number executives will care about.
- Lowering customer costs: Show how video marketing helped bring in new customers for less money than other ads.
- Bringing in new leads: Highlight how many quality leads your videos brought in.
Pro Tip: Use specific examples like, “Our product demo video boosted sales by 35% last quarter.” Hard data like that grabs their attention.
2. Connect the Dots to Business Goals
Always tie your video results back to what the company is trying to achieve.
If your videos aren’t helping the business grow, it just sounds like you’re talking about videos for the sake of videos. Show how your videos support bigger goals, like boosting sales, growing the brand, or saving money.
- Sales: How did videos increase conversions?
- Brand Awareness: How did videos increase website traffic or social shares?
- Cost Savings: How did videos, like explainer videos, reduce customer support calls?
Pro Tip: Use specific sentences like, “Our explainer videos boosted web traffic by 20%, helping us hit our brand awareness goals and bringing in 500 new leads.”
3. Show ROI Visually
Make it easy to see using charts and graphs:
- Show how things have improved since using videos. For example, “Our videos reduced customer acquisition costs by 15% this quarter compared to last year.”
- Breakdown of Video Impact: Use a pie chart to show how much revenue each video generated. For instance, “Product demos brought in 35% of the total revenue from our video campaigns.”
Pro Tip: You can use Gamma AI to save time and effort by creating professional, visually appealing presentations. It helps turn raw data into polished presentations without wasting time on design.
4. Suggest Next Steps:
Always finish by recommending clear next steps. Don’t just share the data—tell executives what to do next.
I’ve often suggested increasing video budgets after strong results, and executives have been more than willing to go along when I backed it up with numbers.
Pro tip: You should say, “Since video ads increased leads by 50% last quarter, I recommend we increase our video budget by 20% for Q4.”
Conclusion
If you follow these steps, you’ll get high ROI from video marketing, like boosting sales and driving more traffic to your site.
Just make sure your videos reach the right audience and use formats like explainer videos or demos to boost ROI and sales.
After that, don’t forget to keep tracking key numbers like views, watch time, and conversions, and use them to improve each video.
Plus, to cut costs and boost video quality, use AI tools like Zebracat to create viral videos faster and get the most out of video marketing.
Create videos 10x faster and easier with Zebracat
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