Video marketing is an industry full of buzzwords like conversion rate, load time, insights, and countless others. But what does it all mean? There are several important factors that go into the success of a video campaign, so let’s cover a big one: watch time.
What is watch time?
Essentially, watch time is the percentage of your video that is watched by any given viewer.
Take, for example, any time that you’re scrolling through Instagram. On this platform, videos automatically play as you pass them. If one catches your eye, you might stop and watch for a bit. Do you watch the whole video? Sometimes. Not always. However much of that video you stick around for contributes to the watch time.
Now, expand that idea to every single person that saw that video. How much of it did they watch? The average amount of time that each of those viewers watched is that video’s watch time.
It follows that the more engaging a video is, the more likely viewers are to stick around and watch the entirety of it. This is why we recommend that planning and executing your video is crucial.
Why is watch time important?
Not only is watch time important — watch time is the most important factor when it comes to ranking your video on YouTube and Google. The higher the average percentage, the more likely your video is to rank well.
A handful of other factors are taken into account in ranking, like view count and basic optimization, but the ultimate goal of any video on YouTube and other digital platforms should be to keep your audience watching as much of the video as you can.
Be educational, entertaining, or preferably both! Viewers today have incredibly short attention spans, so it’s generally best to focus on making shorter videos that are packed full of quality and engaging content and get to the point quickly. Users are more likely to watch a video in the first place — and watch to the end — if the content isn’t a huge time investment.
Take our video blog for example. We aim to give you quick, valuable marketing tips in a minute so you can learn quickly, and continue on with the rest of your day.
Now knowing this, it’s probably obvious that creating an engaging video that yields a high watch time is an impactful addition you can make to your marketing strategy. There are also many different ways to leverage your video once it is created, so we encourage you to jump right in. We’ll even help you start with our free guide!
For tips on how to get the most out of your video post-production and ensure that you hit your law firm’s marketing goal, check out our comprehensive ebook, Getting The Most Out Of Your Video: The Law Firm’s Video Marketing Playbook.
