As a builder of automotive video solutions for over 10 years I've been behind the scenes on selling video products to automotive businesses. Much of the sales process is technical because I have to explain the value behind the video, how to integrate it, etc. but a lot of it is in the data and the content itself.

It doesn't matter if it's the dealer down the street or the gambit of third-party automotive sites that I’ve worked with... these questions always come up:

• What are the metrics and KPIs?
• How many more cars am I going to sell?
• What's the video ROI?

These are some of the most dreaded questions to be asked because my answer is always: it depends. I know that sounds like a cop out but it's true! Everyone has a different goal and you can’t prove a video was the sole reason for a conversion.

Video is one of many influential touchpoints in a multi-touch attribution world.

A good video strategy is about selling something without selling. It's about engaging and influencing a car shopper by enhancing an existing process. It's also about creating a better experience for the customer. If you don't believe in that then video (or any content strategy) isn't right for you.

I'm happy to see a handful of providers pushing video but most of these companies are just selling a tool and not the content. They leave it up to the dealer to figure out the content piece because they themselves know it's hard, and that’s falling short on providing value to the dealer.

Here's the thing... dealers aren't all content creators by trade. They’re good at what they do, and what they do is sell cars... and content creation isn't easy! I studied video production in college, and I've been doing this for over 10 years and I'm still learning new things as I go!

The bottomline for dealers? The content is more important than the tool.

I won't dive into content strategy itself, but I will conclude this post with the most important signal to a good video content: video metrics. You need to know how and where the data is collected, how to read it, and how to act on it to make better videos (and better business decisions).

Here’s a short list of common video metrics, what they mean, and what to ask your video providers:

• Video Views: It's the favorite video metric every provider loves to tout and every dealer loves to see. A view is typically counted the instant the video begins, but what if the user clicks out after one second? Should that really count as a view? Video ads require a certain time period be met before a view is counted so why shouldn’t it be the same for organic content? We're not selling ad time but we are measuring engagement and utility. Ask your video provider how they're measuring video views because 1,000 one second video views per month (0% completion rates) is not a good thing.
   
• Autoplay or Manual Play: Are your users forced to watch a video they didn't intend to watch? If so, that's not a win... that's an annoyance. However, if they click a “play video” button then that means they intend to start seeing a video play. Ask your video provider to turn autoplay off for embedded players and to turn it on for video plays that come from some sort of call to action.
   
• Completion Rate: This is the percentage of watch time a video receives. A completion rate of 50% is average but it can depend on the length of content. If you've got 70%+ completion rates for 4-5 minute videos, it's a testament to having engaging and relevant content. If it's below 50% for one minute videos, you might want to rethink your content strategy. Ask your video provider what their average completion rates are for different types of content so you can see what's working and what is not.
   
• Play Rate: Play Rate has to do with how many times a video gets played when a video option is available (e.g. video views divided by player loads or page views). A good play rate is a testament to user intent: which percentage of users saw a video button and clicked to watch? Ask your video provider how your play rate is performing for autoplay vs. non-autoplay content.
   
• Bounce Rate: This is an old school metric but video has a huge influence on a page's overall bounce rate. Google Analytics likes to measure video stats (e.g. video views, player loads, etc.) as events, and these are categorized as "non-interaction" or "interaction" events. If a user clicks on a "play video" button an interaction event will fire. If a user loads a page and a "player load" event fires, that's a non-interaction event. Pages with lots of interaction events means lower bounce rates. But if your video provider doesn’t make a distinction between the two types of events they may be skewing your bounce rate numbers to look better than they really are. Ask your video provider which stats are interaction vs. non-interaction events so you know if your bounce rates are being calculated honestly.
   
• Data Transparency: Not a metric but a practice that needs to be preached and adopted. There's no reason whatsoever why your provider shouldn't be sending all of the video metrics into your Google Analytics account. You deserve full data transparency on everything that's happening. Summarized reports are helpful and easy to read, but you should also be able to verify the same data in Google Analytics. Ask your video provider to add a GA tracker using your GA ID so you can view the same data they see within your GA account (assuming they send data to GA in the first place, which they should!).

I hope this post helps you stay more informed about your video solutions and how to measure your video metrics. Send me a connection request, feel free to leave a comment, or send me a message if you want to dig deeper on any of this. I'd like to hear your struggles or success with video and how to measure it.