The Importance of Video Analytics for Premium Publishers

In the modern world, there is no greater advantage to a market leader than knowing information about their customers and their industry.

Media is no different; market analytics can tell you everything you need to know about who is using your videos, who they’re sharing it with, and how you can improve your service to attract not only more of the customer type you already have, but also how to diversify and capture the attention of those you might have previously thought as unreachable.

For premium publishers, there are several types of analytics that can tell you everything you need to know, so being able to interpret information is vital. Big SVOD companies make their buying decisions based purely off of the numbers alone; deciding what gets made and what doesn’t on analytics like viewing figures. According to the recent Ooyala report, Sports broadcasters are most sophisticated in their use of analytics for content strategies. This fact is totally understandable considering the investments made and the nature of the sports content.

Sophisticated analytics users, like online video publishers who see the benefit it provides, can take the amount of information they understand to a very detailed level; this helps them to weigh the value of single viewing customer against the cost of the content being watched.

Specific Video Analytics (SVOD, mobile)

Subscription based businesses also use analytics to see how their consumers viewing habits benefit their subscription model, with some publishers looking at the minimum number of videos a customer will watch before cancelling their subscription, analysing which videos helped take them over that threshold, and also what content makes up the bulk of their viewing.

Analytics are able to demonstrate who the target audience for content is, and is able to break down the data collected specifics such as the country or region it is being viewed from; the characteristics of the customer, and even the device that was used to access it.

This geo-targeting mean that not only can a publisher alter what content they deliver and to which customers, but also which regions produce more revenue to channel their resources.

As video publishing becomes more mobile-centric, and customers increasingly move to mobile devices and tablets, analytics holds the key to understanding the strategy a company might employ; from simple ideas like which platforms cannot be monetized and are losing revenue, to the complexity of deciding whether they put their efforts into an iOS or android release first.

Understanding and analyzing trends can help publishers to identify what makes great content their customers want to watch, and analytics means they can investigate what makes a difference; from the topic of a clip, to the actor present, to something as simple as the length.

Helping with Social Media

Analytics is the single most important tool publishers have for determining where viewers are coming from, and also what it is that makes them stay. VOD companies, for example, use analytics to keep track of which of their titles are most commonly streamed and then use this data to keep their list of titles fresh and engaging.

This can then be used with their social interactions to their customers via newsletter emails, Facebook, and Twitter to push content that is likely to engage viewers, based off of what is successful that day. Understanding these analytics means the publisher can have first-hand awareness of a viral trend they may carry, and can push this to drive revenue.

The power of analytics is yet to be widely appreciated, but the benefit it holds for the financial assets a video publishing business owns is clear. Understanding the market and what potential customers will be what divide good publishers and great publishers. In the future, making better content that viewers want to watch, as well as increasing revenue, will come down to analytics.

Here at Cleeng, we put a lot of focus on implementing advanced analytics and reporting in our platform. Data is really important to our publishers since it helps them learn more about their end-users and tailor their content on their specific needs.