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Marketers now face an increasingly diverse set of challenges. On one hand, they are pushing out messages at a breakneck pace to a continually fragmenting number of digital channels. At the same time, they have never had more pressure to be accountable in pursuit of return of investment (ROI). It is no wonder that so much attention is now being paid to how marketing activities, channels and messages perform – and how it is all measured.

In 2017, there will be a bigger spotlight on marketing performance and measurement. We predict:

Trust will deteriorate

The quality of the data that is used to determine the performance of marketing activities came under the microscope in 2016. The publication of the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) initial Media Transparency Report shed some light on this issue with regards to agencies and their clients. Facebook admitted to a series of mistakes that it found with metric calculations.

Since the quality of the data has important implications, brands should take a ‘zero trust’ approach to the performance data they see. They should no longer assume that the data is right. They should put systems, processes and people in place to verify the performance data on their own.

Video and mobile will exacerbate measurement challenges

The digital video marketing ecosystem is going through a significant transformation. Brands are now posting videos natively on social channels like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. Videos can now be inexpensive to produce, particularly live videos. And, most significantly, recent research from the Advertising Research Foundation has shown that advertisers are experiencing a video advertising ROI on mobile devices that is more than two times that on desktop devices – resulting in dramatic increases in spend for mobile video advertising.

While the aggressive growth of digital video content and ads is generally good for marketers, it also creates a new set of challenges. Having more services and publishers to deal with makes managing the execution and measurement of video marketing activities more difficult and open to ambiguous insights, which is not good when trying to justify spend. The industry will need to adopt new ways to standardise digital video measurement beyond the traditional approach born in the 30-second TV spot era.

Attribution will no longer be a shiny object

Attribution solutions are not a silver bullet to understanding channel performance. Many have even started to question whether accurate attribution can ever be attained, and those in pursuit of making it happen recognise that it isn’t easy. Recent research by IDG shows that organisations are facing major challenges when trying to implement attribution solutions – from data collection/centralisation and reporting accountability/accuracy, to process assessment and deciphering actionable insights.

In 2017, organisations will realise that attribution is not the panacea to their measurement problems. Attribution needs to be a part of a broader marketing measurement initiative to make a meaningful impact. Before getting started on implementing an attribution solution, organisations need to first establish a data foundation and measurement framework that addresses the challenges being faced.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning usage will proliferate

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have already had an impact in different areas of marketing technology. They are used to automate certain high-volume decisions and actions, like programmatic media buys and e-commerce personalization recommendations.

In 2017, AI and ML will play an increasing role in marketing performance measurement in two specific areas. First, they will be used to help process all of the marketing signals that brands receive on a daily basis across a variety of channels – minimising the manual work required to transform all of the data into a cleansed, normalised, useful format. Second, AI and ML will help automate the formulation of insights and recommendations to accelerate the cycle between an event and an appropriate action being taken. Marketers will stop letting so many opportunities and threats fall through the cracks.

2017 promises to be quite a year in marketing performance and measurement, as brands continue to grapple with the tension between trying different ways to reach their audiences and justifying the resources spent on such endeavours.

Opher Kahane, CEO and co-founder, Origami Logic

Tel: (650) 394-5355

Email: info@origamilogic.com

Web: origamilogic.com

Twitter:@OrigamiLogic

When Facebook reported its third quarter 2016 results, Mark Zuckerberg said, “People are creating and sharing more video, and we think it’s pretty clear that video is only going to become more important. So that’s why we’re prioritizing putting video first across our family of apps, and taking steps to make it even easier for people to express themselves in richer ways.”

This represents both an opportunity and a threat to digital marketers that haven’t already mastered the art and science of uploading videos to Facebook directly. Fortunately, Mark Robertson shared some expert analysis and tips at last month’s VidSummit 2016 in a presentation entitled, “Facebook Video: Data-Driven Insights Best Practices.”

As you may know, Mark Robertson is the Founder of ReelSEO (now TubularInsights), and he’s one of the industry’s leading advocates for video marketing – educating marketers, brands and publishers in strategies and best practices for video marketing, social video, and advertising.

I interviewed Robertson about his thoughts on best practices for Facebook video, covering the following topics:

• Why should marketers upload native Facebook video to their Pages?
• What are the benefits of using Facebook video vs. YouTube?
• What are some best practices for uploaded native Facebook Page videos?
• What posting schedule or frequency would you recommend for Facebook videos?
• Is metadata optimization important for Facebook video?
• Do you have any expert tips for Facebook Video?
• What’s the future of Facebook video?
• Why is it important to continue to test and measure results for Facebook video?

Why should marketers upload native Facebook video to their Pages?

Mark Robertson: In short – video marketers should upload natively to Facebook because it works best, and because Facebook, a platform with the largest number of daily active users worldwide, has put significant resources into enhancing the platform to showcase and promote native video content. Although Facebook has allowed for uploading of native video for many years, they implemented several changes in mid-2014 that made native video, an incredibly popular medium for the platform.

After Facebook tested “auto-play” videos beginning in December 2013, they officially made it the default video playback experience in May of 2014. Since then, any video content uploaded to the platform, is given unique, and prominent visibility within user’s newsfeed through the automatically moving picture – admittedly modeled after the “magical images” featured in Harry Potter films’ fictional Daily Prophet Newspaper.

Secondly, Facebook, like other platforms, is constantly making algorithm adjustments. But, it’s become clear that Facebook began to reward native video posts (vs. photos, status updates, URL links – which include YouTube video links) in the algorithm a couple of years ago. Since mid-2014, there have been several studies published which indicate that natively uploaded video is one of the most-rewarded formats within Facebooks’ algorithm in terms of News Feed impressions delivered. Whether as a consequence of this preference or not, studies have also shown that video also generates more engagement than other post formats in Facebook. This is particularly true with regard to Facebook Live, for now.

Finally, it’s important to note that Facebook itself has touted their internal focus on native video content (on-demand, live, 360, VR, etc.). In their Q3-2015 Earnings call in November 2015, Mark Zuckerberg himself stated:

“Over the next few years, video is going to be some of the most engaging content online, and by continuing to innovate here, we have a chance to build the best place to watch and share videos.”

What are the benefits of using Facebook video vs. YouTube?

Mark Robertson: I think for most video content strategies, it’s important to leverage both platforms. However, I also believe that it’s important to understand that they are very different animals at this point in time. YouTube is a video-first destination, and is primarily a video discovery platform. YouTube provides a great environment for building video channels and for generating viewership both in the immediate term, as well as over time. Videos uploaded to YouTube vs. Facebook (for the time being) tend to continue to generate viewership long after they’re initially posted due to the nature of discovery on YouTube primarily driven via browse and search discovery methods.

For Facebook, viewership is often generated more-so from a “push” perspective. By that, I mean that in most instances, Facebook users are not searching out videos to watch on the platform, but rather, are viewing videos that they did not expect, but that were shared to them within their News Feeds.With Facebook,  if your video content is compelling enough, it could potentially generate massive viewership in a very short time, due to the vast user base that resides in Facebook and the fact that any viewer/user can immediately share your video with their friends and fans inside the platform – creating viral potential. In fact, 53% of all Facebook video views are generated via shared posts.

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What are some best practices for uploaded native Facebook Page videos?

Mark Robertson: Adding relevant textual metadata is, in my opinion, an important consideration and best practice for any content published digitally (video in particular). That being said, there are a couple known best practices for Facebook video, that pertain much more-so to the environment in which videos are consumed in the platform.

• 75% of all video views occur on a mobile device (consider the form factor).
• 85% of all videos are viewed (at least initially) with audio off.

With that knowledge, there are two best practices for video that I’d like to call attention to and both have more to do with the format of the video being uploaded.

Keep in mind that in a mobile experience (75% of all video views), aspect ratio matters. I did a separate study of the top 25K most-engaged Facebook videos uploaded in Q3 2016 (according to Tubular Labs data) and found the following:

• In the top 25K, only 30.9% of videos were widescreen, or 16:9 aspect ratio, while 56.3% of the top performing videos were either square (1:1 aspect ratio), or vertical videos.
• However, in taking a look at the top 1K most-engaged videos from that set, only 20.6% were 16:9, vs. more than 70% being either square, or vertical videos.

I think that the following set of images helps show one reason this may be the case. As you’ll notice in the set of images below, square and vertical videos take up much more News Feed real-estate than do widescreen videos. If your goal is to capture someone’s attention quickly (as it should be within Facebook), you’ll immediately garner more exposure in mobile with an aspect ratio taller than typical widescreen videos.

Because 85% of Facebook video views occur with sound-off, it’s important to include timed-text, so as to better tell the story and hook a viewer. This can be done in a couple different ways, and I would recommend both.

• First, you’ll notice that many successful video publishers on Facebook include text subtitles and overlays within the video itself.
• Secondly, adding closed-captions to your Facebook videos, can help. In fact, according to Facebook itself, video ads with closed captions generate 12% more video watch-time, than those without.

By the way, I would be remiss if I didn’t state that the most important and obvious best practice required for success in a social platform like Facebook, is to understand, interact with, and cater to desires of the community itself.

What posting schedule or frequency would you recommend for Facebook videos?

Mark Robertson: Based off the research I’ve done, there is more upside than there is downside to increasing the frequency at which a Facebook Page owner publishes content to their page. Many popular publishers like BuzzFeed are publishing videos at a rate of 5 or more videos per day, per page. If you are concerned that this could cause post fatigue, or over-saturate your audience, pay close attention to the “negative feedback” analytics available within Facebook. If your audience is constantly hiding your video posts, or unfollowing your page, you can reduce the frequency with which you are uploading to test if that may be a cause.

While some studies suggest best days and times for posting video content (Thursdays and Fridays most often referenced), I truly believe that the best schedule is going to be one that best fits your unique audience, and their network. Therefore, rather than deciding schedule based off published, aggregated research, it’s my strong opinion that each publisher needs to deploy a proper, data-driven testing strategy in order to determine what works best for a given, often times, niche audience.

Is metadata optimization important for Facebook video?

Mark Robertson: On Facebook, it appears that video metadata (while arguably always of importance), is less important in terms of video performance, than is the format and the content of the video itself. Remember, when users are served a video in Facebook, it’s not the metadata that causes them to make a decision as to whether or not to click and watch or engage with a video. Rather, it’s whether or not the video itself caught the users’ attention and interest in the few seconds it exists when scrolling through one’s feed.

All that being said, because metadata options are available within Facebook’s video uploading process, and because I’m a passionate SEO professional, I do believe that metadata is still of importance and may be of importance more-so in the future. If Facebook enhances their internal search functionality, metadata may play a bigger role in the future. Additionally, for search engines like Google (which has been indexing more and more Facebook video URLS), metadata will be important as user signals within Facebook will be unavailable to outside search engines.

Do you have any expert tips for Facebook Video?

Mark Robertson: Here are two expert tips:

• Interact with your audience: When you post a video and someone comments or reacts to your video, be sure to interact with that user. Aside from the overall importance of being interactive in social platforms, think about the result. Each time that you like and respond to a user’s comment, you generate an additional view, and two additional interactions. If that user then returns to view your reply, you then generate yet an additional view, and perhaps interaction. This engagement can help send additional positive signals to Facebook that your video is one worth providing additional exposure to.
• Custom Thumbnails: While it’s true that most videos on Facebook are set to autoplay in the News Feed, there are many users who have opted to disable auto-play, for various reasons. In those cases, as well as for related videos, it’s still important to upload a compelling, custom thumbnail.

What’s the future of Facebook video? 

Mark Robertson: Live video is exploding on Facebook and will continue to grow in the future. It is a well-known fact that the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has taken a tremendous interest in live video streaming, and as such, has re-focused internal resources into building out the company’s live broadcasting offerings. I would expect to see continued push towards live video, as well as virtual, augmented, and mixed reality moving picture content formats. I believe that those who wish to succeed with Facebook video should look to embrace live video now and figure out what types of live video content resonate best with your audience. These may be live events, Ask-Me-Anythings (AMAs), QAs, interviews, etc.

Why is it important to continue to test and measure results on Facebook?

Mark Robertson: Facebook, as most other platforms, is continually evolving. Additionally, video on Facebook is relatively new (vs. YouTube for example). Therefore, it should be expected that the features, functionality, and user experience with Facebook’s video offerings will evolve, likely quite rapidly. In order to best guarantee success, it’s critical to constantly test and evaluate the performance of your video posting strategies.

Lastly, given that Facebook is a social platform with audience interests that span genres, geographies, etc., it’s important to continually evaluate your audience and community, to determine what will resonate with them. Testing can be done through organic post-segmentation as well as via paid promotion. For testing video, I would highly recommend learning about and conducting multivariate tests using Facebook dark-posting. In all honesty – while this is especially critical for Facebook video marketing success, I see testing and measurement as a best practice that’s ever increasing in importance across the board – for all digital marketing strategies and disciplines.

Online video is watched on a variety of platforms, and now it will be watched over-the-air (OTA), as well. Sinclair Broadcast Group announced the launch of TBD, an OTA channel that will target millennial viewers with content created by online media companies including Legendary Digital Networks, Jukin Video, Whistle Sports, Canvas Media Studios, and others.

The network will debut early in 2017 on Sinclair-owned digital subchannels. Sinclair will work with QYou, a company that curates online video for TV, to program the network. Sinclair didn’t announce any original programming, so it sounds like all shows will be repurposed.

Besides being available OTA, TBD will be viewable online, as well. It’s the same platform agnostic approach that Sinclair used with Comet, a science fiction and supernatural network it launched in 2015. Comet is available in 65 million homes, or 60 percent of U.S. households with a TV. TBD will offer online videos in a variety of genres, including comedy, lifestyle, e-sports, music, web series, and viral hits.

The launch will be a departure for what’s called the multicast market, which currently focuses on repurposing classic TV shows and movies, notes Chris Ripley, Sinclair’s CEO. « With the launch of TBD, we aim to pair the very best premium digital-first content with the unmatched branding power of traditional television, » he says.

This new partnership will enable Inview to enhance its ability to rapidly implement custom interactive services and smart applications to its customers. Inview will be deploying the combined platform with customers in the new year. NetFront Browser NX is a WebKit-based HTML5 browser that features efficient memory usage, high stability and high portability. It includes wide support for digital TV standards or specifications including HbbTV 1.5, HbbTV 2.0, UK Freeview Play, YouTube on TV and CE-HTML. Continue reading this story here.

One thing that shouldn’t go overlooked this year is the power of a pure HTML5 document viewer to extend your ECM system. Snowbound is an independent software provider who works closely with Dell EMC, IBM, and Alfresco systems integrators to provide clients an improved content management experience and replace older applications. Get the full details here.

KITCHENER, Ontario–(BUSINESS WIRE)–

Video remains the hottest and most effective form of marketing content, but many marketers are missing out on returns because they aren’t adequately measuring video performance, according to a new survey from Demand Metric.

For the third consecutive year, Demand Metric partnered with Vidyard, the video platform for business, to produce “The State of Video Marketing Benchmark Study Report” with the goal of understanding how video performs as a content type. It also investigates new trends around video personalization and use of video with account-based marketing strategy, as well as examining video’s spread beyond marketing departments.

The return on investment of video marketing has remained consistent over the last three years that Demand Metric has asked about it. Nearly half of participants report ROI is improving but a quarter say they don’t know what the returns are. Determining the ROI of video is a direct result of tracking metrics on video performance. Respondents who use advanced analytics are twice as likely to say their ROI is better and more likely to increase their video budgets year over year. Just 14% use advanced analytics, and that percentage has been constant for each year of the study.

“The use of advanced metrics has become imperative for organizations that produce higher volumes of videos annually, as these metrics enable optimizing performance and understanding the true ROI of their investment,” the report said.

Viewing data is important for ROI because it also gives marketers insights about their audience and where they are in the buying journey. Integrating viewing data with marketing automation and CRM systems leads to deeper understanding of a viewer’s interest in making a purchase, but those integrations continue to lag. Just 13% of respondents reported they have integrated their data and are taking advantage of it.

Other key findings:

• More than 90% of the study’s participants said video marketing content is becoming more important, a consistent three-year trend.
• More than half of participants produce 11 or more videos per year. Large companies produce the most videos.
• The average number of participants saying that conversion performance for video has stayed the same or gotten better is 96%, which is consistent with previous years.
• The use of advanced analytics remains at 14 percent, unchanged from previous years.
• Using video to support account-based marketing is just emerging with fewer than 10% using it.
• Nearly half of respondents said they use internal staff and resources to produce videos, up from 38% a year ago.
• 50% said they plan to use a third-party video hosting or video marketing platform vs. YouTube or Vimeo, up from 38% last year.

“While many brands continue to chase the viral video hype, this report makes it clear that videos don’t need to go viral to be successful,” said Michael Litt, CEO and co-founder of Vidyard, which sponsored the survey. “In fact, it’s becoming clear that personalized, targeted videos used throughout the sales funnel are more engaging and more effective at turning viewers into customers.”

Video, Personalization and ABM

This year’s survey explored the relationship between video, personalization and ABM for the first time. Amplifying the effectiveness of video through personalization and ABM is a natural progression, Demand Metric found. More than half of the study’s participants indicated they use personalized video content, which is believed to have an impact on content effectiveness and ROI. In fact, 58% of those using personalized video reported improvement in ROI compared to 43% of those who don’t use personalized video.

Demand Metric found that video has a growing role in ABM, a strategy for targeting prospective customers at the account level rather than the individual lead level. Just 8% of respondents this year reported using video with their ABM strategy, but another 6% say they plan to add video to ABM. Similar to the tie between analytics and ROI, the survey also found that inclusion of video with ABM is facilitated by integration of video viewing data with marketing automation and CRM systems.

Video Going Beyond Marketing

The power of video as an influential medium has helped it move beyond the marketing department to nearly every other function in an organization. However, marketing remains the primary user at 86%, followed by internal communications (19%), sales teams (15%), executive teams (11%), support teams (11%), human resources (8%) and others (11%).

This year’s survey was administered online during the period of October 5 through October 28, 2016 and includes responses from 289 people, primarily in marketing and sales departments at B2B companies, but B2C companies were also included.

To view the full survey report, click here: https://www.vidyard.com/resources/state-of-video-marketing-2016/

About Vidyard

Vidyard (Twitter: @Vidyard) is the video intelligence platform that helps businesses drive more revenue through the use of online video. Going beyond video hosting and management, Vidyard helps businesses drive greater engagement in their video content, track the viewing activities of each individual viewer, and turn those views into action. Global leaders such as Honeywell, McKesson, Lenovo, LinkedIn, Cision, TD Ameritrade, Citibank, MongoDB and Sharp rely on Vidyard to power their video content strategies and turn viewer into customers.

About Demand Metric

Demand Metric is a marketing research and advisory firm serving a membership community of over 40,000 marketing professionals and consultants in 75 countries. Offering consulting methodologies, advisory services, and 500+ premium marketing tools and templates, Demand Metric resources and expertise help the marketing community plan more efficiently and effectively, answer the difficult questions about their work with authority and conviction and complete marketing projects more quickly and with greater confidence, boosting the respect of the marketing team and making it easier to justify resources the team needs to succeed. To learn more about Demand Metric, please visit: www.demandmetric.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161129005275/en/

When it comes to recording content on or for social media, there are so many updates and options it can be difficult to decide which way to go. That’s why we asked 9 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question:

“How are you using video in your brand marketing now and why is it effective?”

Video Marketing Strategies

Here’s what YEC community members had to say:

1. Look Into Facebook Live

“We’re now using Facebook Live to run virtual seminars. It’s effective, as you have a built-in audience/referral systems through your existing Facebook fans. Plus, earlier adopters get priority exposure. Our weekly show consistently generates over 10,000 viewers now. Imagine that with a real (or even virtual) seminar! It’s powerful.” ~ Nicolas Gremion, Free-eBooks.net

2. Build Trust Online 

“I work in the SEO space, which is often associated with the wild, wild west. Indeed there are some unscrupulous black hat SEOs, but I’m not one of them, and I’ve found that video helps me communicate my experience and expertise better than anything. People are more likely to trust someone they can see and hear; video provides both as well as an inexpensive platform to sell.” ~ Kristopher Jones, LSEO.com

3. Go High End 

“At RTC, we just filmed a high-end short documentary around a theme in our business. We are premiering it in front of 200 CEOs at a conference and will then be touring it to film festivals. Investing in high-end video like this creates tremendous conversation and energy around the business while challenging us to synthesize what we do in new and exciting ways.” ~ Corey Blake, Round Table Companies

4. Add Video Testimonials 

“Ever read a testimonial on a website and wonder if the person actually said that? The most powerful video we have ever published has been a video testimonial from one of our customers. Seeing is believing, and having a testimonial on camera makes it that much more credible and personal. Our video was planned, filmed and edited by a professional firm. It was worth every penny.” ~ Andrew Hoeft, Pinpoint Software, Inc.

5. Make Authentic Connections

“Let’s face it. There’s a ton of content out there, and depending on your market, it can be incredibly challenging to reach your ideal client. Video enables you to cut through the noise, build rapport and speak to your ideal prospect (as though you’re speaking directly to them). We’ve used video in many different settings — all with the mindset to establish trust and provide value first.” ~ Zachary Burkes, Predictable Profits

6. Showcase Your Personalities

“We use video to showcase our personalities. We create strategies that communicate a brand’s story across all mediums. And as we get to know the company, we encourage them to get to know us. People like to work with people who they trust and like. That said, we use video as the first, informal introduction for some and a reminder to others as to why they added us to their team.” ~ Megan Smith, Brownstone PR

7. Tackle FAQs

“We are busy creating frequently asked question videos for our clients and our own business. These are short QA-style videos where we can help clients answer common questions. It saves us time long term, ranks us higher in search, and keeps people on the website longer.” ~ Peter Boyd, PaperStreet Web Design

8. Create Digital Workshops

“I recently launched a series of digital video workshops that business owners can stream from home. This has given my clients the flexibility of learning on their own time and for a fraction of the price. The videos aren’t tailored for each person, but they give our clients a peek into what it’s like working with us.” ~ Leila Lewis, Be Inspired PR

9. Publish Quick Daily Videos

“Video marketing is amazing. While everyone else is focusing on boring text and images, I’ve created a daily video that goes out to my mailing list subscribers. In each of these 3-to-5-minute videos, I provide calls-to-action and working examples, while gaining trust from my audience. This simply isn’t something you can do with basic text and article content.” ~ Zac Johnson, Blogger

Food Video Photo via Shutterstock

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A new app available through the Apple Store uses interactive video to make it easier than ever for businesses to connect with their customers.

Vaetas just announced the release of the Vaetas Connect iOS app. This free iPhone app is designed to serve entrepreneurs and sales professionals who are looking for a simpler way to communicate online when they can’t meet with customers in person.

“We kept hearing from entrepreneurs and sales professionals that connecting with customers online just seems so complicated these days,” says Jennifer Santoro, Chief Communications Officer of Vaetas. “They have been asking for an easier solution, and we believe Vaetas Connect will be just that.”

Those who sign up for a free Vaetas Connect membership will be able to send out interactive business videos on the go. This patent-pending technology makes it easy for any user to record or take an existing video, distribute the video to their customers, and allow the viewer to take immediate action with them directly from the video itself.

For example, the viewer can purchase a product, service or even make a donation directly from the video; they can contact the business directly through email or their mobile phone; or the video automatically can take the viewer to any webpage of the Vaetas member’s choosing (for example: coupon page, more information page, sign up page, etc.).

“We wanted business owners and sales professionals who had a fear of using video to actually have fun in their sales and marketing process, showcasing what a timesaver it is to use personalized video and the direct impact it has on their bottom line vs. writing blog posts for the masses in an attempt to ‘go viral’,” says John Rizzo, a founding partner of Vaetas.

Vito Santoro, the company’s other founding partner, says Vaetas Connect is designed for those individuals who “have a passion for what they do and are authentic in wanting to help their customers.”

“We want to support entrepreneurs in their business efforts, because entrepreneurship is the core of the human spirit; it ignites passion and solves problems,” Santoro says. “THIS is what we want to support as a company.”

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