10 Tips on How to Improve Video Engagement

Improve Video Engagement
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Publishers gain a new stream of potential ROI by including video content on their websites. This is, of course, due to video ad monetization. However, it’s not enough to just incorporate videos on your website, add a few ads, and wait for profit. Many factors come into play in achieving a successful monetization strategy — ad viewability, ad placement, analytics, etc. For starters, publishers need to know how to improve video engagement for their content if they want to maximize their earnings. 

Why Is Video Engagement Important for Publishers?

Besides the most obvious — higher engagement leading to more ad impressions, video engagement can also impact audience loyalty and brand exposure. When users find videos interesting, informative, or entertaining, they are more likely to visit again for more content, increasing overall engagement and loyalty toward a publisher’s website. For example, healthcare brands can boost digital HCP engagement on their platforms by sharing industry-related videos.

10 Tips to Improve Video Engagement on Your Platform

To help publisher realize their target ROI from video ads, we have singled out ten practical tips for improving video engagement.

Focus on Video Quality 

No matter which video sourcing strategy you opt for, whether producing video content with your own equipment, purchasing pre-produced content from agencies, or leasing, the video content itself must be high-quality. This refers to both audio and video quality. If users can’t see the video clearly or if the audio is distorted, most likely, they will refrain from engaging with your video.  

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Know Your Audience 

As a publisher, you need to make sure that your video content correlates with the user’s intent and is contextually relevant to them. You have to know which type of video content your user base enjoys. If not, it is unlikely that they would engage with your videos, let alone watch them till the end. 

Optimize for Mobile 

With global mobile traffic increasing each year, and accounting for nearly 57% of web page views worldwide at the beginning of 2023, making your video content mobile-friendly is essential to reaching a wider audience and increasing your video engagement. For instance, a user might be interested in your video content but can’t access it since your video player is not well-optimized for mobile devices. 

Optimize for Mobile
Optimize for Mobile

Include CTA 

Including CTAs in videos is a great way to self-promote and encourage users to take a particular action, e.g., subscribe to your newsletter or follow you on socials. You can place CTAs anywhere throughout your video. However, front-loading videos with CTAs allows for a better audience reach. 

Employ Video Analytics

To know which content is most relevant and successful in terms of engagement, publishers need to keep track of video performance (play rates, views, etc.). This can be done by employing a powerful video analytics tool. These tools can help you better grasp audience behavior. For instance, you can get information on average user watch time or drop-off points within the video, which gives you insight into how long your next video should be and where to place ads.  

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Use an Eye-Catching Video Thumbnail 

An engaging thumbnail image can significantly impact the click-through rate for your content. The first thing that users see is the thumbnail image of the video. So, it needs to be as eye-catching as possible. A unique custom image with video-related content is a great way to draw in your audience.

Thumbnail Image
Thumbnail Image

SEO Optimization  

Utilize SEO to optimize your titles, descriptions, and tags accordingly. When you choose proper keywords and incorporate them into the text (title, tags, etc.), you target a niche audience. It’s well known that users are more likely to click on a video related to their search query or interest.  Consider using tools like the Google Trends API for real-time insights and guidance in selecting trending and relevant keywords for your content optimization.

Keep Your Video Content Short  

Getting people to stick around during a video these days is quite the challenge. So, unless you’re delivering some sort of entertainment video, for example, a talk show, there is no need for your content to be 15 minutes long. Shorter videos have been proven to have higher watch time, so convey your message in two minutes or less.  

Video Length vs. Video Engagement
Video Length vs. Video Engagement Table

Add Subtitles 

Recent studies show that 75% of mobile users watch videos on mute. You can work around this by adding easy-to-read subtitles. For instance, incorporating bright-colored large letters.

In addition, using subtitles increases accessibility for users that are hard of hearing. You can also include subtitles in multiple languages to expand your target audience. 

Subtitles
Add Subtitles

Promote Your Video Content

There are many ways in which you can promote your video content, one of the more common channels being social media, blogs, and newsletters. Post on your socials, write about your video content in your blog, and send your subscribers email newsletters to keep them updated. If you decide to go the social media route, remember that relevant hashtags can boost your social media posts’ reach (you can create these using the right TikTok hashtag generator).

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