5 things video analytics can do to grow your media business

These days, most people recognize the value of using data to make business decisions. This is particularly true for media companies, since technology gives us a more granular picture of where, when, how, and even why people watch what they watch.

While data can help answer such general questions as How are TV ratings calculated? and How much does that ad on 'The X Factor' cost? the real point for anyone trying to make money from video is, How can you use your viewing and monetization insights to increase revenue and lower costs?

Here are five things video analytics can do to help grow your media business.

1. Shape your content strategy.

It's a simple idea: Stop making and buying video that is unpopular with your viewers or doesn't earn money. Information on number of views per video and viewing drop-off can be used to influence content-rights negotiations - and also how you actually make content. It can influence how long a video is or which actors and presenters it features. At the most sophisticated analytics level, video businesses can even calculate the ROI of individual pieces of content.

2. Acquire and engage viewers.

Remember: Once you have viewers, you have to keep them. Encouraging binge-viewing and repeated use of your service will keep your viewers sticky and profitable. Smart video businesses monitor the effects of all their viewer-acquisition strategies and adjust their site and app layout to boost viewing. The most sophisticated video businesses provide personalized content recommendations, which keep viewers watching, and loving, their videos for longer.

3. Grow ad revenues.

Smart businesses frequently adjust ad loads, ad formats, ad pricing, and ad packages, all based on their video analytics. This way they maintain high inventory availability and fill rate and can price CPMs smartly to maximize revenue from viewing. The most sophisticated companies do this in real time, leveraging the potential of programmatic buying while also supporting traditional campaigns.

4. Streamline your resources.

Even fast-growing businesses need to make sure they are spending smartly on technology and headcount. Analytics can help you understand which devices and platforms are worth supporting and whether repetitive tasks, such as metadata entry, are paying dividends. Analytics can also help you prepare for peaks and troughs in viewing so you can align your technical and personnel resources accordingly.

5. Reconcile analytics sources.

Smart video businesses are constantly comparing video analytics to their other analytical sources, such as social analytics, page views, app downloads, Nielsen, comScore, and so on. This can help businesses to tease out insights on how their various online activities are linked. Reconciling these sources identifies areas of inaccuracy and also provides detailed, 360-degree profiles of viewing patterns, resulting in useful insights for advertising and syndication partners.

So are you leveraging all five items in this checklist? Businesses that best know their viewers, and know how to give them what they want, will win in the long term.

-Sarah Kiefer, head of marketing EMEA at Ooyala

This post is sponsored by Ooyala.

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