Instagram Video Benchmarks for the Apparel Industry
[Originally published on the Dash Hudson blog.]
In case you haven’t heard, Instagram video should be a really important part of your social media strategy. The tricky thing is, the metrics for measuring their performance are slightly different than those of static content. For that reason, we’re rolling out some Instagram video benchmarks to help you understand how you’re measuring up to your competition.
We’re starting with the apparel sector. 🎬
We recently learned from Instagram itself that 80% of all data we consume will be motion content by the year 2020. Mind blown.
That’s, like, a lot of video content. And that can take many forms: a quick clip, a longer length format, a boomerang, a rapid motion loop, an animated drawing, a fun giphy, an artsy cinemagraph, the list goes on. If the asset moves in any way, it will help propel that narrative you’ve been building to tell the story of your brand in an even more engaging way than with static creative.
But you already know that videos are super important for your audience and that they enable deep connections with your followers. You’re very much aware that your consumers are eager to see your merch in motion. And because you’re a smart brand, you’re serving it up to them. You’re experimenting with various formats, you’re testing out different degrees of production value, you’re measuring the results to understand the ROI of that investment.
What’s interesting about video content is that its metrics are not exactly the same as regular creative. Using the exact same KPIs for motion pictures will not truly be representative of their performance because audiences engage with them differently than with photos. While followers will demonstrate their enthusiasm for a static post with a double-tap and often a comment, the way they engage with an Instagram video is by simply watching it.
And when a user is mid-view, they often forget to give that double-tap because they’re too busy watching and paying attention to what’s happening in the clip. This results in less concrete likes and sometimes fewer comments. So while the traditional engagement metric can still be useful to analyze, it isn’t the sole indicator of a video’s performance. The most important KPI for in-feed video content is views.
Knowing how many times people have watched your video post is a true indicator of its resonance. And because it’s always useful to know what others in your sector are experiencing, namely the kind of numbers they’re seeing for their motion content, we decided we would put together some benchmarks for Instagram video so that you can get a sense of how your industry is doing while understanding where you stand in comparison to your competitors.
We took a sample of 150 brands belonging to the apparel sector and analyzed all of their videos — as in each and every one that’s ever been posted. We extracted the averages for traditional engagement, viewership engagement, and added absolute numbers for views. We included the median as well to let you know if you fall in the bottom or top half of the category.
We laid them out on a super easy to save card for you to benchmark against your own numbers. Drag the below onto your desktop to have on hand for quick referencing!
There are a number of factors that come into play as it relates to Instagram video performance, notably strategy, creative quality, audience size, consumer relationships, the list is endless. The crazy beautiful thing about the channel is that not one business is alike — what works for one might not work for another. Being able to reach the numbers you’ve set as your goals requires a unique, brand-specific approach that you’ve got to hone over time.
Now that you know the general health of your industry’s Instagram video content, you know exactly what numbers to beat.
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