If you need to revisit your newsroom’s video strategy, learn what types of videos work for your peers, or simply understand how your videos perform against competitors, this article’s for you.
In this post, we’ve outlined the different ways you can use CrowdTangle to better understand the state of your videos.
Understand the state of your videos and your competitors with Intelligence
If you want to see how your Facebook videos generally perform, start with Intelligence and go to the Videos tab.
In Intelligence, you can see if a page's video views have increased or decreased over a period of time.
You can also check how your videos compare with competitors by adding other pages in the search field. This way, you can see if you’re ahead or behind competitors or if the increases and decreases are a trend across the cohort.
If you see a spike in the graph, find out the video that drove views for that time period by clicking on the graph.
Which post type gets more views: Facebook Lives or non-lives?
Select Show: Video Views By: Post Type
This shows a breakdown of video views based on the post type. Usually, the post type that has the higher volume = higher views, but not always.
Where do your videos get views: Page Posts or Shares?
Select Show: Video Views By: View Type
This shows how much of the video views are generated from existing audience (Page Posts) and how much are from shares of of posts.
If you want to see which of the videos have driven the most views from shares, you can also select the video view type on the right hand side options and then click a point in the graph.
Are shorter videos generating more views than longer ones?
Select Show: Video Views By: Video Length
This shows a breakdown of videos based on length. Usually, the length that has the higher volume = higher views, but not always. If that’s not the case, dig deeper by using the options on the right hand side and find the top videos for each of the length.
In addition to views, can I also check video Interactions?
Go to Interactions Tab and Post Type: Facebook Videos or Live
This shows how much interaction the pages’ videos get in comparison with other post types.
What kind of interactions do videos get?
Select Show: Interaction Type and on the right hand side options, select Facebook Videos or Facebook Live
This shows if your videos get more likes or shares or comments and is useful to understand which videos drive a specific interaction. This is also helpful if you're setting some goals around making your videos more shareable or if you want to produce videos that spark discussions among your audience.
REMEMBER: You can compare up to 20 pages in Intelligence. If you manage multiple pages, you can create a list with those pages and look at that list in Intelligence in aggregate.
Find the video content that works using Lists and Search
How do I find the video that’s getting the most views among my competitors?
In Lists, look for the list that has your competitors’ pages.
Use the Post Type filter to limit the results to videos and sort by Total Views
This is useful for social producers or editors looking for the most viewed videos during a specific time period (which you can change) from your competitive set.
How do I find the video around a topic that’s getting the most views?
In Saved Search, type the keywords related to the topic.
Use the Post Type filter to limit the results to videos and sort by Total Views
Do this if you want to see what videos about a topic are getting the most views, regardless of who publishes them.
If you want to limit the results to certain lists or pages, you can use the Search Within feature, or enable the Verified Pages filter under More.
How do I find the pages or groups that share my Facebook videos?
In Saved Search, type facebook.com/[page name here] as your keyword. PRO TIP: Add your page name in the Remove Page(s) whose names includes this word or phrase field to exclude your pages’ posts.
This shows who shares your videos and how much views those shares generate. When you save this search, you can also check the Leaderboard to see which of these pages or groups generate the most views for your page.
You can also use the Chrome extension if you want to see who shares specific videos.
How do I compare our video views against competitors?
In Lists, go to the Leaderboard tab and select Owned Videos.
This ranks the pages in the list based on the who has the most views from owned videos (videos you publish on your page) so you can use this to quickly compare your video performance against competitors.
How can I see views of shared videos?
In Lists, go to the Leaderboard tab and select Shared Videos.
This ranks the pages in the list based on the who has the most views from shared videos (videos you share on your page).
How can I see exactly who's shared my videos, and who's helping drive performance?
In the post stream, at the top of every video, the word ‘Video’ is hyperlinked. Click on ‘Video’ and you’ll see you’ll see each time that video has been posted, crossposted, and/or shared by another Page or in a public group. Learn more in the FAQ for 'Posts with this video.'
When to use Intelligence and Lists or Saved Searches
To recap, here's some of the use cases that specific features help you solve:
Some guide questions to help you with your video strategy:
Based on these insights, can you identify top three video formats that work for your page? (e.g. breaking news, explainers, interviews, etc.)
What kinds of videos are getting a lot of engagement or views? Is there a common theme?
With these data, can you identify three things that you want to do differently tomorrow to have better engagement on videos?
More video-related resources: