For a long time, online marketers’ favorite success metric was number of views. The assumption was that getting a lot of views meant your content or ad was good and your message was getting through. But as the web and its consumers have evolved, we’ve learned that’s not necessarily the case.
The weakness in view counts as a success metric is especially true with the coveted teen, “parseltongue” demographic. A teenager who doesn’t care about your content will tune it out, even as it plays on. If they do care, they’re highly motivated to take action, and that’s what raises the visibility and viral-ability of your content. That’s why engagement-related metrics are what really matter, vastly more than simple number of views. Our own Jason Harris writes more about boosting engagement over at MediaPost.
