What is the ROI for nonprofit videos?

Welcome to our Nonprofit Marketing series. I’m Justin Willet from GLBAL media – a story first creative agency for nonprofits. As a video production company we are often asked “what is the ROI or return on investment for video?”

Especially since a lot of the clients we work with are nonprofits they are accountable for every penny spent and want to make sure it is a worth while investment. So, what is the ROI for nonprofit videos? The short answer is…It depends.

I know, I know, not the answer you were hoping for, but there really are a lot that can affect this. Just having a video regardless of how good it is is not going to increase donations or even raise awareness about your cause. Filming an about or testimonial video and uploading it to Facebook, Instagram or Youtube is not going to trigger overnight success.

What is ROI and how to measure it?

So what is ROI anyway? We won’t spend a lot of time explaining ROI because there’s plenty of resources already for that, but ROI stands for return on investment and is how much money your video generates after subtracting the cost to produce the video.

Most likely there are other costs associated with a video campaign like ad spend, email marketing, credit card processing fees, etc. so make sure you factor all of that into your investment to get an accurate figure.

Let’s use simple numbers to explain this. Your nonprofit hires a local video production company and you pay $1,000 for the video. After uploading the video you receive $5,000 in donations. Your ROI would be $4,000 or 400%.

In order to get your percentage first take the revenue ($5,000) – investment ($1,000) divided by the investment ($1,000) and x 100.

What is a healthy ROI for nonprofit videos?

Over the years we’ve worked on projects that have generated an ROI of over 400,000%! You heard that right, 400,000%.

How is that even possible? We started with a vision and a plan to get the video in front of the right audience. This specific campaign ran for several years and was continually in front of new viewers.

According to Wyzowl 93% of marketers say video marketing has given them a good ROI. So even if you don’t break into 6 figure returns, video is still a great place to invest. However, the actual video itself is only one piece of the marketing puzzle. When used in conjunction with other marketing it can be widely successful… I’d even argue it’s one of the best resources a nonprofit can use to help tell your story.

How can I increase the ROI for my nonprofit video?

In order to increase your ROI, you first need to make sure you have metrics in place to track the success of your video. How will you measure the success of the video? Will it be based on total views, shares or donations? This probably depends on the goal of the video which we’ll cover in another episode but in order to increase your ROI you first need to know what your objectives are and make sure you set realistic goals.

One of the easiest ways to actually increase your videos ROI is to repurpose the video content. An example of this is to film a long form interview with your founder for your website and then edit shorter clips to use as reels or stories on social media. Your initial cost for filming hasn’t changed but you were able to reuse the same content on different platforms that will hopefully lead to additional donations.

At GLBAL media we help nonprofits tell their story, create a strategy and reach new donors. Schedule a strategy session here to get started.