Measurement
Part of A method for measuring and reporting short form video performance that avoids vanity metrics
How to assess short form video benchmarks
Learn how to assess short form video benchmarks, build a local account baseline and report performance figures with their limits clearly stated.
What to take away
- LinkedIn's own advertising resources, reviewed 11 September 2026, set out video formats and campaign objectives but publish no universal benchmark for views, watch time or cost per result.
- Ofcom's Online Nation 2024, LinkedIn's B2B Marketing Benchmark 2024 and Wyzowl's State of Video Marketing 2025 give dated context figures, not account targets.
- UK law shapes what you can collect and report. The UK GDPR regime and the ICO's international transfers guidance govern moving that data offshore.
- The practical answer is to build a local baseline from your own account data, then use published platform guidance to sanity-check it.
Why published benchmarks are thin
Most platforms publish guidance on formats, objectives and creative best practice rather than performance averages. The LinkedIn Success Hub is a useful example: it explains how to structure video campaigns and which objectives suit them, but it does not promise a benchmark figure for completion rate or cost per thousand impressions.
Three named, dated sources are worth checking first. Ofcom's Online Nation 2024, published 18 July 2024 and based on a survey of around 2,000 UK adults, reports that 40% of UK online adults used TikTok and 91% used YouTube.
LinkedIn's B2B Marketing Benchmark 2024, based on 2,000 B2B marketing leaders, found that 66% of B2B marketers use video, the most used content format. Wyzowl's State of Video Marketing 2025, based on 1,000 consumers and 500 marketers, reports that 92% of video marketers say video gives a good ROI. Each figure is context, not a target for your account.
That is not an oversight. A benchmark is only meaningful alongside the conditions that produced it. Placement, objective, creative length, audience size and season all move the number. A study run on one placement in one quarter tells you about that placement in that quarter.
So the honest position for a marketing team in England is that no single published figure can stand in for your own baseline. Treat any vendor who offers one without conditions as a sales document, not research.
How to judge a benchmark study
Good benchmark research states its method before its numbers. Look for the sample period, the account or campaign mix, the metric definition and the geography. If a study reports average watch time, ask whether it excludes views under three seconds. If it reports cost per lead, ask which objective and bidding strategy produced it.
What good benchmark research states
- Sample period
- Account or campaign mix
- Metric definition
- Geography
- View threshold (e.g. three seconds)
- Objective and bidding strategy
Definitions matter more than sample size. Two studies can both be accurate and disagree because one counts a view at one second and the other at thirty. When you compare your account against an external figure, compare definitions first.
The measurement and reporting guide sets out how to align definitions across channels before you benchmark anything, which is the step most teams skip.
Building a local baseline
- Data pullexport twelve months of account data, split by placement and objective.
- Groupinggroup campaigns by creative length, for example under 15 seconds, 15 to 30 seconds and over 30 seconds.
- Comparisoncompare cost per result and completion rate within each group before you compare any group against a published average.
The spread within your own account is usually wider than the gap between your account and a published average.
Building a local baseline
- Pull twelve months of account data
- Split by placement and objective
- Group campaigns by creative length
- Compare spread within your account
- Label every figure as measured or illustrative
Illustrative worked example, not measured: a team spends £4,000 a month on vertical video. Feed gets 70% of spend at £12 cost per result, Stories gets 30% at £18. The blended cost per result is £13.80. The placement split, not a published average, explains the gap.
For a worked method, see the common measurement mistakes in England, which covers the errors that make a baseline unusable before the first comparison is made.
Data protection duties
Benchmark work often involves exporting audience and performance data, sometimes to a platform or agency outside the UK. That processing sits under the UK GDPR regime and the Data Protection Act 2018. The legislation.gov.UK record is for the Data Protection Act 1998; the relevant UK statute alongside the UK GDPR is the Data Protection Act 2018.
If personal data leaves the UK, the transfer needs a lawful mechanism. The ICO's guidance on international transfers explains the safeguards and the assessment you should document; its separate right-of-access guidance covers a different data protection topic. Build that check into your reporting cycle rather than bolting it on at audit time.
Reporting a benchmark honestly
State the source, the date and the definition in the same sentence as the number. If you cannot, drop the number. A benchmark without provenance invites a challenge you cannot answer.
Separate observation from interpretation. "Completion rate fell two points in the quarter" is observation. "Creative fatigue set in" is interpretation. Both are useful, but they carry different weight in a board pack.
Finally, date your benchmarks and review them quarterly. A figure from eighteen months ago may still be the best available, but the reader deserves to know its age.
Decision table
Choose
- No internal baseline yet
- Twelve months of your own account data, split by placement
- Vendor supplies a benchmark
- Ask for method, period, definition and geography
- Data exports leave the UK
- Document the transfer mechanism per ICO guidance
- Reporting to a board
- One dated figure with its definition
- Comparing across channels
- Aligned metric definitions first
Avoid
- No internal baseline yet
- Quoting a vendor average as your target
- Vendor supplies a benchmark
- Accepting the figure without conditions
- Data exports leave the UK
- Assuming the platform handles compliance
- Reporting to a board
- A slide of undated averages
- Comparing across channels
- Ranking channels on mismatched metrics
Common questions
Are published short form video benchmarks reliable?
They are useful as context, not as a target. Check the method and the conditions before you quote one.
How often should a benchmark be refreshed?
Quarterly is a sensible cycle for most marketing teams, because placement mix and creative formats shift within a year. Refresh sooner if you change objective or platform.
Can I use a US benchmark for an English audience?
Only with care. Audience behaviour and platform mix differ, so a US average is a starting hypothesis, not a target. Validate it against your own account data before quoting it.
Does benchmark research involve personal data?
It can, if you export audience-level or lead-level records. Check the ICO's international transfers guidance before moving that data outside the UK.
