Lacking A Female Audience: Is It Bad?

[QuestionMan]

This topic has been on my mind for a while now. Lately I have seen a trend of content creators (mainly male Youtubers) complaining about their lack of a female audience. There complaints would go along the lines of "why are only 5% of my viewers female" or something similar to that.

I have also seen a trend of content creators (once again mostly male) who have been criticized and mocked for having a small female audience. The thing I find most surpising of all is that I haven’t seen complaints or criticisms of the reverse (a content creator lacking a male audience).

These findings have me very confused, and it makes me feel like I'm missing something important. I thought good quality and not being a jerk was enough to attract both men and women to your channel, but it seems that women are looking for more. If so, what are they looking for? I know a lot of guys who struggle to build a female audience, and even other women who struggle to do so. I tried finding the answer to my question on Google, but I failed. I came here hoping that someone would know. Here are my questions:

Why is a lack of a female audience seen as a bad thing (especially for male content creators), but a lack of a male audience isn't?

Is a female audience more valuable than a male audience? Why or why not?

What are the consequences a content creator could face for failing to have a decently sized female audience? Could the same consequences be faced if their male fanbase was lacking instead?

How does one grow a female audience?

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Does any of you have similar experiences of having trouble gaining a female audience? I look forward to hearing your responses.

 

[Idec Sdawkminn]

I only know the answer to one of your questions, and that is what percentage of my audience is female. If you're talking about last 28 days, then 57% of my watch time and 58% of my views are from females. If you're talking lifetime, then it's 50/50.

I wonder if a lot of my viewers are little kids using their mom's account, though.

 

[The NotARubicon!]

Something like only 1-2% of my audience is female - not totally unexpected for the type of videos we do. We are planning a new series of videos that will hopefully appeal to more females..we'll see how it goes.

 

[QuestionMan]

I only know the answer to one of your questions, and that is what percentage of my audience is female. If you're talking about last 28 days, then 57% of my watch time and 58% of my views are from females. If you're talking lifetime, then it's 50/50.

I wonder if a lot of my viewers are little kids using their mom's account, though.

It's cool. Just giving your female audience % was informational enough. And yeah there really isn't a way to tell if your audience is just using mom's account (unless you do a fan meetup and notice the lack of females in the crowd lol).[DOUBLEPOST=1491970399,1491970205][/DOUBLEPOST]

Something like only 1-2% of my audience is female - not totally unexpected for the type of videos we do. We are planning a new series of videos that will hopefully appeal to more females..we'll see how it goes.

Yeah I can see why certain types of videos would be less likely to attract a female audience (example: gaming and anime channels). Curious, what do you plan to do to bring more female viewers to your channel?

 

[The NotARubicon!]

We are starting a series of reality TV-like videos that feature several women off-roaders.

 

[QuestionMan]

We are starting a series of reality TV-like videos that feature several women off-roaders.

Seems like a good idea. Tell me how things work out when you got the chance!

 

[sledrunner31]

I guess it depends on the type of channel. I do outdoors type stuff and probably the places I promote have more males. I only have about 9% female audience although some of my biggest fans are female so go figure.

 

[MintApocalypse]

Personally I've got a ~80% female audience and it's because of the type of videos I do. I think if you really want to know how people attract a female demographic and how it differs watch different kinds of content and see what they do to attract that demographic. Watch DIY or beauty vids like LaurDIY, watch the popular male vloggers like Dan and Phil. Compare those types of content to the more mixed audiences like Jacksepticeye and videos from the other side of the spectrum like Tomska. Check out the comment section see how the fans differ. Obviously there's overlap, for example I like watching all the youtubers I named, but you can still tell what demographic is most likely watching. Knowing your audience is really important.

 

[OrbitGuy]

My mobile gaming channel has roughly 11% female watchtime over 2.6 million minutes watched. My PC channel where I was experimenting with some FPS's has ~3% female watchtime through 15,000 minutes. My CS GO channel with only a couple thousand views was holding a similar number.

For gaming at least I feel it largely has to do with the types of games you are playing. If you go play League of Legends I would think you would have more than 3% female audience.(maybe it's just a stereotype, but they run ads targeted at getting female players) Another game I've been getting into lately is the Sims 4, and that game has tons of female YouTubers, so I would expect the audience to be different for that. If and when I do upload Sims 4 videos to a new channel, I'll let you know what the stats look like compared with my other channels.

I do think different interests factor into the equation, but mabye if I stopped saying "bro" so much that would also help...

 

[10ACITY]

Men spend 44% more time on YouTube than women and so most people would have more watch time from males.

I don't think anybody values either gender's views more. People just talk about female views more because they're rarer, I suppose.

On the other hand, I'm sure a bulk of YouTubers really like the idea of having a bunch of girls fangirling over them.