Short videos, massive views, but maybe no payoff.

markkaz

markkaz

I Love YTtalk
My videos are more on the longer side but I have been making an effort to get them under 8 minutes. I am pondering starting a second channel targeting the youngest viewers, from ages 3-7, with 3-4 minute videos. These would be more entertaining, less informational.

A few days ago, I was talking with my neighbor about my channel and he said that his 2 year old daughter loves playdoh and surprise egg videos. He named the top channel which I am well aware of. I asked what device they used and if ads showed up. He said that it's a tablet, ads show up, but his daughter keeps tapping that corner to skip the ad.

That made me wonder. How often do non-skippable ads show up on super short-form videos? I subscribe to TMZ so I clicked the recent videos playlist and let it keep playing. I would skip the skippable ads.

The results are listed below. In short, 28 videos, 40 minutes of content, only two NON-skippable ads. That's a whole lot of content to only earn revenue from two ads. Of course, that doesn't count banner ads which are very low earners.

This makes me wonder if cranking out 2-3 minute videos are worth the time. They may generate lots of views with a less-than incremental payoff compared to longer-form videos.

What are your thoughts on doing 3-4 minute videos? Is my observation of TMZ skewed because most of them are under 2 minutes?

Here's my observation.
Column 1: Time of Day (Prime Time evening)
Column 2: Length of Video
Column 3: Ad type (N=Nonskippable, 0=No Ad, S=Skippable Truview)

8:50 0:50 N
8:51 1:45 0
8:52 1:07 0
8:54 1:18 0
8:55 1:05 N
8:56 1:03 0
8:58 1:10 0
8:59 1:44 S
9:01 1:24 0
9:02 1:46 S
9:04 1:26 0
9:06 1:20 S
9:07 1:01 0
9:08 1:43 0
9:10 1:07 S
9:12 1:47 0
9:14 1:42 0
9:15 0:35 S
9:16 1:18 0
9:18 1:47 0
9:20 1:47 S
9:22 1:44 0
9:24 1:46 0
9:26 1:00 S
9:27 1:25 0
9:29 2:00 0
9:31 0:31 S
9:32 1:29 0
 
Last edited:
markkaz said:
My videos are more on the longer side but I have been making an effort to get them under 8 minutes. I am pondering starting a second channel targeting the youngest viewers, from ages 3-7, with 3-4 minute videos. These would be more entertaining, less informational.

A few days ago, I was talking with my neighbor about my channel and he said that his 2 year old daughter loves playdoh and surprise egg videos. He named the top channel which I am well aware of. I asked what device they used and if ads showed up. He said that it's a tablet, ads show up, but his daughter keeps tapping that corner to skip the ad.

That made me wonder. How often do non-skippable ads show up on super short-form videos? I subscribe to TMZ so I clicked the recent videos playlist and let it keep playing. I would skip the skippable ads.

The results are listed below. In short, 28 videos, 40 minutes of content, only two NON-skippable ads. That's a whole lot of content to only earn revenue from two ads. Of course, that doesn't count banner ads which are very low earners.

This makes me wonder if cranking out 2-3 minute videos are worth the time. They may generate lots of views with a less-than incremental payoff compared to longer-form videos.

What are your thoughts on doing 3-4 minute videos? Is my observation of TMZ skewed because most of them are under 2 minutes?

Here's my observation.
Column 1: Time of Day (Prime Time evening)
Column 2: Length of Video
Column 3: Ad type (N=Nonskippable, 0=No Ad, S=Skippable Truview)

8:50 0:50 N
8:51 1:45 0
8:52 1:07 0
8:54 1:18 0
8:55 1:05 N
8:56 1:03 0
8:58 1:10 0
8:59 1:44 S
9:01 1:24 0
9:02 1:46 S
9:04 1:26 0
9:06 1:20 S
9:07 1:01 0
9:08 1:43 0
9:10 1:07 S
9:12 1:47 0
9:14 1:42 0
9:15 0:35 S
9:16 1:18 0
9:18 1:47 0
9:20 1:47 S
9:22 1:44 0
9:24 1:46 0
9:26 1:00 S
9:27 1:25 0
9:29 2:00 0
9:31 0:31 S
9:32 1:29 0
Click to expand...
Well, I've now cut my length the videos I make to less than 2 minutes.
2 minutes is the maximum I can make, but they're very short, usually around 1 minute+.

I've disabled monetization because I wasn't interested in making money for now.

This increases my audience retention to 40-70% at least. I get a lot more views now, likes and comments, etc.
But as a result, my watch time is less because of shorter videos.
Makes sense, but I'm pretty okay with this. At least it looks good for my channel. :)
 
If I watched 28 videos and more than 2 non skippable ads came up (like they did so soon in your research), I'd be turning on AdBlock to enjoy the rest of the videos. But that's only if I was going to watch 28 videos in a row. I'm actually going to be doing 2 different series' for GTA Online soon, both series' are the same, sort of, but 1 will be full length videos around 10-20mins, each with as much edited as possible, it will take me a few days to a week to get it done because the 2nd series will be 3-5min highlights of the full length videos which I may even be rediting at times. I'm doing this to cater to a wider audience, 1 audience who likes long videos another who likes short videos but only want a small tates of the channel first, I won't be able to make a single cent anyways so I'm in a different boat as you I guess lol. I'd suggest trying it out. You don't have to do it daily, if it's 3-4 min videos you can do it weekly, you might not earn as much but it's additional money and you're catering to a wider audience which in turn you can try to direct to your main channel. Look at SeaNanners, his success comes purely from videos <4min long and through him, I found other YouTuber's like Diction, Sark & Minx and I'm even familiar with many more. Just some food for thought I guess. I think any genre channel can benefit from a combination of both short and long videos, shorter are even more beneficial at times. I'm trying to go the shorter route now days which is why I'll be concentrating on shorter videos a little more.
 
Interesting data. I think if you are looking for high views the short vids are the way to go, but those looking to raise CPM should aim for vids of 8mins or more. My own less than scientific study this month has shown that my CPM is at least $1 more than channels in identical vertical with nearly identical content and demographics. The one difference is that my videos are considerably longer.
 
@AndrewReviewYou There should be some reasonable amount of ads. Television is ridiculous. Around 22 minutes of content per half hour. In my sample case, 38 minutes of content, only two ads. I didn't make a note if they were 15 or 30 seconds each. TV is too high, Youtube is too low.

I recall looking at UberDanger's videos and he had a bunch of 1 minute videos with some longer ones mixed in. I know I can mix in shorter videos to my current channel as well. It's not going to affect my Watch Time because the popularity of the longer-form videos would likely carry on. Plus, if I make the videos properly, I can get viewers to watch most of the 3-4 minutes.

It is more about starting a second channel with just 3-4 minute videos. I guess it would be fine even if it had lower earnings.
 
I've shortened my videos. Although my videos were never really long all of my latest videos are less than 5 minutes. My retention time on all videos less than 5 minutes ranges from 60-80%.
 
Melody Anne said:
Interesting data. I think if you are looking for high views the short vids are the way to go, but those looking to raise CPM should aim for vids of 8mins or more. My own less than scientific study this month has shown that my CPM is at least $1 more than channels in identical vertical with nearly identical content and demographics. The one difference is that my videos are considerably longer.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing your results. As a gateway to building a channel, shorter videos could be a good plan. If you're seeing a $1 difference, in CPM, that's not a big difference (+/- 10%). However, the difference in RPM could be significant if a large amount of skippable TruView ads are presented and skipped.[DOUBLEPOST=1395693948,1395692567][/DOUBLEPOST]
TinHatRanch said:
I've shortened my videos. Although my videos were never really long all of my latest videos are less than 5 minutes. My retention time on all videos less than 5 minutes ranges from 60-80%.
Click to expand...

50-60% is good retention. I hope to achieve the same. Besides, I can do two videos at one time. Film my normal review (box details, unboxing, put-together, action) then when I'm done, it's all still set up, then film a shorter version with a short intro and new action so that it isn't the same content re-purposed.
 
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