Videos under 10 minutes vs over 10 minutes

[weeeben]

I understand that viewers have short attention spans which is why most youtubers make short video's.

But I often wonder why people with 1m+ views per video don't make them longer.

A while ago it was all about audience retention but that's turned now and it's all about watch time.
So obviously the longer the video the more likely subs etc will watch for a longer time.

Even if the majority lose interest in 2 minutes, a 10 minute video would still be 20% retention which isn't so bad.
My most viewed video is only 6 minutes long but hardly earns much because it's only the one ad, other videos I have with much less views but are 40 minutes long earn 3 times more with the same retention.

So I'm not sure why youtubers with large subs don't capitalise with it.
I often see popular videos that are 9:28 seconds or something like that, another 32 seconds and they could double, triple revenue.

My idea for those high sub channels with short videos do one video out of every 4 over 10 minutes.
at least that way they can put 2 ads inside and triple their revenue every fourth video.

What do you guys think? and have you considered extending your videos to increase revenue?
Again, this is based on youtubes prefference of watch time

 

[Conight]

This does make things difficult for my content type, I make comedy skits and I like to keep things below 3 minutes to keep it sweet. Any advice?

 

[Izzy's Toy Time]

For what its worth, we have videos all across the board - 5 minutes, 15 minutes, everything in between. Some videos we insert ads, others we don't. 450 videos and counting, and we have seen zero behavior/algo/revenue differences when we vary our video length. So we've taken the more holistic approach: make the video as long as it needs to be.

Also, audience retention is slightly confusing. It isn't per video, from what I understand. It's per session. So if a viewer watches 20 seconds of one of your videos (bad), then clicks to another one of your videos, and then another, and then another, all of that time gets counted toward your retention rate.

 

[weeeben]

For what its worth, we have videos all across the board - 5 minutes, 15 minutes, everything in between.

Well you would be a good example of time, views & earnings since you get ship loads of views.
Do you put extra ads inside your over 10 minute video's that you do put ads on?
and what about youtube red, I use red so I don't see ads but if you had 2 ads in a video, would you get a better rate from red viewers or is it the same whether you have no ads, 1 ad or more?

I guess what i'm asking is, are your youtube red earnings any different from a video with ads to no ads?
even if they are the same length and same view count.

 

[Jungle Explorer]

I do not believe there is any possible way to begin to understand how the Youtube system works. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to how the system works. Let me give you an example.

I have two videos that cover a very similar subject. One video is 11:45 minutes long and the other is 12:27 minutes long. In the last 28 days, the video that is 12:28 minutes long had 7,890 views for a total of 44,710 watched minutes. The video that is 11:45 long has had 3,981 views for a total of 18,121 watched minutes. Which one do you suppose has earned more? Logic would dictate that the one that is longer and had twice as many views and watched minutes would earn more right? Nope. The shorter video with half the traffic earned more. (see below).

There is no logic or reason to how this system works. So I say, just don't worry about it. Just make your video the way you want and build your audience. You will waste more time trying to tweak. Time better spent making more videos.

 

[EVO]

My videos are 'just' over 10 mins so I can add more ads. More ads more monies!

 

[babyteeth4]

Firstly I try to have the video length make sense for what is happening in the video. But traditionally we've tried to keep our videos in the 8-14 minute length: I think 99% of our videos fall into that category.

If I am very close to 10 minutes (within 20 seconds) I will edit in a little extra just to get that 10 minute mark to add an additional ad.