YouTube Shorts is big and according to Google and Comscore data it is larger than TikTok. Google’s Q2 2023 results have revealed over 2 billion users watch YouTube Shorts monthly and with over 1.5 billion logged in users every month at the end of 2022, YouTube Shorts have quickly positioned themselves as a major competitor to TikTok and Instagram reels.
There is an immediate opportunity for the agile marketer and we will discuss this in the article below.
You can see in the graphic here, YouTube is twice the size of TikTok in the UK for millions of minutes according to Comscore, June 2023. We know a vast majority of this audience traffic is consuming Shorts. The reason there is an immediate opportunity, as with any new emerging large platform, is because it is currently under-monetized, as Google has initially focused on building the audience first.
Furthermore, according to our latest research report, 8 in 10 teens know what YouTube Shorts are and 6 in 10 teens say they watch them so it is time for brands to sit up and pay attention to a platform that could offer real brand reach.
You are now able to specifically advertise on YouTube Shorts and there are competitive CPMs for the first to market advertisers. At Precise TV we have noticed this for several of our first campaigns. Get in touch if you’d like to learn more about this.
YouTube Shorts are short-form vertical videos that can be uploaded onto YouTube. Each ‘Short’ (as they are increasingly being known as) can run between 6 and 60 seconds but the app does also allow you to merge multiple videos into a longer, one minute clip depending on what you want to convey.
What is a view with YouTube Shorts?
A View is counted if the user watches the first 10 seconds of an ad or until the end if the ad is less than 10 seconds.
A view is also a click.
If someone views an ad for more than 10 seconds AND clicks it, it is still counted as only one view.
It’s interesting to see YouTube has opted for a longer view definition than TikTok. TikTok have opted for a view to be a simple movement of the advert, however they also have a 2 second and 6 second metric. This will result in YouTube’s View Through Rates (VTRs) appearing to be lower than TikTok, but this is obviously not the case due to the different definitions of views and something marketers should be very aware of.
What are the typical view through rates (VTRs) with YouTube Shorts?
Our data suggests that the VTRs for Shorts campaigns are generally much lower compared to our standard In-Stream campaigns, with most adverts achieving a 2 to 10% VTR. The secret to a great creative to improve VTR is to capture the audience within the first 2-5 seconds. Our recommended video length for Shorts is 15-25 seconds with further creative advice coming up in a future article from us.
Targeting
We are able to leverage our Precise Intent targeting for YouTube Shorts advertising to audiences based on their recent search queries on Google. We also utilize our Consumer Panel data to select the best keywords for this targeting.
If you’d like to get in touch to start advertising with Precise TV on YouTube Shorts, please do so here.
Topics: youtube, advertising, contextual targeting, digital, youtube shorts