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Drastic Difference in Audience Demographics: YouTube Traditional vs. YouTube Short-form videos


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Want to see something interesting?  As some of you know, I've published a few cowboy action shooting videos these past few years, mostly related to my home club, Illowa Irregulars, with a few others from clubs I've visited.  My videos have tended to be long-format videos, most of which are 12 to 18 minutes long, with a few longer (primarily the two or three state and/or national matches I've attended).  Most of my regular videos get 200 to 400 views eventually, although a couple of the national matches have received upwards of 2,000 to 3,000 views after several months (> 1 yr).  According to YouTube, nearly 100% of these viewers are 65 years of age and older.  Not sure I quite believe that, but the audience certainly skews older.

 

Lately, I've posted a few YouTube "Shorts" here and there.  Shorts have to be 60 seconds or less.  In that regard, it's typically a single shooter shooting a single stage.   I'm struck by the magnitude of the response to the short form videos compared to the traditional long-form video.  Three of the short four shorts I posted yesterday are approaching 10,000 view each after only 24 hours, with a third coming in at about 9,000 views.   That's a big difference! 

 

What's even more interesting and perhaps something to think about, is the difference in audience demographic.  As you can see in the table below, 28% of these "Shorts" viewers are 25-34 years old, 22% are from 35-44 years old, and 15% are 45-54 years old.   

 

What does this mean?  Who knows, but clearly, there's some level of interest in the 20+ age groups. 

 

 

Audience Demographics

image.png.68ce63f0912c9f706b8df0ced234c9bd.png

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IIRC the shorts also have to be shot in narrow screen and not wide screen.

 

The reason for so many more views is that the short videos are promoted as Reels. These automatically show up in people's feeds. The wide format and longer videos are not promoted as Reels.

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Howdy Popcorn,  the biggest difference in the viewers is where they live, so take a look at that. Only 15% of my channel's 750 million views come from the USA.  That's still a lot of views, but mostly mine are coming from India, Russia, and Brazil.  Shooting shorts pop up in the Shorts feed of people who have viewed similar stuff.  And yeah, they are mostly younger. 

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14 minutes ago, Warden Callaway said:

I detest the Shorts and won't watch them. 

 

I don't watch many either, mostly when i recognize someone.  I still prefer my long-form videos where I record an intro, show a few stage videos (often set to music) and then roll our match scores at the end.  PK

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I enjoy making videos on my MACBOOK, using iMovie.  I made them for my pleasure, not for money, nor any other purpose.

 

Some of them were pretty good, others stunk (stank? stinked? whatever...)

 

 I doubt that any of our amateur videos will "save" SASS, or our home clubs, assuming SASS or a club needs saving.

 

Please yourself.  Don't sweat the stats.

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I don't post many long-form videos, but when I do I usually will lose a few subscribers!  :o  The "swipers" across the globe have very short attention spans!

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42 minutes ago, Abilene, SASS # 27489 said:

I don't post many long-form videos, but when I do I usually will lose a few subscribers!  :o  The "swipers" across the globe have very short attention spans!

Abilene, 

As your long form videographer (for two videos), that hurt. My vids for you are top notch and worthy.

La Sombra

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59 minutes ago, La Sombra said:

Abilene, 

As your long form videographer (for two videos), that hurt. My vids for you are top notch and worthy.

La Sombra

And the combined loss of subscribers from those two videos is -14.  But do I care?  I do not!  :D  And you do a good job.

 

But back to the demographics, those younger people, the "swipers" I call them, grew up with social media.  It's hard to keep their attention.  YouTube just started Shorts about 4 years ago or so?  I think they were trying to capture the Tik Tok crowd.  

 

 

Edited by Abilene, SASS # 27489
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I watch one channels where the presenter drolls on and on. Talks slowly and then says "I repeat.." and says it again.  The content is fine. It's just his presentation that's a test of endurance.  I tend to set the speed at 2X unless there is a fine point that needs back to 1X.  

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8 hours ago, Popcorn Kelly said:

Abilene, Right now I'm running about 31% US.  ...

It can be very interesting looking at the analytics of individual videos and shorts.  The percentage of viewers from any country can vary drastically from one to the other, with no obvious reason.  In the past year, my views from the USA have dropped to 5.4%  Here is a screenshot of the channnel lifetime (about 2.5 yrs).  Of course, these are 99% shorts which drives the high view count.

 

geography.jpg

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16 minutes ago, H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 said:

Video shot in portrait form instead of landscape is almost unwatchable.

To us... The younger crowd watches that style all the time.

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40 minutes ago, H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 said:

Video shot in portrait form instead of landscape is almost unwatchable.

 

23 minutes ago, Lucky Lead Pepper said:

To us... The younger crowd watches that style all the time.

On a phone. I guess most people watch YT on a phone or tablet these days. 

 

And portrait format often suits the content better. Who said once (wide) landscape is only suitable for snakes and funerals? :D

Edited by Equanimous Phil
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I published a YouTube a few years back, forgot all about.  I’ll have to check if viewers reached double digits.

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My YouTube channel is not as big as most of yours, 277 subs, here's my breakdown.  I do a lot of stage videos that are less than 60 seconds, but they are landscape and not done as Shorts.  The most popular video on my channel is about 2 1/2 minutes long.  I do not narrate anything, just show stage videos. 

YT Details.png

YT Details 2.png

YT Details 1.png

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4 hours ago, Matthew Duncan said:

I published a YouTube a few years back, forgot all about.  I’ll have to check if viewers reached double digits.

I remember that one Matthew, was a really good one as I recall!

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Screen-Hunter-68.png

 

I was curious and looked at my little channel's analytics, I don't have any females!

I treat the short as sort of a commercial for the main video or for the channel.  Shorts will get at least 20x as many views as the main video.

Edited by Brimstone Bill Willson
add info
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Or they just don't identify as such!

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