The Growth and Potential of Youtube Shorts

Tired of scrolling through Instagram Reels and TikTok? Well, now it’s time to add Youtube Shorts to your list of social accounts! Since the Launch of TikTok, everyone’s been playing catchup to the Chinese-based app. YouTube Shorts is Google’s answer to TikTok, which disrupted the video-sharing industry during the pandemic. Today, more than 1.5 billion monthly users engage on the platform through Shorts content. When you think about it, nearly 75% of the entire user base.

While you may be thinking, ‘great, another video app’, YouTube Shorts is actually making big waves for brands. For example, PokerStars, the largest poker channel worldwide, uploads several videos a week. When YouTube Shorts were integrated, the brand immediately capitalized on this. The YouTube Shorts showcase well-known “hands” of the world’s greatest poker players. After several weeks of testing, the YouTube Shorts proved to work better in many cases than the regular short videos on the channel. The Shorts generated some 600% more subscribers, compared to similar short clips on the YouTube channel. In the process, the Shorts generated so many views that they automatically made it into the top 3 best performing videos on the channel. Therefore, Shorts are now included in the poker brand’s YouTube strategy.

Glossier sold products through Shorts in June 2022 by creating a challenge for users to try. Glossier gave a hundred influencers a new pencil eyeliner and encouraged them to create Shorts videos with the hashtag #WrittenInGlossier in the caption. People who tapped the hashtag were brought to the Glossier website. There, they could buy the eyeliner and were asked to recreate a look as part of the challenge. Any Shorts video that included the hashtag was shoppable.

So what makes Shorts interesting for brands?

First of all, there is now a first-mover advantage. The feature is being pushed by YouTube and more and more users are watching them (views on Shorts increase significantly more than views on normal videos) but there is a limited supply. That is why this is the opportunity for brands to respond to YouTube Shorts now. YouTube Shorts also generates a lot of extra reach in views, but especially in subscribers.

Tips for Shorts

Know your audience. YouTube appeals to the 15-25-year-old demographic. It is also very popular among 26-35-year-olds. While TikTok skews younger: it is most attractive to 16-24 year-olds.

Experiment with Shorts. See how repurposing short-form content from other platforms works. Try posting original content, too. Are you getting the same results with the same content on different platforms, or are you better off creating original video for specific social platform. (A recent study shows that both ads created in TikTok and repurposed can be effective.)

Be ready to capitalize on Shorts ad formats when they become available widely. For instance, brands will be able to connect their product feeds to their campaigns and make video ads on YouTube Shorts more shoppable.

Consider partnering with influencers, especially individual creators. YouTube is building a community of creators on Shorts. As they grow in prominence, they are more naturally appealing to brands.