With shorts, YouTube entered the short video hype in 2020. However, many creators are unsure how the feature will affect their insights. YouTube has the answers and describes how shorts are displayed and counted and how they affect channel analytics.
YouTube shorts
The platform’s TikTok-like “Shorts” video feed is currently in beta. For now, only users in India can access all of the Shorts functionality, including the option to upload the Shorts camera. However, all users can now upload shorts clips by sharing short vertical videos (up to 60 seconds long) and #Shorts in the Include title or the description .
Adding your videos to the special shorts feed that most users now see in the YouTube app could be a great way to increase distribution and reach on the platform.
YouTube gives some specific insights in a new Creator Insider VIDEO , how shorts affect the insights of a channel – how short views are measured and which creators have to consider in the new process .
How do shorts count in the view counts?
YouTube states that shorts views are integrated into the analysis of all video views:
“They are counted the same say for Shorts as for regular videos, so they also contribute to your channel-level view count and don’t get filtered out in any way.”
In the Analytics tab, creators can go to Reach to Traffic Source Type and see how many views came from shorts. These special shorts views only include the views that ended up on the video by swiping on, while all those who clicked directly on the video from the home feed are not taken into account and only count as general views.
Regarding how Shorts Views could affect other statistics like Average View Duration or Click-Through-Rate, YouTube explains that the performance of the channel does not should feel negative effects . On the contrary – rather positive due to the range that shorts partially achieve. Since the format cannot yet be monetized, YouTube excludes shorts from the revenue-per-mille statistics so as not to falsify the figures here.
“If you do have a lot of shorts, your average view duration could go down because, of course, the videos are shorter. This shouldn’t hurt your channel performance in any way, it’s just, kind of, an attribute of the video. Same thing for click through rate – because most people will swipe to your video rather than click on it based on a thumbnail, that metric might also change, but again, it shouldn’t really impact your performance.”
YouTube encourages you to try shorts in any case. To post a shorts video, only the hashtag #Shorts should be used in the video description or in the title. The clips may not be longer than 60 seconds. Until the shorts camera is rolled out in other regions as well – except currently in India – all companies and creators can continue to fine-tune their strategy for shorts.
We would be happy to support you with your content and marketing strategy.
