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How FamousTubeFamily Strategically Boosted Their Long-Form Views

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Creators
July 18, 2024

Hi there. YouTube's Culture & Trends team released a report on fandom with a focus on how fans have shifted from being consumers to creators. Through memes, fancams, explainers, reaction videos, and more, fans are creating their own content to show their devotion to the source material and create community with other fans. Brands and traditional creators are taking notice and responding to the content, resulting in a mutually beneficial relationship. So, what does this mean for creators with large fandoms? Among the takeaways in the report: Follow what your fans are creating to find out what they're responding to, and be responsive to what your fans are passionate about in order to build stronger connections with them. 

—The Spotter Creator Team

How FamousTubeFamily Strategically Boosted Their Long-Form Views

Can cutting back on Shorts lead to higher long-form views? For Tray and Keshia Rush of The Rush Fam, that’s exactly what happened with their FamousTubeFamily channel. 

The Challenge: 

Last year, the family raised concerns about the channel's performance. They noticed a significant decline in first-30-day views for their long-form videos, which prompted them to seek help in uncovering the problem. 

The Analysis:

  • Conducted a comprehensive review of their channel's performance metrics.

  • Examined view counts, traffic sources, and audience retention for Shorts and long-form videos.

  • Analyzed upload frequency and video duration trends over the past few years.

  • Identified any significant changes or patterns in performance metrics.

What We Found: 

After looking at the data, we uncovered that their emphasis on Shorts and reduction of long-form videos resulted – predictably – in an increase in Shorts views and a decline in long-form views. During this time, the percentage of views coming from Shorts traffic grew and claimed a large percentage of their total views on the platform, thus contributing to the cannibalization of their long-form views traffic. 

While they did still have a large number of views coming from their longer videos, they had actually been decreasing long-form uploads since 2021. After analyzing the annual data from January 2021 to December 2022, we noticed an increase in views for videos over 20 minutes long and a decrease in views for videos 8 minutes long. Despite this trend in viewership behavior, the length of the uploaded content was becoming shorter. The limited long-form uploads and decreased duration of those videos may have caused a point of disconnect between their audience’s consumption behavior and their content output.

Our Recommendations: 

  • Reduce the production of Shorts in order to boost views for their long-form videos

  • Increase the length of their long-form videos to meet their audience’s expectations 

Results: 

Tray didn't hesitate to implement our advice. From Jan ‘23 to Feb ‘23, the FamousTubeFamily published one additional 20+ minute video and scaled back from four Shorts to zero month over month.

The results showed a performance turnaround:

  • +109% increase in first-30-day long-form views

  • Reversal of the downward long-form views trend

  • Revitalization of the channel

Key Takeaways

  • Monitor the impact of your Shorts cadence: Since they were increasing Shorts and noticing a decrease in long-form views, cutting back on Shorts was the answer. The focus on Shorts while reducing long-form uploads and length had led to an unmet demand for the long-form videos that their audience wanted and an overall decline in views for the channel. 

  • Understand your audience’s preferences: Over time, there had been an increase in views for videos over 20 minutes long, indicating their audience’s preference for longer videos. Aligning content duration with viewer behavior is essential to maintaining engagement and avoiding disconnects in content strategy.

  • Strategic publishing cadence: If your goal is to grow long-form viewership and increase revenue, it's essential to have a strategic plan for your publishing cadence. Balancing the production of Shorts and long-form videos smartly can help achieve both viewership growth and financial success.

Questions? Reach out if you have any questions or need help determining whether you should adjust your Shorts or long-form publishing strategy. And join us in the Idea Lab, Spotter’s new Discord community, to access discussion and support with ideation and experimentation.

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Jobs

YouTube

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4. “You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club.”

– Jack London