Way back in September 2020, we reported that YouTube had released its own TikTok-style short-form video option, called YouTube Shorts (not to be confused with the clothing item). Now, it appears that Shorts are performing better than ever, and will soon provide a new monetisation option.
According to Social Media Today, last week, Google confirmed an initial test was underway for running adverts in-between Shorts. The news was broken via an earnings report for Alphabet, the company behind the search engine.
What’s more, Google has stated that on average, YouTube Shorts are now receiving more than 30 billion views daily. To put that into perspective, as recently as February this year, there had only been 5 trillion views of Shorts in total. At rates of 30 billion a day, that total would be beaten within six months.
With such a spike in views, it’s no surprise that the Google is looking to cash in while the iron is hot – as more time on Shorts means less time watching traditional YouTube videos, meaning less exposure time to the ads already in place on those.
YouTube isn’t alone with working to monetise these short-form videos – Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat are all also attempting to cash in. The issue of how to monetise such short videos is proving a tough one, especially when shadowed with the failure of the Twitter-owned Vine way back when, which saw its top creators move to platforms that offered more stable and profitable revenue streams.
While these new ads are only in testing at present, the fact that Shorts have seen such an uptake in views indicates that they could provide a great source of brand exposure for businesses – either when posted organically or if ads do eventually get rolled out. The short time it’s taken for the views to increase so dramatically also shows that the online landscape is ever evolving, and at a rapid pace at that, so businesses should stay on the ball and in the know to maximise their online presence.
Get in touch with our team at Engage Web if you need help with growing your business online.
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