[0:00] I analyzed over 5 500 YouTube shorts
[0:03] across 34 different niches to try and
[0:05] decode the algorithm and figure out the
[0:08] best way to go viral and I want to show
[0:10] you what I found so here's how it all
[0:12] happened so the other day I was
[0:13] scrolling through Twitter
[0:14] procrastinating as usual and I came
[0:17] across this tweet from Paddy Galley now
[0:19] Patty is a YouTube expert who has
[0:21] generated billions of views with a b and
[0:23] worked with huge creators including lord
[0:26] Jimmy and basically Paddy's tweet broke
[0:28] down a massive study that he and his
[0:30] partner did to decode the YouTube shorts
[0:32] algorithm and despite the fact that most
[0:35] YouTube analytics studies make most
[0:37] people feel a little bit like an Edward
[0:39] Munch painting but the findings in this
[0:41] study are actually so profound that it
[0:42] got a huge amount of views and even Elon
[0:45] Musk did A celebratory live stream in
[0:47] 144p just in its honor all jokes aside
[0:50] though this study is actually a real
[0:52] thing so today I want to Deep dive and
[0:54] expand on it so by the end of this video
[0:56] you will have everything you need to
[0:57] know to start making viral shorts that
[0:59] get you you more subscribers make you
[1:01] more money and get you lots of
[1:02] girlfriends so a quick note though even
[1:04] though this video is probably titled or
[1:06] introd something like I analyze 3.3
[1:09] Billion YouTube shorts to crack the
[1:10] algorithm I want to make it very clear
[1:12] that all the credit and insights for
[1:13] this study are 100 with Patty and his
[1:15] team I didn't have anything to do with
[1:17] it I just needed a clickable YouTube
[1:18] title so please don't sue me Patty
[1:20] anyway with that out of the way let's
[1:21] get into this because this is
[1:22] fascinating stuff now this study had
[1:24] five massive findings that will help you
[1:26] get more views with your shorts but
[1:27] before we can get into those you need to
[1:29] actually understand a little bit about
[1:30] how the YouTube shorts algorithm
[1:32] actually works and the best way to
[1:34] understand this is from the perspective
[1:35] of a viewer so if you're a viewer
[1:37] opening up YouTube shorts for the first
[1:39] time ever what YouTube's gonna do
[1:40] because it has no data on you it's gonna
[1:43] send you random General popular shorts
[1:46] that's going to measure which ones you
[1:48] engage with so which ones you watch
[1:50] which ones you maybe like and comment on
[1:52] and it's going to gradually start to
[1:53] build up a profile on what type of
[1:56] content you'd like then once it has an
[1:58] idea of what kind of content you like is
[2:00] going to explore that Niche for the best
[2:02] shorts in it and we'll talk more about
[2:03] what best means in a second and it's
[2:05] going to try and feed you those shorts
[2:07] because those shorts are going to be
[2:09] more likely to keep you on the YouTube
[2:11] platform for as long as possible binging
[2:13] your life away which makes YouTube money
[2:15] so let's say for example whenever
[2:16] YouTube happens to show you a cricket
[2:18] show you really engage with that shot
[2:20] you watch it all the way to the end you
[2:21] like it you comment on it the algorithm
[2:23] is going to take notice of that and
[2:24] eventually it's going to be like hey
[2:26] let's search our YouTube library for
[2:28] other videos of Sports and send
[2:30] them to this person and see if they also
[2:32] engage with them so you'll find yourself
[2:33] getting more Cricket shorts you might
[2:35] get some badminton in there maybe some
[2:38] baseball you know the real like lowest
[2:40] of the low but as we mentioned
[2:42] previously there are probably a lot of
[2:43] cricket shorts and baseball shorts and
[2:45] badminton shorts so how is YouTube know
[2:48] which ones to serve to you so it's going
[2:50] to find the best shorts in those
[2:51] categories and give those ones to you
[2:53] first because those ones are going to be
[2:54] the most likely to keep you on the
[2:56] platform and this is where we can start
[2:58] to get into what best actually means
[2:59] because if we take a step back from this
[3:01] example and put ourselves back in the
[3:03] shoes of the Creator your job is to have
[3:05] your shorts be perceived by the
[3:07] algorithm as the best because that means
[3:09] that your shorts are going to be the
[3:11] ones that are most likely to be pushed
[3:13] to viewers first which means you'll get
[3:16] the Lion's Share of the views
[3:17] subscribers and all that good stuff but
[3:19] instead of me just telling you what the
[3:20] best is I actually want to show you some
[3:22] data on this so here is a spreadsheet
[3:25] full of YouTube shorts data from real
[3:27] YouTube shorts and if some of you are
[3:29] watching this right now I wonder how you
[3:30] can get a spreadsheet of die like this
[3:32] as you come to your channel and you go
[3:34] to analytics and in analytics you find
[3:36] that the analytics that you actually
[3:38] want the data of let's say I just wanted
[3:39] the overview I come to overview I'd
[3:41] click see more it's going to open up a
[3:43] more advanced analytics panel and then
[3:44] you come up here to this download button
[3:46] and you can pick which stats you want to
[3:48] download into a spreadsheet and which
[3:50] ones you don't by clicking on this plus
[3:52] button here and then adding say
[3:53] different columns to your report and
[3:55] then once you're happy with your report
[3:56] you can't appear and you click on this
[3:57] download button it'll export your data
[3:59] so back to as you're about to see this
[4:01] data can give us some really interesting
[4:03] insights so in this shade each one of
[4:05] these roads is an individual short so
[4:07] what I'm going to do is come across to
[4:08] average view duration here which is on
[4:10] average how long did a viewer watch
[4:12] particularly short for and what I'm
[4:13] going to do is I'm going to sort from
[4:15] z2a which is going to order this sheet
[4:17] in a way that the shorts with the
[4:19] highest average view duration are going
[4:21] to come at the top and then the shorts
[4:23] the lowest average view duration will be
[4:24] sorted to the bottom and once we've done
[4:25] that grab the views here so from here
[4:27] I'm going to highlight just down this is
[4:29] a really basic analysis and click down
[4:31] here and grab the average what you can
[4:33] see is that on average the top 26 shorts
[4:37] from this Channel with the highest
[4:39] average view duration have about 3.2
[4:42] million views on average now if I change
[4:45] this and sort this to A to Z this is
[4:48] going to give us the lowest average view
[4:49] duration shorts with the lowest one
[4:51] having just nine seconds and then I do
[4:53] the exact same thing I grab our top 26
[4:56] videos and look at the average has
[4:58] plummeted the average amount number of
[5:00] views here is now about seven hundred
[5:03] thousand this channel has some pretty
[5:04] good shots on it so even it's worst
[5:06] short to do pretty well but 700 000 is
[5:08] nowhere near 3.2 million so what this is
[5:11] telling us is that if you have a higher
[5:13] average view duration not just see your
[5:16] short but actually watch it for a long
[5:18] amount of time YouTube algorithm sees
[5:20] that as a positive signal that that sure
[5:22] is a good shot and makes it more likely
[5:24] that that shot's going to be pushed out
[5:26] to more viewers I know this is really
[5:27] basic and obvious stuff but often we're
[5:29] always looking for the hacks and I think
[5:30] we need to start on a foundation of what
[5:32] are the fundamentals that really matter
[5:34] and clearly seeing the data here the
[5:36] average view duration is one of those
[5:37] and Paddy's study also backs this up for
[5:40] example this is a graph that encompasses
[5:42] 33 different YouTube channels across
[5:44] different niches and you can see the
[5:45] averages it looks pretty similar right
[5:47] with shorts between an average view
[5:49] duration of 50 and 60 seconds on average
[5:51] got 4.1 million views think about that
[5:54] so in essence if your short can maintain
[5:57] an average view duration of between 50
[5:59] and 6 60 seconds especially as it scales
[6:02] chances are on average you're going to
[6:04] get about 4 million views but that's a
[6:06] lot easier said than done so how can you
[6:08] actually do that well our study has some
[6:10] insights in this as well I want to come
[6:12] back to this channel here and show you
[6:13] something else very interesting so if we
[6:14] sort out views again Z to A which is
[6:17] going to give us the top viewed shorts
[6:19] on this channel and if we come across to
[6:21] the duration of this shot so this is an
[6:23] average of iteration this is how long
[6:25] each shot is let's have a look through
[6:26] some of these numbers so we've got 45
[6:28] seconds 59 seconds 52 seconds 54 seconds
[6:31] we keep going down this list we'll see
[6:34] there's only about three shorts in this
[6:36] entire list that are in the 30 seconds
[6:38] or below and even those shorts two of
[6:40] them are like 37 seconds so they're like
[6:42] close to 40 seconds anyway however if we
[6:45] come into views and we sort this the
[6:47] other way around to the shorts with the
[6:49] lowest amount of views I want you to
[6:50] have a look at this column again look at
[6:51] how these numbers have changed right
[6:53] we've got a number of shorts in the 30
[6:55] seconds and below I can just see 10 from
[6:57] eyeballing this but in general if you
[6:59] just look over this you can can see that
[7:00] on average the shorts that performed
[7:02] worse tend to be shorter no pun intended
[7:04] than the shorts that are longer and
[7:06] interestingly this is also backed up by
[7:08] Paddy's study as well so you can see on
[7:10] this graph the shorts that Paddy analyze
[7:12] most of them were between 30 and 40
[7:14] seconds you can see shorts between 50
[7:16] and 60 seconds performed far better than
[7:18] their shorter counterparts now why is
[7:20] this well again with the caveat that
[7:22] people are actually watching your shots
[7:24] because if you just post a long shot no
[7:25] one watches it then it doesn't matter
[7:26] but a longer short has the opportunity
[7:28] to get more of the Thing YouTube cares
[7:31] about most which you know is high watch
[7:33] time for that shot if you're posting a
[7:35] 30 second short chances are your most
[7:38] engaged viewer will probably watch that
[7:40] short all the way to the end so you'll
[7:41] get about 30 seconds of watch time now
[7:43] some really engaged viewers if you're a
[7:45] little bit sneaky and loop your short
[7:46] might watch your short one and a half
[7:48] times maybe even two or three times but
[7:50] that's the vast minority right on the
[7:51] other hand if you have a short that's
[7:53] double the length so not 30 but 60
[7:55] seconds most of your most engaged
[7:57] viewers will watch that shot all the way
[7:58] to the end the difference is is an
[8:00] Engaged viewer watching your show all
[8:01] the way to the end on a longer shot
[8:03] gives you one minute of watch time as
[8:05] opposed to just 30 seconds so a way to
[8:07] think about this is that the longer
[8:09] short has the opportunity to get more
[8:11] watch time and a higher average view
[8:13] duration than a shorter shot just
[8:15] inherently it does due to length now
[8:17] obviously there are outliers you can see
[8:19] it in my data for example this shot is
[8:21] one of the worst performing shorts on
[8:22] this channel and it is 51 seconds a
[8:24] reason for that could be as you can see
[8:25] the average view duration for this short
[8:27] isn't actually so great but regardless
[8:29] in general if your content is really
[8:31] high quality you're going to have better
[8:33] results if you create a longer short
[8:34] between 50 and 60 seconds versus a
[8:37] shorter short but we're just getting
[8:38] started here because the study found
[8:40] something really interesting with a stat
[8:42] you might not have ever heard of called
[8:44] vvsa AKA viewed versus swiped away
[8:47] essentially if you go to say one of your
[8:49] shorts through content and then come
[8:52] down to the analytics of it by clicking
[8:54] on say this button and then come across
[8:56] to the reach tab what you'll see is this
[8:59] little box box here how many choose to
[9:01] view which is your vvsa think about it
[9:03] for those of you who know click-through
[9:05] rate for long form videos it's basically
[9:07] like your click-through rate but for
[9:08] shorts because on shorts most people
[9:10] don't really click on them they find
[9:12] them in the shorts feed so one of the
[9:13] big colors for shorts is not how many
[9:15] clicks it can get but rather whether or
[9:17] not people will actually watch it versus
[9:18] swipe away from it so essentially what
[9:21] this measures is the percentage of
[9:22] people who actually watched your short
[9:24] when they came across it in the feed
[9:26] versus the people who'd kind of just
[9:28] landed on it and swiped away from it
[9:29] because they weren't that interested so
[9:30] this is a decent metric to look at if
[9:32] you want to gauge the quality of your
[9:34] shorts hooks whether or not you're able
[9:36] to actually really grab someone's
[9:37] attention the first couple of seconds
[9:38] because if you can't do that you're not
[9:40] going to watch the remainder of the
[9:41] short and they're going to swipe away
[9:42] and that's obviously bad but let's get
[9:44] some real numbers on this now if we come
[9:45] back to our data and we have a look at
[9:46] this column here which is a viewed
[9:48] versus swiped away we just get a quick
[9:50] gauge of it you can see that on average
[9:52] for these lower performing shots the
[9:54] viewed versus swiped away is about 70 so
[9:57] on average 70 of people watch the a
[10:00] short rather than swiping away from it
[10:01] and that's decent which explains why
[10:03] even the lowest performing shorts on
[10:04] this channel still manage to get a large
[10:06] amount of Impressions and Views however
[10:08] if we change this and again we sort by
[10:11] the highest performing shorts what we
[10:13] can see is the viewed versus swiped away
[10:15] stat changes a little bit so now we can
[10:17] say it's gone up 10 and on average it's
[10:20] 80 and that might not seem like a big
[10:22] change but when you're competing against
[10:24] so many shorts and you're trying to be
[10:26] the Pinnacle you're trying to be the
[10:27] best in your Niche so you get served
[10:29] first a 10 difference can be a big
[10:31] difference and the study found some
[10:33] interesting insights on this if we have
[10:34] a look at this graph this is kind of
[10:36] laying out all the different videos and
[10:37] shorts that this study analyzed based on
[10:40] vvsa what you can see down here in this
[10:42] corner if we move across this line you
[10:45] can see that if you have a vvsa less
[10:48] than 40 like chances are your short is
[10:50] not going to get more than 10 000 views
[10:52] on the other hand if you're having a
[10:54] vvsa between 70 and 90 your shorts could
[10:57] be getting hundreds of thousands of
[10:59] views as you can see in this kind of
[11:00] green section here now does just having
[11:02] a high vvsa guarantee that your shot is
[11:05] going to get hundreds of thousands of
[11:06] views not necessarily for example if we
[11:08] come to the channel you're watching
[11:09] right now which I'm going to out myself
[11:11] here but um and we come down to one of
[11:14] the few shorts that I've posted click on
[11:16] it we come across to reach you can see
[11:18] this short has almost 90 percent vvsa
[11:20] and yet this short only has 10 000 views
[11:23] so it's not a guarantee that you're
[11:24] gonna get hundreds of thousands of views
[11:25] but based on the data we can see I would
[11:28] still think it's useful to look at this
[11:30] stat and kind of treat it as a you must
[11:32] check this box in order to have the
[11:34] chance to go viral in other words you
[11:36] can see if you're getting less than 40
[11:38] vvsa like the chances of you really
[11:41] blowing up are pretty much nil however
[11:43] if you're getting more than that that
[11:44] doesn't guarantee you're gonna blow up
[11:46] but at least the door is open and
[11:48] there's a potential assuming you do some
[11:49] of the things we talk about later in
[11:50] this video and also the things we talked
[11:52] about earlier but with all this being
[11:53] said obviously we can see that the
[11:55] competition for shorts is getting
[11:56] tougher and tougher it's no longer the
[11:58] wild west so a short even worth doing
[12:00] well if we have a look at more data from
[12:02] Paddy's study what we can see here the
[12:03] number of Subs gained per 10 000 views
[12:06] for YouTube shorts versus long form
[12:08] videos and what you can see is really
[12:09] interesting is that audio overall across
[12:11] all of the channels that Paddy studied
[12:13] on average long form videos actually got
[12:15] more subscribers per view than short so
[12:17] per 10 000 views long form videos got 22
[12:20] subscribers if a short got 10 000 views
[12:22] it was only going to get about 17
[12:23] subscribers however something that might
[12:25] be important to note here is that on
[12:27] average it's probably going to take you
[12:28] a lot more time to create a long form
[12:30] video than a short so that's kind of
[12:31] something that you'll want to take into
[12:33] account looking at these numbers figure
[12:35] out how long it takes you to create a
[12:36] YouTube show on average how long it
[12:38] takes you to create a long-term video on
[12:39] average and use your own Common Sense
[12:40] assuming you want to do shorts that is
[12:42] as to like whether or not it's actually
[12:44] worthwhile you're doing that assuming
[12:46] your goal is to get subscribers and what
[12:48] about making money we've all seen those
[12:49] videos about how to make ten thousand
[12:51] dollars a day with YouTube shots and you
[12:53] actually go and post a YouTube shot for
[12:54] those of you who are monetized you'll
[12:56] probably have found that your YouTube
[12:57] shorts generate more like 10 cents per
[12:59] day but recently shorts were properly
[13:01] monetized by YouTube and what we can see
[13:03] here in Paddy's graphs are the before
[13:06] and after so before shorts were probably
[13:08] monetized they were earning on average
[13:09] per thousand views about 0.27 cents now
[13:13] however after monetization they only got
[13:16] 0.061 cents which is more than double
[13:19] the amount they were earning previously
[13:20] now it's still nowhere near that of a
[13:22] long form video which is pretty easy for
[13:24] a long form video to be you know between
[13:25] one to two dollars per thousand views in
[13:28] some niches it can be way higher than
[13:29] that but what we can see is that shorts
[13:31] are making more money than they once
[13:33] were chances are hopefully this number
[13:34] is going to continue to go up again look
[13:36] at these numbers how much YouTube shorts
[13:38] make on average per thousand views then
[13:40] look at on average how much long-form
[13:42] videos make per thousand views which
[13:43] again is different on every Niche but
[13:44] could like as a baseline you could look
[13:46] you know between one to two dollars per
[13:48] thousand views and again figure out how
[13:50] much time it takes you to create shorts
[13:51] and how many views your shorts get
[13:53] versus how much time it takes to create
[13:54] long form videos and how many views they
[13:56] get and then work out for yourself which
[13:58] ones are giving you the best test Roi
[14:00] the return on your time invested and you
[14:02] can see Paddy also expects that shorts
[14:05] will start making more money in the next
[14:07] few months but I highly doubt they will
[14:08] ever Challenge long-form videos but
[14:10] still again just work out your numbers
[14:12] so I hope this information was helpful
[14:13] for you again padding his team of
[14:15] Legends here for putting together this
[14:16] study so big thanks to him but if you
[14:17] want to learn more our Nitty Gritty
[14:19] specific techniques and hacks that you
[14:21] can use to create better shots that will
[14:23] increase your attention increase your
[14:25] vvsa and a whole lot more check out the
[14:27] video on screen where I share 28 YouTube
[14:29] short attacks that can feel a bit
[14:30] illegal to know