I Studied 5,400 Shorts to CRACK the Algorithm

[00:00] I analyzed over 5 500 YouTube shorts

[00:03] across 34 different niches to try and

[00:05] decode the algorithm and figure out the

[00:08] best way to go viral and I want to show

[00:10] you what I found so here's how it all

[00:12] happened so the other day I was

[00:13] scrolling through Twitter

[00:14] procrastinating as usual and I came

[00:17] across this tweet from Paddy Galley now

[00:19] Patty is a YouTube expert who has

[00:21] generated billions of views with a b and

[00:23] worked with huge creators including lord

[00:26] Jimmy and basically Paddy's tweet broke

[00:28] down a massive study that he and his

[00:30] partner did to decode the YouTube shorts

[00:32] algorithm and despite the fact that most

[00:35] YouTube analytics studies make most

[00:37] people feel a little bit like an Edward

[00:39] Munch painting but the findings in this

[00:41] study are actually so profound that it

[00:42] got a huge amount of views and even Elon

[00:45] Musk did A celebratory live stream in

[00:47] 144p just in its honor all jokes aside

[00:50] though this study is actually a real

[00:52] thing so today I want to Deep dive and

[00:54] expand on it so by the end of this video

[00:56] you will have everything you need to

[00:57] know to start making viral shorts that

[00:59] get you you more subscribers make you

[01:01] more money and get you lots of

[01:02] girlfriends so a quick note though even

[01:04] though this video is probably titled or

[01:06] introd something like I analyze 3.3

[01:09] Billion YouTube shorts to crack the

[01:10] algorithm I want to make it very clear

[01:12] that all the credit and insights for

[01:13] this study are 100 with Patty and his

[01:15] team I didn't have anything to do with

[01:17] it I just needed a clickable YouTube

[01:18] title so please don't sue me Patty

[01:20] anyway with that out of the way let's

[01:21] get into this because this is

[01:22] fascinating stuff now this study had

[01:24] five massive findings that will help you

[01:26] get more views with your shorts but

[01:27] before we can get into those you need to

[01:29] actually understand a little bit about

[01:30] how the YouTube shorts algorithm

[01:32] actually works and the best way to

[01:34] understand this is from the perspective

[01:35] of a viewer so if you're a viewer

[01:37] opening up YouTube shorts for the first

[01:39] time ever what YouTube's gonna do

[01:40] because it has no data on you it's gonna

[01:43] send you random General popular shorts

[01:46] that's going to measure which ones you

[01:48] engage with so which ones you watch

[01:50] which ones you maybe like and comment on

[01:52] and it's going to gradually start to

[01:53] build up a profile on what type of

[01:56] content you'd like then once it has an

[01:58] idea of what kind of content you like is

[02:00] going to explore that Niche for the best

[02:02] shorts in it and we'll talk more about

[02:03] what best means in a second and it's

[02:05] going to try and feed you those shorts

[02:07] because those shorts are going to be

[02:09] more likely to keep you on the YouTube

[02:11] platform for as long as possible binging

[02:13] your life away which makes YouTube money

[02:15] so let's say for example whenever

[02:16] YouTube happens to show you a cricket

[02:18] show you really engage with that shot

[02:20] you watch it all the way to the end you

[02:21] like it you comment on it the algorithm

[02:23] is going to take notice of that and

[02:24] eventually it's going to be like hey

[02:26] let's search our YouTube library for

[02:28] other videos of Sports and send

[02:30] them to this person and see if they also

[02:32] engage with them so you'll find yourself

[02:33] getting more Cricket shorts you might

[02:35] get some badminton in there maybe some

[02:38] baseball you know the real like lowest

[02:40] of the low but as we mentioned

[02:42] previously there are probably a lot of

[02:43] cricket shorts and baseball shorts and

[02:45] badminton shorts so how is YouTube know

[02:48] which ones to serve to you so it's going

[02:50] to find the best shorts in those

[02:51] categories and give those ones to you

[02:53] first because those ones are going to be

[02:54] the most likely to keep you on the

[02:56] platform and this is where we can start

[02:58] to get into what best actually means

[02:59] because if we take a step back from this

[03:01] example and put ourselves back in the

[03:03] shoes of the Creator your job is to have

[03:05] your shorts be perceived by the

[03:07] algorithm as the best because that means

[03:09] that your shorts are going to be the

[03:11] ones that are most likely to be pushed

[03:13] to viewers first which means you'll get

[03:16] the Lion's Share of the views

[03:17] subscribers and all that good stuff but

[03:19] instead of me just telling you what the

[03:20] best is I actually want to show you some

[03:22] data on this so here is a spreadsheet

[03:25] full of YouTube shorts data from real

[03:27] YouTube shorts and if some of you are

[03:29] watching this right now I wonder how you

[03:30] can get a spreadsheet of die like this

[03:32] as you come to your channel and you go

[03:34] to analytics and in analytics you find

[03:36] that the analytics that you actually

[03:38] want the data of let's say I just wanted

[03:39] the overview I come to overview I'd

[03:41] click see more it's going to open up a

[03:43] more advanced analytics panel and then

[03:44] you come up here to this download button

[03:46] and you can pick which stats you want to

[03:48] download into a spreadsheet and which

[03:50] ones you don't by clicking on this plus

[03:52] button here and then adding say

[03:53] different columns to your report and

[03:55] then once you're happy with your report

[03:56] you can't appear and you click on this

[03:57] download button it'll export your data

[03:59] so back to as you're about to see this

[04:01] data can give us some really interesting

[04:03] insights so in this shade each one of

[04:05] these roads is an individual short so

[04:07] what I'm going to do is come across to

[04:08] average view duration here which is on

[04:10] average how long did a viewer watch

[04:12] particularly short for and what I'm

[04:13] going to do is I'm going to sort from

[04:15] z2a which is going to order this sheet

[04:17] in a way that the shorts with the

[04:19] highest average view duration are going

[04:21] to come at the top and then the shorts

[04:23] the lowest average view duration will be

[04:24] sorted to the bottom and once we've done

[04:25] that grab the views here so from here

[04:27] I'm going to highlight just down this is

[04:29] a really basic analysis and click down

[04:31] here and grab the average what you can

[04:33] see is that on average the top 26 shorts

[04:37] from this Channel with the highest

[04:39] average view duration have about 3.2

[04:42] million views on average now if I change

[04:45] this and sort this to A to Z this is

[04:48] going to give us the lowest average view

[04:49] duration shorts with the lowest one

[04:51] having just nine seconds and then I do

[04:53] the exact same thing I grab our top 26

[04:56] videos and look at the average has

[04:58] plummeted the average amount number of

[05:00] views here is now about seven hundred

[05:03] thousand this channel has some pretty

[05:04] good shots on it so even it's worst

[05:06] short to do pretty well but 700 000 is

[05:08] nowhere near 3.2 million so what this is

[05:11] telling us is that if you have a higher

[05:13] average view duration not just see your

[05:16] short but actually watch it for a long

[05:18] amount of time YouTube algorithm sees

[05:20] that as a positive signal that that sure

[05:22] is a good shot and makes it more likely

[05:24] that that shot's going to be pushed out

[05:26] to more viewers I know this is really

[05:27] basic and obvious stuff but often we're

[05:29] always looking for the hacks and I think

[05:30] we need to start on a foundation of what

[05:32] are the fundamentals that really matter

[05:34] and clearly seeing the data here the

[05:36] average view duration is one of those

[05:37] and Paddy's study also backs this up for

[05:40] example this is a graph that encompasses

[05:42] 33 different YouTube channels across

[05:44] different niches and you can see the

[05:45] averages it looks pretty similar right

[05:47] with shorts between an average view

[05:49] duration of 50 and 60 seconds on average

[05:51] got 4.1 million views think about that

[05:54] so in essence if your short can maintain

[05:57] an average view duration of between 50

[05:59] and 6 60 seconds especially as it scales

[06:02] chances are on average you're going to

[06:04] get about 4 million views but that's a

[06:06] lot easier said than done so how can you

[06:08] actually do that well our study has some

[06:10] insights in this as well I want to come

[06:12] back to this channel here and show you

[06:13] something else very interesting so if we

[06:14] sort out views again Z to A which is

[06:17] going to give us the top viewed shorts

[06:19] on this channel and if we come across to

[06:21] the duration of this shot so this is an

[06:23] average of iteration this is how long

[06:25] each shot is let's have a look through

[06:26] some of these numbers so we've got 45

[06:28] seconds 59 seconds 52 seconds 54 seconds

[06:31] we keep going down this list we'll see

[06:34] there's only about three shorts in this

[06:36] entire list that are in the 30 seconds

[06:38] or below and even those shorts two of

[06:40] them are like 37 seconds so they're like

[06:42] close to 40 seconds anyway however if we

[06:45] come into views and we sort this the

[06:47] other way around to the shorts with the

[06:49] lowest amount of views I want you to

[06:50] have a look at this column again look at

[06:51] how these numbers have changed right

[06:53] we've got a number of shorts in the 30

[06:55] seconds and below I can just see 10 from

[06:57] eyeballing this but in general if you

[06:59] just look over this you can can see that

[07:00] on average the shorts that performed

[07:02] worse tend to be shorter no pun intended

[07:04] than the shorts that are longer and

[07:06] interestingly this is also backed up by

[07:08] Paddy's study as well so you can see on

[07:10] this graph the shorts that Paddy analyze

[07:12] most of them were between 30 and 40

[07:14] seconds you can see shorts between 50

[07:16] and 60 seconds performed far better than

[07:18] their shorter counterparts now why is

[07:20] this well again with the caveat that

[07:22] people are actually watching your shots

[07:24] because if you just post a long shot no

[07:25] one watches it then it doesn't matter

[07:26] but a longer short has the opportunity

[07:28] to get more of the Thing YouTube cares

[07:31] about most which you know is high watch

[07:33] time for that shot if you're posting a

[07:35] 30 second short chances are your most

[07:38] engaged viewer will probably watch that

[07:40] short all the way to the end so you'll

[07:41] get about 30 seconds of watch time now

[07:43] some really engaged viewers if you're a

[07:45] little bit sneaky and loop your short

[07:46] might watch your short one and a half

[07:48] times maybe even two or three times but

[07:50] that's the vast minority right on the

[07:51] other hand if you have a short that's

[07:53] double the length so not 30 but 60

[07:55] seconds most of your most engaged

[07:57] viewers will watch that shot all the way

[07:58] to the end the difference is is an

[08:00] Engaged viewer watching your show all

[08:01] the way to the end on a longer shot

[08:03] gives you one minute of watch time as

[08:05] opposed to just 30 seconds so a way to

[08:07] think about this is that the longer

[08:09] short has the opportunity to get more

[08:11] watch time and a higher average view

[08:13] duration than a shorter shot just

[08:15] inherently it does due to length now

[08:17] obviously there are outliers you can see

[08:19] it in my data for example this shot is

[08:21] one of the worst performing shorts on

[08:22] this channel and it is 51 seconds a

[08:24] reason for that could be as you can see

[08:25] the average view duration for this short

[08:27] isn't actually so great but regardless

[08:29] in general if your content is really

[08:31] high quality you're going to have better

[08:33] results if you create a longer short

[08:34] between 50 and 60 seconds versus a

[08:37] shorter short but we're just getting

[08:38] started here because the study found

[08:40] something really interesting with a stat

[08:42] you might not have ever heard of called

[08:44] vvsa AKA viewed versus swiped away

[08:47] essentially if you go to say one of your

[08:49] shorts through content and then come

[08:52] down to the analytics of it by clicking

[08:54] on say this button and then come across

[08:56] to the reach tab what you'll see is this

[08:59] little box box here how many choose to

[09:01] view which is your vvsa think about it

[09:03] for those of you who know click-through

[09:05] rate for long form videos it's basically

[09:07] like your click-through rate but for

[09:08] shorts because on shorts most people

[09:10] don't really click on them they find

[09:12] them in the shorts feed so one of the

[09:13] big colors for shorts is not how many

[09:15] clicks it can get but rather whether or

[09:17] not people will actually watch it versus

[09:18] swipe away from it so essentially what

[09:21] this measures is the percentage of

[09:22] people who actually watched your short

[09:24] when they came across it in the feed

[09:26] versus the people who'd kind of just

[09:28] landed on it and swiped away from it

[09:29] because they weren't that interested so

[09:30] this is a decent metric to look at if

[09:32] you want to gauge the quality of your

[09:34] shorts hooks whether or not you're able

[09:36] to actually really grab someone's

[09:37] attention the first couple of seconds

[09:38] because if you can't do that you're not

[09:40] going to watch the remainder of the

[09:41] short and they're going to swipe away

[09:42] and that's obviously bad but let's get

[09:44] some real numbers on this now if we come

[09:45] back to our data and we have a look at

[09:46] this column here which is a viewed

[09:48] versus swiped away we just get a quick

[09:50] gauge of it you can see that on average

[09:52] for these lower performing shots the

[09:54] viewed versus swiped away is about 70 so

[09:57] 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