Twitter, or X as it is now called, has stolen the lion’s share of media attention lately with its almost daily changes and seemingly non-stop antics. The launch of Meta’s copycat app Threads has also grabbed many headlines. Mark Zuckerberg finally shifted focus from his cash-intensive metaverse obsession to the sighs of relief from investors everywhere. Its launch even led to X’s double threat of legal action and a cage match with Elon Musk. And, of course, TikTok continues to be the darling of social media with everyone talking about its continued growth.
But quietly lurking in the background during all this noise is an absolute monster. Some don’t even think about it, as this behemoth rarely makes the news or causes a splash. Yet, it continues to grow unabated, and the vast majority of us use it every day. In the last two years alone, YouTube has increased its revenue by $10 billion, its premium subscribes by 50 million and added 300 million more active monthly users.
Those statistics are just the beginning, and all of that growth is continuing to trend upward for 2023. Many of us know we should be on YouTube, but some might know why. After reading the following, it will be easy to understand why YouTube needs to be a significant part of your marketing plan. In this article, you will learn about the following:
-The massive scale of YouTube
-How YouTube’s demographics are different
-YouTube’s highly engaged user base
-And why YouTube videos can be a powerful marketing tool for your brand
THE SECOND-MOST VISITED WEBSITE IN THE WORLD
It can be hard to wrap your head around the sheer size of YouTube. Every month, it gets 74.8 billion visits with 2.6 billion unique visitors. Only Google ranks higher (88.4 billion visitors), making YouTube the second-most visited website in the world on a monthly basis. YouTube’s traffic is more in both unique and total visits than Facebook, Wikipedia, Instagram, Reddit, Twitter and Amazon combined. Coming in a very distant third is Facebook with a significantly fewer 10.7 billion visitors per month, followed by Pornhub (yes, really) with 10.2 billion visitors. “YouTube” is also the third most popular search term on Google showing just how popular the video-sharing platform is.
A GLOBAL PHENOMENON
YouTube isn’t just popular in one country or the United States. India accounts for the most YouTube traffic globally by far with 467 million monthly visitors coming from the country. Coming in second is the United States with 247 million monthly visitors, followed by Brazil (142 million), Indonesia (139 million) and Mexico (81.8 million). Those are just the countries where YouTube is the most popular, but its reach is truly global. 81% of worldwide internet users have used the site at least once. So basically almost everyone with an internet connection in the world has visited YouTube. All of that adds up to a massive amount of eyeballs that should be attractive to any marketing team.
694,000 HOURS OF VIDEOS EVERY MINUTE
One of the huge reasons for YouTube’s popularity is that there is a massive amount of videos to watch on almost every subject. 694,000 hours of videos are watched every minute on YouTube across the globe. Doing the math, that is just under 1 billion hours of videos watched every day. While the numbers are constantly increasing, roughly 15 million content creators upload 3.7 million videos to YouTube daily with an average length of 11.7 minutes. If you somehow achieved immortality and were interested in an extreme binge-watching session, it would take you 17,810 years to view all the videos currently on YouTube. And this is not counting the ones that will be uploaded during the eons you spend trying to watch them all. Again, the sheer scale of YouTube is absolutely enormous.
42 MINUTES A DAY
Lots of videos also lead to highly-engaged visitors that spend a significant amount of time on YouTube. In 2023, visitors to the video-sharing platform spent an average of 42 minutes daily on it. That is more than all social media sites, including Facebook (33 minutes), TikTok (33 minutes), Instagram (29 minutes), Snapchat (31 minutes) and Twitter (6 minutes). But, according to new YouTube CEO Neil Mohan in an interview with Axios, YouTube is “not really a social media platform,” but a place to consume all things videos and connect with creators. Mohan points out that YouTube’s focus is solely on video and not on creating a social media platform like others. Even with YouTube being a bit of an outlier in social media sites, it still leads all of them in engagement.
SHORTS IS A MASSIVE HIT
The huge rise of TikTok and the rapid decline of attention spans were obviously major concerns for YouTube. To counter both, it rolled out Shorts to the Indian market in 2020. The short-form videos with a maximum length of 60 seconds were then introduced to the world one year later. With its sights set squarely on TikTok, Shorts has proven to be a massive hit. It has grown from zero to 50 billion daily views in February 2023 in just over two years. And the rise of Shorts hasn’t tanked the average daily time spent on YouTube either, as some had feared. Instead, it continues to grow steadily year-over-year in contrast to other sites, like Facebook, that fluctuate.
HOW-TO VIDEOS ARE BOOMING
People are increasingly turning to YouTube to learn things with searches related to “how-to” growing 70% year-over-year. According to a blog post on Hootsuite, 33% of all internet users watch a tutorial or how-to video every week. And Gen Z is the demographic leading that quest for knowledge with 53.5% of female and 52.2% of male Gen Zers watching a video tutorial at least once a week. This rise in interest in learning how to do almost anything represents a huge opportunity for brands. Answering questions and educating people is a great way to introduce your brand to potential customers. And integrating your products into these videos as solutions to problems is an organic way for people to get acquainted with them without feeling like a heavy sales pitch. Read our blog post on optimizing your brand’s YouTube channel for further tips on connecting with your customers.
BIG IN THE U.S.A.
The United States might rank second behind India in YouTube visits, but those U.S. visitors are highly active. According to Insider Intelligence, YouTube is by far the most dominant platform to watch digital videos in the U.S.A. with 90% preferring it over other forms of social media and websites. Some news and major websites have tried to launch their own video platforms, but none have taken off, as almost everyone turns to YouTube first for entertainment and information. And they visit YouTube often with 62% of users in America visiting daily and 92% visiting weekly. That figure climbs to 98% on a monthly basis. Those are attractive statistics to any company in the U.S. looking to build its brand and increase sales.
SURPRISING DEMOGRAPHICS
The rapid rise of TikTok has attracted many marketers to the social media platform. But the one drawback is that TikTok’s demographics have always skewed younger. According to the latest data, this is still the case with the largest group of users (25%) in 2023 between 10-19 years of age. TikTok might not be the best bet If you don’t have products that appeal to this younger demographic.
In contrast, YouTube has a much broader age range of users. The largest demographic of YouTube users is the much sought-after millennial sweet spot of 25-34. But they don’t completely dominate the site comprising 20.7% of its users. The next largest group is aged 35-44, totaling 16.7% of YouTube users. None of that might be shocking, but what may raise a few eyebrows is that many older people also use YouTube. 8.8% of the video platform’s users are between 55-64 with a further 9.0% above 65. Add those two up, and you get an impressive 17.8% of users over 55, almost rivaling the number of millennials. TikTok might have “the kids,” but YouTube’s demographics are much more evenly spread.
A MAJORITY OF PEOPLE USE YOUTUBE TO MAKE PURCHASING DECISIONS
YouTube plays a vital role in the purchasing process. Among its users, 68% report using YouTube videos to help guide a purchasing decision. And 70% of users have discovered a new brand or product through YouTube advertising and videos. Marketing teams also believe YouTube is the most useful platform for video marketing with 78% rating it as effective in a survey. That is 20% higher than Facebook, the next highest-rated competitor. Those are stellar numbers and show the effectiveness of using YouTube as a marketing platform in either an organic or paid format. Our blog post on optimizing the digital sales funnel further explains the vital role of YouTube videos and advertising in guiding consumers further down the sales funnel.
YET ONLY 9% OF SMALL BUSINESSES USE YOUTUBE
Even with all those stellar statistics, only 9% of small businesses use YouTube as a marketing tool. That low number might seem shocking, but it probably isn’t for anyone that runs a company. Most small business owners are completely swamped and just trying to do their best. Shooting, editing and adding graphics to videos is a very time-consuming process. And if there is one thing they don’t have an abundance of, it is time.
Turning to freelancers can also be a role of the dice. Finding a competent one that isn’t going to waste a precious marketing budget can be as time-consuming as shooting a video. It leads many small businesses to avoid videos and YouTube and focus on easier-to-create social media advertisements. It is understandable, but a significant opportunity is missed as YouTube can be a powerful marketing platform for brands of any size.
WE CAN HELP
At Kahn Media, we can help if you don’t have the time or resources to tackle making videos. We are a full-service marketing agency that can be a one-stop shop for all your video creation and marketing needs. Our in-house creative team is highly adept at creating highly-polished and engaging videos that elevate brands and increase sales. They are backed by an award-winning digital marketing team that can maximize the impact of those videos and create high-ROI YouTube advertising campaigns. And with in-house experts in public relations, experiential event management, content creation, influencer engagement and social media management, we can push your brand even further by acting as its turn-key marketing department. Contact us to see what is possible for your brand.
