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Myth: My customers don’t watch YouTube
Picture for a moment the “average YouTube user.” What do you see? We hear a lot of misconceptions about who is—and who isn’t—on YouTube. We know, for instance, that the demographics of YouTube’s audience is more than 50% female, YouTube users are more likely to have kids than non-users, and users are more likely to have a college degree than the general population. (Source: ThinkWithGoogle)
Here are 37 Mind Blowing YouTube statistics for you to consider when evaluating your 2019 advertising:
YouTube is now the world’s second largest search engine with over 5 billion videos viewed each day. YouTube is a platform for content creators, influencers, and B2B brands alike to share compelling stories, introduce new products and services, and provide valuable information such as industry trends, predictions, etc.
A common misconception is that YouTube is only for millennials. But as you’ll find out, older adults, Fortune 500 decision-makers and executives are now, more than ever, active on YouTube.
In this post, we’ll dive into why you should consider YouTube in your 2019 B2B marketing strategy, how to use YouTube in your B2B marketing, and the types of video content that are most successful.
We’ve done a lot of research and compiled the best statistics from surveys and research studies done by Pew Research Center, Forrester, Nielsen, Think with Google, along with stats from well-known publications such as Forbes, Hubspot, and Tubular Insights.
1) YOUTUBE HAS OVER 1.9 BILLION MONTHLY ACTIVE USERS
As of YouTube’s last press release in 2018, there are now over 1.9 billion active users on YouTube every month. To put it in perspective, that’s one-third of people on the web. YouTube has been rapidly closing the gap between its nemesis Facebook at 2.2 billion monthly active users. It’s no surprise that Facebook launched Watch last year to stay ahead of YouTube.
Image Source: Statista
2) YOUTUBE USERS EXIST IN MORE THAN 91 COUNTRIES
Since its launch in 2005, YouTube has launched local versions in more than 91 countries and offers support in 80 different languages covering 95% of the global internet population. YouTube is a global phenomenon and social powerhouse.
3) BABY BOOMERS AND GENERATION X ARE YOUTUBE’S FASTEST GROWING DEMOGRAPHIC
We know this might surprise to you, but Baby Boomers (50- to 65-year-olds) and Generation X (36- to 49-year-olds) are the fastest growing demographic on YouTube. The common myth that YouTube is only for millennials is not true. In fact, YouTube watch time continues to grow among older audiences.
4) YOUTUBE REACHES MORE 18-49 YEAR-OLDS THAN ANY BROADCAST OR NETWORK TV STATION
We’ve all known for a while that TV viewing has been on the decline. In 2016, Google reported that YouTube reaches more 18 to 49-year-olds than any broadcast or network TV station. Not to mention, on average, 8 out of 10 18 to 49-year-olds watch YouTube per month. In other words, YouTube has the reach potential for a significant portion of your B2B target audience.
Image Source: Mediakix
5) 6 OUT OF 10 PEOPLE PREFER ONLINE VIDEO PLATFORMS TO LIVE TV
People may be watching less TV, but that doesn’t mean they’re watching any less video content. Google reported in 2016 that 6 out of 10 people prefer watching videos online to live TV. As TV consumption continues to decline, online video streaming grows every year. If you’ve been advertising on TV, it’s imperative you start planning how to incorporate video and Youtube in your marketing strategy.
Image Source: Blueadz
6) 94% OF 18- TO 24-YEAR-OLDS SAY THEY USE YOUTUBE.
The Pew Research Center conducted a survey in 2018 that showed an overwhelming 94% of 18- to 24-year-olds use the YouTube platform. That’s close enough to 100%. Millennials are without question the most active group of users on YouTube (but not the only group!)
Image Source: PewInternet
7) 96% OF ONLINE U.S. TEENS ARE ON YOUTUBE.
YouTube is the most popular social site for 12- to 17-year-olds. In fact, 96% of online U.S. teens are on YouTube, according to Forrester Research and Marketing Dive. From a B2B perspective, although your target audience most likely isn’t teens, future executives and decision makers are today’s teens. And, it’s safe to assume that this younger demographic will value video in the future.
8) GENERATION X (39- TO 53-YEAR-OLDS) WATCH MORE THAN 1.5 BILLION YOUTUBE VIDEOS PER DAY.
To re-emphasize that YouTube is not just for the teens and millennials, Google reported that “Generation Xers” account for over 1.5 billion views per day on YouTube. In addition, 75% of those aged 35- to 53-years-old watch YouTube at least once a month.
Image Source: ThinkWithGoogle
9) 73% OF U.S. ADULTS USE YOUTUBE.
Another survey published by the Pew Research Center in March 2018 revealed that 73% of all American adults use the YouTube platform. That was actually 5% more than the number of adults that said they used Facebook. Whether it’s to find tutorials, watch the news, or a product review, adults are making use of YouTube. The shift in TV to online video content is not just for teens and millennials, but also adults. To maximize your reach, you’ll want to make sure you’re present on YouTube as well.
10) BLACK MILLENNIALS’ MOBILE WATCH TIME ON YOUTUBE HAS MORE THAN DOUBLED IN THE LAST TWO YEARS.
Black millennials’ consumed double the content in the last two years on YouTube, according to research conducted by Nielsen and Google in 2016. If you’re targeting your products or services to black millennials, YouTube is also a great spot.
Image Source: ThinkWithGoogle
YouTube Usage Stats
11) YOUTUBE IS THE WORLD’S 2ND LARGEST SEARCH ENGINE AND SECOND-HIGHEST RANKED SITE.
According to Alexa, YouTube is now the world’s second largest search engine after Google. It is also the 2nd most visited site on the web after Google. Since both entities share the same parent company, the common infrastructure between the two sites makes it easy for people to search for relevant content on Google, and then hop over to YouTube.
12) 5 BILLION YOUTUBE VIDEOS ARE VIEWED ON AVERAGE EVERY DAY.
According to Ominicore, about 5 billion YouTube videos are viewed on average every single day. How does that translate into hours? That’s about 1 billion hours of YouTube videos consumed every single day. To put it in perspective, an individual attempting to rack up 1 billion hours of YouTube watching would have to find a playlist that was 100,000 years long.
That’s huge.
It comes down to about 8.4 minutes of views per day across all the YouTube users (close to Facebook’s 9.4 minutes of daily views). With this many views per day, YouTube is a great place to provide value and share information with a specific group of people who are looking for you.
13) YOUTUBE RANKS 3RD FOR U.S. SEARCH SHARE.
Back in 2017, Moz and Jumpshot looked at all U.S. searches across leading sites including—Google, Google Images, YouTube. Yahoo!, Bing, Google Maps, Amazon, Facebook, DuckDuckGo, and Google News—in an effort to better understand search behavior. Of these ten sites, YouTube ranked third for search share with 3.71% of searches. That might seem insignificant, but as you’ll see in our next stat, it’s an enormous amount of searches.
Image Source: Moz
14) YOUTUBE GENERATES 3 BILLION SEARCHES A MONTH.
See what we mean now? The 3.71% of search share equates 3 billion searches a month. It’s a clear indication that people are looking for information and content online, specifically on Google and YouTube. This is an opportunity for you as a B2B marketer to provide your audience with relevant content that can be found.
15) VIDEO WILL ACCOUNT FOR 79% OF GLOBAL TRAFFIC BY 2020.
Cisco forecasts that internet video will account for 79% of global internet traffic by 2020–up from 63% in 2015. That’s insane. This stat alone can make your business case for allocating more budget to video and YouTube B2B marketing.
16) BY 2025, HALF OF THE VIEWERS (50%) UNDER 32 WILL NOT SUBSCRIBE TO A PAY-TV SERVICE.
Forrester Research and Google conducted a study back in 2015, and the results forecasted that 50% of all TV viewers under age 32 will not subscribe to a traditional cable-TV service by 2025. This is a massive shift for all advertisers, including B2B marketers. Generation Z (teens), and millennials alike are likely to drop their cable subscriptions and stick to video streaming services online. We’ve already seen the shift in traditional B2B advertising in TV, radio, and print, but this forecast predicts an even more drastic change by 2025.
Image Source: ThinkWithGoogle
17) MORE THAN 70% OF YOUTUBE VIEWS COME FROM MOBILE DEVICES.
It wasn’t too long ago that YouTube reported that over half of its viewers were tuning into YouTube from their mobile devices. Fast forward to 2019, more than 70% of views come from mobile devices. People are watching videos on their mobile device more than any other device. Even in the B2B space where typically we see most of the B2B transactions still happening on a desktop, 48% of B2B buyers use their smartphones to watch videos.
18) 300 HOURS OF VIDEO ARE UPLOADED TO YOUTUBE EVERY MINUTE.
In 2014, Tubular insight reported that 300 hours of videos were uploaded to YouTube every minute. In 2015, nearer to 500 uploads per minute were reported. There hasn’t been an official announcement from the search giants in recent years to confirm, but it’s safe to say that the amount of video content uploaded to YouTube continues to increase.
Image Source: Tubular insight
19) PEOPLE ARE WATCHING MORE THAN 100 MILLION HOURS OF YOUTUBE VIDEOS ON THEIR TVS EVERY DAY.
Think with Google partnered up with Nielsen in 2015 and reviewed the average time people spent watching YouTube on their TV. Views more than doubled in 2015 versus the 2014 comparison. YouTube disclosed in a 2017 YouTube Earnings Call Webcast that people are watching more than 100 million hours of YouTube on their TVs every day, an increase of 70% since last year.
This further emphasizes the intense usage and popularity of the YouTube platform. Not only are people, including B2B buyers, spending more time on YouTube, but they’re also watching it straight from their TV (instead of TV!).
20) HOME MOBILE YOUTUBE VIEWING OCCURS PRIMARILY DURING PRIME TIME.
In terms of people using their mobile device at home to watch YouTube videos, most of this viewing occurs during prime time hours. As a B2B marketer, this is a great time to do live streamings on YouTube and maximize your potential reach.
Image Source: ThinkWithGoogle
21) 7 IN 10 PEOPLE DEFAULT TO HORIZONTAL VIEWING WHEN WATCHING VIDEOS ONLINE.
Think By Google released findings that 7 out of 10 people default to horizontal viewing when watching YouTube videos on their phones. This comes into play when you’re creating video content for your B2B audience. You’ll want to make sure that your videos are good quality horizontally.
Image Source: ThinkWithGoogle
22) 18% OF U.S. ADULTS GET THEIR NEWS ON YOUTUBE.
Believe it or not, YouTube ranks 2nd behind Facebook when it comes to what social networking sites U.S. adults use to get their news. In fact, 18% of U.S. adults get their news on YouTube, compared to 45% on Facebook and 11% on Twitter.
YouTube is a great platform to share news and press releases. Major brands like HP, Microsoft, Cisco, and Adobe are investing in their B2B side and creating this type of content on YouTube.
Image Source: Journalist.org
YouTube Content Marketing Stats
23) THE TOP 4 CONTENT CATEGORIES WATCHED BY YOUTUBE USERS ARE: COMEDY, MUSIC, ENTERTAINMENT/POP CULTURE, AND “HOW TO.”
Comedy, music, entertainment/pop culture, and “how to” videos are the most popularvideos watched on YouTube. As a B2B marketer, you can incorporate some of these categories into your videos to create engaging content. For example, think of the widely popular Old Spice deodorant commercial “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”.
The commercial was first launched in 2010 before the Superbowl and instantly went viral because of its humor. The company’s sales doubled, their website traffic jumped by 300%, and it became the #1 Most Viewed Sponsored YouTube Channel. For B2B brands specifically, Microsoft, HP, UPS, and Cisco are investing heavily in YouTube video marketing and incorporating content from popular categories as well.
24) THE AVERAGE LENGTH OF A FIRST PAGE YOUTUBE VIDEO IS 14 MINUTES AND 50 SECONDS LONG.
In 2017, Backlinko analyzed 1.3 million YouTube videos to better understand how YouTube’s search engine works and the correlation between ranking factors—such as like, comments, and shares—with YouTube rankings.
What did they discover?
Longer videos significantly outperformed shorter videos. On average, the length of a first page YouTube video is about 15 minutes long.
Not to mention, in 2015, Google was granted a patent for an algorithm that uses the average “watch time” as a ranking signal. In short, YouTube wants to promote videos that keep people on YouTube for a long period of time. Creating longer-form videos can help boost your B2B videos on YouTube.
25) 68% OF VIDEOS ON THE FIRST PAGE OF YOUTUBE ARE IN HD.
This stat ties into the quality of your B2B video content. Backlinko’s study of 1.3 million YouTube videos also showed that 68% of videos that rank on the first page of YouTube are in HD.
26) ON AVERAGE, VIDEOS THAT RANK ON THE FIRST PAGE OF YOUTUBE HAVE OVER 4,000 COMMENTS.
Lastly, in regards to first page rankings, the Backlinko study also found that video comments strongly correlate with higher rankings. As a B2B marketer, you want to maximize the number of comments on your videos by responding to comments, asking questions, and engaging with your audience on YouTube.
27) 81% OF VIDEO-VIEWING OCCASIONS GET ALL OR MOST OF PEOPLE’S ATTENTION.
Everyone is fighting for attention these days with an enormous amount of content being pushed out by advertisers, brands, and companies each day. According to Google, a whopping 85% of video-viewing occasions get most of the peoples’ attention.
If you’re providing relevant and timely B2B video content on YouTube, you’ll have a winning chance of gaining your audience’s attention and getting them locked in, as opposed to other forms of media.
28) 80% OF U.S. MARKETERS ARE CONFIDENT YOUTUBE VIDEOS CONVERT.
You might be wondering does YouTube actually work? In a survey conducted by Animoto, over 80% of B2C and B2B marketers agree that YouTube content has the ability to drive views, engagement, and purchases for businesses. Major B2B brands are investing money on YouTube not just for the views, but because it converts.
YouTube allows you to engage with your target audience, answer questions, get them familiar with your brand, and ultimately, drive them to purchase. If it didn’t work, major brands would not be investing in it so heavily.
Image Source: EMarketer
29) YOUTUBE RANKS 4TH FOR THE MOST VALUED SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM BY B2B MARKETERS.
According to Clutch and Smart Insights, a publisher and marketing learning platform, YouTube ranks 4th on the most valued social media platform for B2B marketers. In addition, YouTube is the only network where the value is perceived the same whether you’re marketing to B2C or B2B.
Image Source: Clutch.co
30) VIEWS ON BRANDED VIDEO CONTENT HAVE INCREASED 99% ON YOUTUBE AS OF JUNE 2017.
Despite the increase in competition on YouTube, views on branded content continue to increase. Without question, the adoption of video marketing for B2B and B2C brands is going to continue to rise in 2019.
31) BRANDS THAT USE VIDEO MARKETING GROW THEIR REVENUE 49% FASTER YEAR-OVER-YEAR THAN BRANDS THAT DON’T.
Year-over-year increases in revenue from large companies were tracked in a study conducted by the Abeerdeen Group in 2015. They found businesses that use a video marketing strategy grow their revenue 49% faster year-over-year than businesses that don’t use video. Meaning, if you want to stay competitive in the next coming years, investing in video marketing is a good move.
YouTube Sponsored Video Stats
32) FROM SEPTEMBER 16 TO 22, 2018 ALONE, 4,680 BRANDS SPONSORED 8,964 VIDEOS THAT WERE DIRECTLY UPLOADED TO BRAND PARTNERS CHANNELS AND PAGES ON YOUTUBE AND FACEBOOK.
Brands are increasingly harnessing the power of YouTube to tell stories on popular YouTube channels. Although YouTube has not released official records on this, Tubular Insight reported that between the 16th and 22nd of September 2018 alone, 4,680 brands sponsored 8,964 videos that were directly uploaded to brand partners channels and pages on YouTube and Facebook.
GE’s sponsored video on the popular series “The Slow Mo Guys” YouTube Channel was one of the branded videos during that time frame. Gav and Dan, the two guys behind the channel, and GE launched the “Super Hydrophobic Surface and Magnetic Liquid” sponsored video showing cool liquid physics at 2500fps.
The video was a huge hit and generated more than 8.7 million views to date. This is just one example and it clearly shows that B2B marketers can leverage YouTube sponsored videos to attract new audiences and share compelling stories.
33) INFLUENCERS ARE 92% OF THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND BRANDED YOUTUBE VIDEOS.
An overwhelming 92% of total views on sponsored videos across all of YouTube were uploaded by individual creators and influencers. B2B brands that are looking to work with influencers to share compelling branded video content need to consider YouTube as one of the top platforms for distributing content.
Image Source: Tubular Insights
34) 51% OF B2C AND B2B MARKETERS RUN YOUTUBE VIDEO ADS.
More than half (51%) of B2B and B2B marketers run ads on YouTube, according to an April 2017 survey from cloud-based video creation company Animoto. Along with organic video content, investment in YouTube video ads will grow in 2019 as marketers continue to see results on the platform.
35) VIEWERS WHO SEE TRUEVIEW ADS ARE 10 TIMES MORE LIKELY TO ENGAGE WITH THE BRAND ON YOUTUBE.
You may want to stick to organic video content on YouTube, but TrueView ads have been shown to be beneficial to your B2B marketing strategy as well. YouTube found that viewers who see TrueView ads are 10 times more likely to engage with your brand on YouTube, whether that’s subscribing to your channel, watching more of your videos, or sharing videos.
36) 46% OF B2B TECHNOLOGY BUYERS WILL PURCHASE A PRODUCT OR SERVICE AFTER VIEWING VIDEO CONTENT.
It’s a common misconception that YouTube does result in any conversions or sales. In fact, The International Data Group released that 46% of B2B technology buyers purchase a product or service after viewing video content. Whether you’re creating videos around your products or services, video content can help convert your leads into customers.
37) OVER 75% OF FORTUNE 500 EXECUTIVES ARE VIEWING ONLINE VIDEO.
More and more B2B buyers are turning to YouTube to make informed purchasing decisions. Forbes reported that over 75% of Fortune 500 executives are viewing videos. This makes YouTube a premier destination for reaching and influencing your target audience.
YouTube Statistics Recap
Weren’t able to catch them all? Here’s a recap of the top 10 YouTube stats every B2B marketer needs to know:
- 5 billion YouTube videos are viewed on average every day.
- YouTube generates 3 billion searches a month.
- Video will account for 79% of global traffic by 2020.
- Baby Boomers (50- to 65-years-old) and Generation X (36- to 49-year-old) are the fastest growing demographic on YouTube.
- The average length of a first page YouTube video is 14 minutes and 50 seconds long.
- 80% of U.S. marketers are confident YouTube videos convert.
- YouTube ranks 4th for the most valued social media platform by B2B marketers.
- Views on branded video content have increased 99% on YouTube as of June 2017.
- 46% of B2B technology buyers will purchase a product or service after viewing video content.
- Over 75% of Fortune 500 executives are viewing online video.
In conclusion, YouTube is not just a place for funny cat videos, millennials, and B2C brands. YouTube provides B2B marketers with a ton of opportunity to reach YOUR potential customers and provide valuable content in a format that more and more people are consuming. Informational videos, product reviews, entertainment videos through sponsored videos, and “how-to” tutorials are all great ways to get more visibility for your brand, help your customers, and convert new leads into clients. NOTE: The experts at FoundatinInc.co compiled and published this research and it was too good not to share! For the full article and more information visit: https://foundationinc.co/lab/youtube-statistics-b2b-marketers/ Which stats were you most surprised with? Drop a comment with your thoughts – we’d love to know!