YouTube has now launched a feature for channel owners to quickly and easily boost their Shorts videos to more viewers.
Shorts – YouTube’s reduced length video offering – has seen an increase in popularity over the past few years, as they look to compete with short-form giants TikTok and Instagram’s Reels. In June 2021 the average number of daily YouTube Shorts views was around 30 billion, but by October 2023 this had increased to 70 billion (Source: Statista). 18 months later, this is now undoubtedly even bigger.
Up to now, any channel creating Shorts would have to rely on subscribers seeing them and sharing them organically, to grow the reach. Or you would have had to use Google Ads and set up specific campaigns, which can be time-consuming when you just want to quickly promote it.
However you can now easily promote a Shorts video in just a few clicks.
To access and use this feature:
- Login to your channel (on a desktop device) and go to YouTube Studio
- Select the Shorts video you would like to boost, click the three dots menu on it and then click ‘Promote’
- Set your budget and end date.
Targeting for the video happens automatically, with YouTube putting it in front of users it thinks are likely to engage with your channel.
Measurement-wise, you will be able to track views, clicks and subscribers gained.
This feature feels very similar to Meta’s ‘Boost this post’ option, but arguably even simpler, so it’s likely to be well adopted and used by creators.
Would you like some advice on how to use YouTube as part of your marketing mix? Contact us today and chat to one of our team.
Featured image: Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash
