Online Video Viewers Have Short Attention Spans - New Tubemogul Research

• share
• email
• Comment

As you likely already know, Tubemogul is an excellent tool/service that we recommend at ReelSEO for online video distribution and analytics. Because they have great technology, great partners, and a ton of video producers using their system, they often release excellent research reports that detail findings made across their network.

With the recent acquisition of Illuminex, now named TubeMogul InPlay, Tubemogul is able totrack data far beyond the traditional online video “views”metric.They are now able to gather data regarding how much of an actual video was watched across various video sharing sites.

Tomorrow, they will be releasing a new report that answers the question: “how much are people actually watching before they click away?” And the answer, although conculsive, is not too shocking – Online video viewers who watch short-form video content, have short attention spans.

“Most videos steadily lose viewers once “play” is clicked, with an average 10.39% of viewers clicking away after ten seconds and 53.56% leaving after one minute.”

During a two week period, Tubemogul measured average number of seconds viewed for a sample of videos(188,055 videos,22,724,606 streams)across 6 of their top partner video sharing sites. Althought theydo not disclose the list of 6 sites, they do mention that Youtube was not one of the sites included in the study as their analytics code is not yet integrated with the Youtube player. At the same time, most of the videos studied were videos that are also syndicated to Youtube, and therefore, may likely realize similar results.
It is important to mention as well that all of the research was conducted on short-form video content rather than long-form content.

What were the Results?

The results were dramatic.Most online video viewers watch mere seconds, rather than minutes, of a video.

What does this mean foronline video advertising?

In particular, these findings present solid confirmation that some in-stream video advertising, in particular mid and post-roll ads, are not as effect in short-form content – again, no suprise there. A three minute video that has a post-roll ad in the final seconds would only be viewed on average by 16.62% of the initial viewer audience.

Another takeaway is that other video ad formats, like overlay ads, are most effective if they are shown as early as possible within a video, ideally within the first few seconds. On YouTube, more than 10% of the initial video viewers are likely not eveing seeing the ad as their overlay ads appear after the first 10 seconds.

What does this mean for internet video marketing?

It seems to me that these results present a clear directive to those using online video content to market a product, service, or brand. Make sure that your call-to-action, branding, or message, can be delivered within the first 60 seconds, ideally, within the first 10 seconds.

Thankfully, we have reasearch from back in October that also shows that engaged online video viewers do pay attention to video ads.

Thanks once again to the folks at Tubemogul for this excellent research!

What do you think? ▼

About the Author - Mark R Robertson
Mark Robertson is the Founder and Publisher of ReelSEO, an online information resource dedicated to the fusion of video, technology, social media, search, and internet marketing. He is a professional online video marketing consultant and video SEO expert, popular speaker, and considered to be a passionate leader within the online video and search marketing industries. Follow Mark on Twitter (@markrrobertson), or Google+. - View All Posts By Mark R Robertson