A SHORT GUIDE TO

YOUTUBE SHORTS

Ejaz Ahmed
 YOUTUBE SHORTS
YouTube Shorts, hereafter referred to as Shorts, are YouTube’s answer to the popularity
of TikTok and other short-form video content platforms.
What makes YouTube different from existing platforms is that it gets significantly more traffic, has
a much larger user base, a much wider range of users, and these short-form videos can still
appear in YouTube and Google search, as well as other YouTube features, like any other video on
their platform.

That means that you can not only reach a larger, existing viewer base, but you can use Shorts
reach them in addition to the standard promotion that YouTube provides its content creators.

So, you don’t have to twerk in order to grow on YouTube Shorts! Yay!

While Shorts are relatively new to US users, it’s been in a nation-wide testing phase for nearly a
year in India where it was put up against platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

Shorts were first introduced to YouTube consultants in September of 2020, where they explained
how the algorithms work, what the goals of the platform are, how to create Shorts, and some of
the future features that they plan to implement.

This guide is here to help you take advantage of Shorts. It contains the following:

How to create and upload a YouTube Short

How YouTube promotes Shorts (the Shorts Algorithm)
Best Practices
Misc. Important Info

Before diving into the rest of the content,

I would like to apologize for any and all short
related jokes. I know they’re not funny, but I’m
going through a tough time right now.

A SHORT GUIDE TO YOUTUBE SHORTS 1

Shorts have a few basic requirements:

The video must be vertical

The video must be between 15 and 60 seconds long, though we have seen examples of
shorter videos being picked up in the Shorts Shelf
Due to the nature of these videos, you have 1-3 seconds to capture the viewer’s attention
Videos that are visually engaging tend to perform best on the Shelf
Remember that Shorts are only promoted through the mobile app. It is possible to watch
the videos on a desktop or gaming console, but 99% of your traffic will be mobile phones.
So, when you edit your videos, make sure that all the elements are easy to see on smaller
screens, are bright, and that audio is clear and easy to understand. You would not believe
the percentage of people that watch these videos while on the toilet

I make two kinds of Shorts videos, edited gameplay clips or funny or impressive moments, and
promotional videos.

For the promotional videos, I typically use a vertical video template from a platform like Envato
and edit them using Adobe Premiere or After Effects. These make for some really cool and
visual- ly engaging videos that I use for sponsors, affiliates, or simply to promote other videos.
These are pretty easy to make and simple in their structure.

For gameplay videos, you really have two options. You can either crop the sides of the video and
focus entirely on the part that you want the viewer to see (this can be broken up with jump cuts
to the different aspects of the video that the viewer needs to see).

Or you can keep the entire video, shrink it down so that it horizontally fits the vertical space, and
then do something to fill in the blank spaces. An enlarged and blurred duplicate of the video,
subti- tles, or other elements could take up those spaces.

A SHORT GUIDE TO YOUTUBE SHORTS 2

The downside to this second approach is that the end video, the part the viewer actually
watches, is very small and it can be difficult for the user to pick out important elements or remain
engaged with the content.

There is no perfect option. I will say that my videos that follow the crop approach perform signifi-
cantly better than the latter option.

The Shorts Algorithm

In order to fully understand the algorithm, it is wise to understand what it was designed to do.

YouTube doesn’t like the idea of losing future content creators to other platforms. So, it’s trying
to entice TikTokers and their ilk to come and try YouTube Shorts.

Now, many of these creators aren’t going to have a large following on YouTube, assuming they
have any at all. So, the algorithm needs to promote new and small channels just like it would a
larger channel. That means that you should just get as much exposure through YouTube
Shorts as PewDiePie, for example.

However, there’s still an obnoxious amount of spam and junk content on YouTube. This is where
the traditional algorithm takes charge and filters out poor performing videos based on hundreds,
thousands, of data points. It’s really cool.

But, a Short is less than 60 seconds long and doesn’t have, nor does it provide, as much data as
a 15 minute long video. So, the algorithm needs to be simplified.

The Shorts algorithm is based on two primary metrics:

Views to Completion,
and Positive
Engagement

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Views to completion are simply that, it’s when someone watches a video all the way through.
This tells the algorithm that the viewer was interested in the entirety of the content and enjoyed it
enough to watch all of it. Considering the traditionally low retention time and even lower attention
span of those that consume this type of short-form content, getting someone to sit still and watch
a video for an entire minute is quite the feat.

The second metric, positive engagement, refers to likes, comments, new subscribers, and the
one that seems to bear the most weight, shares.

I have noticed a direct correlation between the number of shares a video receives and its overall
promotion within the Short Shelf (impressions and views).

?
An interesting note to make here is that the algorithm
behind TikTok seems to work the same way and greatly
favor those two metrics. So, if a video does well on You-
Tube, it should do well on TikTok, and vice versa. So, I
would highly recommend creating an account and cross-
posting your content there, in addition to any other
platforms you are pursuing.

A SHORT GUIDE TO YOUTUBE SHORTS 4

 Best Practices

Now that we know what the Shorts algorithm wants, it’s time to talk about how we deliver.

My best performing videos break down into three segments:

An emotionally charged introduction

The main content of the Short
A call to action to watch another
video An emotionally charged closing

Introduction:

Humans like emotions and it’s easier to connect with and engage them when we can spark some
sort of emotional, serotonin/dopamine response in their brains right away.

The easiest way to do this is either with humor or by showing them something pretty.

You can, also, trigger this response with something that sparks their curiosity. If they ask a ques-
tion at the beginning of a video, there’s a good chance that they’ll stick around to find out what
the answer is.

So, crafting your videos, Short or otherwise, the first thing that we do is emotionally engage and
hook the user using one of these techniques. Another way that you can think of it is to find some
way to reward the user for watching the video all the way through and teasing that reward at the
beginning.

One additional note: because YouTube is very much a visual platform, and Shorts especially so
(just look at TikTok - don’t see many large channels with blank screens, do ya?), the “show
them something pretty” approach includes high quality imagery or graphics. That could mean a
well lit face, pleasing colors, animations, and so on.

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A second additional note: you’re not limited to just one of these emotional triggers. You can layer
them and combine them in order to better optimize for viewer retention. So, put something pretty,
that’s well lit and easy to see, and make it do something funny with some tasteful and non-intru-
sive animations to call out specific parts of the intro.

You have 3 seconds to convince someone to watch your video. Don’t be slow.

Main Content:

The bulk of the video should build upon whatever the introduction introduced (note to self: buy a
thesaurus). It’s pretty straight forward.

Once we’ve triggered that initial happy-hormone release, we need to keep it flowing throughout
the rest of the video. Remember, you only have 60 seconds to tell your story, so edit, cut, and
reduce your video to be as short as possible while focusing on and highlighting the key points
to the content.

The same concepts of visual attractiveness applies here as it does in the introduction. We want
the viewer to easily see and distinguish between all the visual elements on the screen.

Before closing out the main content, a simple and non-intrusive call to action, such as an
anima- tion or some other onscreen element, is recommended.

While there is considerable push to include a CTA by breaking the flow of the content to directly
invite the user to act, these moments tend to cause a considerable drop off in viewership and
retention times.

Basically, you’re interrupting the dopamine flow with an ad and have the audacity to ask them to
do you a favor. It’s like “hey, I know you’re really enjoying this video because you’ve already
watched 45 seconds of it, but let me stop you right now and ask you to subscribe and watch
more of my videos where I stop you right before the best part to ask you to subscribe… again.”

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Or click a link in the description. Or sign up for an email list. Or join your Discord.

People know that they can subscribe to the channel. They may not know that you have more
videos to watch. So, a little clip or animation that doesn’t break the flow of the video to simply
let them know that this other content exists tends to perform much better.

Closing:

The introduction teases the dopamine hit.

The main content builds up to the dopamine hit.

So, the closure of the video better have a dopamine hit.

This is the answer to the question, the finished project, or the punchline of the joke.

It’s incredibly important that the video end on that high note.

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The truth of the matter is that dopamine and serotonin are addictive. Once people get a little kick
of it from you, they will actively seek out more. They will crave that satisfaction.

You, my friend and dear reader, are a drug dealer. But it’s all natural, so you’re at an essential oil
level of drug dealership.

It isn’t a bad idea to remind people of your CTA at this point, once you have delivered the hit. But
again, non-intrusiveness and subtly are key. You don’t want to interrupt the viewer and you don’t
want to subconsciously trigger the it’s-the-end-of-the-video-and-I-must-swipe impulse. You don’t
want the CTA to be a sudden drop after the fun part.

I’ve tested this on a few different videos. Both vocal callouts to subscribe or perform some other
action, as well as visual elements and end screens. The second I stop talking/delivering the
dopa- mine, they leave. As you can see in this screenshot. The red line is right at where I added
an end car asking people to subscribe and the retention (the blue line) tanks immediately after.

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 Misc. Important Information

YouTube mentioned the creation of a YouTube Shorts App - similar to the functionality that we
see on apps like TikTok, that facilitates the creation and basic editing of Short content. There
wasn’t a specific date given for when they expect the app to be released, but it has been in
testing in India so I would assume it’s only a matter of time before it’s available world-wide.

At this time, watch time from YouTube Shorts does not count towards the required 4,000 hours
of watch time required to join the YouTube Partnership Program, but subscribers gained from
these videos do still count towards the 1,000 subscriber requirement.

I assume that this will change in the near future, however I also believe that they will increase the
requirements for YPP membership shortly after as it is now ridiculously easy to reach those num-
bers.

YouTube Shorts are not currently monetized. That means that, even if you join the YPP, you
won’t make AdSense money from these videos. This can be bypassed by monetizing the content
through some other method, such as sponsorships, affiliate offers, Patreon, etc. Just remember
what was discussed in the CTA section of this guide.

It would be difficult to monetize these videos through AdSense as the videos themselves are too
short to roll ads and there isn’t really a space to place an ad before another video. And if there
was, who would be paid? The initial video that someone could have swiped past after 3 seconds
or the video that was randomly chosen to appear after it?

The best solution I can come up with is based on how Amazon pays authors in its KNP program
(for ebooks). A lump sum is allocated to all members of the program each month and members
are paid based on how many pages are read. For example, the most recent sum was $32
million and my books were paid about $0.005 (half a cent) per page read. I make about $3 every
time someone reads the entire book through this program. It’s not a lot, but I usually have 3-5
books read per day and it adds up.

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I think that YouTube could do something similar. As an ad buyer, I would love to put short,
engag- ing video ads in front of these audiences. In fact, the first question I asked during the
training was how long it would take before I could buy ad space on Shorts.

So, they sell ad space and divy up the ad revenue as they do with the rest of YouTube and lump
it all together. Then, creators can get paid based on their contributions to the number of views.
Say it’s $100 million dollars. I have 750,000 views, which makes up .02% of the total number of
views, so I would make $20,000 dollars.

I would make Shorts all day, every day.

Speaking of making tons of money off of YouTube Shorts, one of the big things that we have
wanted to be incorporated into its functionality is the ability to add Shorts viewers to retargeting
lists.

Essentially, a retargeting list is a group of people that have interacted with one of your Google
properties in some way. The most common method is if you visit a website and they install a
track- ing cookie - like how Facebook will remember you’re logged in or how other websites
remember your username or email. Or how if you look at a product on Amazon, it will follow
you on Facebook for about a week (that’s just the Facebook tracking cookie and retargeting
list - though they call them remarketing lists).

We’ve been able to populate these lists using YouTube for a while now, both through organic
and paid traffic. This is actually one of the core competencies of my business - we populate
retargeting lists through our YouTube videos and then run ads to those people when they search
for our target keywords on Google.

YouTube has recently made it so that your Shorts viewers can also be added to your retargeting
lists. This is a huge benefit as we can now populate those lists, for free, and reach hundreds of
thousands of potential buyers.

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To give you an example, imagine you make a video about painting Amiibos, those crazily
addictive figurines made by Nintendo. And then let’s say that you use a specific kind of paint in
your videos. Well, instead of interrupting your viewer/video with a CTA to check out links for the
paints, which is probably viable in this situation, you could also run YouTube ads to your Shorts
audience and promote those products, either as an affiliate or retailer, or a sponsorship.

It’s an amazing opportunity for those familiar with or interested in YouTube ads (or paid traffic in
general). So, I’m really excited about that one and I’m going to make even more videos now to
promote those better monetized opportunities.

I hope that the information provided in this guide is helpful to you and your YouTube journey. If
you would like to learn more from me, check out my YouTube channel and join my Discord
server. Discord is especially useful if you have questions for me or want me or my team to look
at a You- Tube channel.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ejazahmed06
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ejazahmed06

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