There is a variety of tools and resources videographers can use to measure the success of their video production. YouTube Hot Spots is one of these tools, and a recent post from ReelSEO highlights the ins and outs of this service brought to you by a social video editing site you probably already use.
Hidden deep below the surface of the Insight tab is a secret gem called Hot Spot. Ok, well this feature is actually nothing new, in fact it came out several years ago. However, have you ever gone so deep into HotSpot (subsequently analyzing over 400 videos to determine a pattern in gaining the highest consistency of viewer attention) that your eyes popped out of your head?
Well I have, and luckily I was able to put them back in long enough to share this with you.
The YouTube Hot Spot Feature analyzes a video’s viewer attention. The analysis is based on all of the views of a particular video production and when in that video those viewers start to lose interest and stop watching–whether it’s the beginning of the video, middle of the video, or at the end.
The Hot Spot Feature can tell you whether your video editing is instant yawn material or if it’s making people stand up in their chairs screaming…”Wow, this is the Citizen Kane of Web Videos!!”
YouTube’s features documentation states that you need 300 views on a video after March 2011 for the Hot Spot Graph and data to propagate, but a good rule of thumb for a minimum number of views to guarantee Hot Spot data is about 1300-1500 views.
Entertaining videos tend to have the ability to reel people in through cool thumbnails or animation. Therefore, the attention starts high from the audience and the greatest fallout of a viewer is at the end of the video editing. Usually Entertaining videos start great but tend to only go downhill from there.
REMEMBER-Entertaining videos generally follow the rule to grab ones attention within the first 5 seconds of a video.
Usually an entertaining video production loses interest not because the content starts to fail, but usually because the length of the video is too long. A dip can occur at a time where much of the audience is starting to ask the question, “where is this video is going?”
A nice rule of thumb for an entertainment-based video is to keep the video length between 1-3 minutes. Usually anything more and you will begin to loose the attention of the audience.
An Informative Video will show the complete opposite data…interesting! Informative videos are designed to provide usable information. The informative video can be in the form of a “How To” video or:
- News
- Tutorials
- Training And More.
With the informative video, attention tends to start LOW and end HIGH. Another way to look at it is in the beginning of the video, the highest number of fall-outs occur. BUT, those that stay to watch the video, tend to watch it till the end.
People who come to watch these videos generally are here for a purpose, to learn… to gain knowledge in regards to whatever topic the video is about. Therefore, more people will stay longer to get all of the information a video has to offer.
Because the video is generally a training video or instructional video, there is a greater commitment to watching the video. Therefore, these videos can afford to be longer without having the same fear of disinterest that the entertaining video have.
An informative video can be in upwards of 10 minutes long and still hold relative interest. However, I would say, at 5 minutes, you may notice a slight drop in that interest.
YouTube Insight Hotspot is a great tool that provides a great way for creators to see exactly when and where in a video the viewers are tuning out. Different styles or video approaches can hold the audience’s attention longer, and at different points in the clip.
If you would like to use the powerful medium of video editing and video production to help your business, visit Video One Productions’ website to see what we can do for you!
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