Longer videos are easier for social media platforms to monetize

Short-form videos are difficult to monetize since they don’t offer pre-, mid-, or post-roll ads. Instead, ads are placed between videos, making them easy to skip. As a result, platforms embracing longer videos stand to rake in more ad dollars. Brands, meanwhile, have more opportunities to get in front of users via advertising on lengthier videos, though creating their own longer content presents challenges.

• Advertisers are pouring money into social video even as time spent with it slows down. We expect US social network video ad spending to total $48.89 billion this year (not including YouTube), up 24.6% YoY. In fact, spending on social video is expected to surpass linear TV ad spending next year in the US. That’s good news for social platforms since growth in time spent with social video is slowing, as is social video’s share of average daily time spent on social networks by users. While time spent with social video among US users saw double-digit growth in recent years, we expect it to grow only 5.3% this year, reaching 1 hour and 4 minutes.

• Platforms hope longer-form videos could reverse the slowdown in time spent. That’s why they’re encouraging creators to create longer content. In March, TikTok said its revamped creator fund, which only rewards videos over a minute long, had increased creator revenues by over 250% during the prior six months. Meanwhile, YouTube started letting Shorts creators link to longer-form content in September. There may be interest in features like this, as 59% of Gen Zers watch longer versions of videos they find on short-form apps, according to May 2022 research from Google, YouTube’s parent company.
• But selling brands on the idea of creating their own longer videos could be tough. While many brands have benefited from robust short video organic content strategies that let them jump in on trends, longer-form videos often require more time, resources, and planning.

Read the full report, Social Video 2024.