YouTube Shorts have come a long, long way! After it was globally launched in September 2020, the TikTok clone received $100 million in funding from YouTube. The platform also launched a Shorts campaign to celebrate its 1st anniversary. Recently, it also partnered with Ed Sheeran for some Shorts promotions. Today, the platform is testing direct access to Shorts to further boost discovery and engagement.
A mobile user who ended up watching Shorts will have direct access to the feature once he or she comes back to YouTube. The first thing the user will see is a full preview of recently uploaded Shorts clips. But if the users ended up watching other YouTube videos than Shorts, direct access is not enabled. The test is being made to a selected number of YouTube mobile users worldwide.
Implications to Marketers:
Direct access to YouTube Shorts can indeed boost discovery and engagement. For marketers, it may be worth it tapping into such experiences to re-create their ads and campaigns.
Reference: https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/18138167/youtube-test-features-and-experiments?hl=en
