What Are YouTube Shorts and What Does It Mean For Brands

YouTube is literally throwing money—$30 billion to be exact—at creators, artists, and media trying to make f̶e̶t̶c̶h̶ YouTube Shorts happen.

Their current mission is to get people using the new option because they know that once there’s an audience, the brands will flock and the money will come. We’re going to teach you everything you need to know about YouTube Shorts, how it’s different (and similar) to competitors, and why your brand should be running, not walking, to try it.

What are YouTube Shorts?

Launched in 2020 and available in the YouTube app, YouTube Shorts is YouTube’s answer to short-form video. The user experience and the videos are completely different from the long YouTube videos you’re familiar with creating and watching. Users are able to create, edit and share a vertical video up to 60 seconds long. A Short can be created by uploading videos or recording directly in the YouTube App.

YouTube Shorts offers the same type of editing and recording tools as competitors such as TikTok and Instagram Reels such as a Green Screen, Filters, and Remixing other content. You can add text, and sounds, and do voiceovers within the app.

Are YouTube Shorts basically TikTok? (and Instagram Reels)

Yes and no. While Shorts look and function a lot like TikTok and Instagram Reels, YouTube offers one big feature that no other competitor can: access to the audio from any YouTube. They’re investing millions to offer the same music choices as competitors, but allowing Shorts to use audio from any YouTube video is the cherry on top.

Want to remix Charlie Bit Me? How about Charlie The Unicorn? Or OMG Shoes? The options are endless.

But what about the rest of the features? How does YouTube shorts stack up? Let’s take a look:

As a consumer, all the options are fairly comparable, but there are a couple of additional features to look at if you’re wanting to use Shorts from a brand standpoint.

Additionally, although YouTube Shorts is the newest of the three, the Monthly Active Users (MAU) and time spent on App stack up competitively. Since the filming, uploading, tools, and effects are all relatively the same, YouTube Shorts serves as a great option to take advantage of the fun user experience of TikTok and be able to reach a new audience.

Why should you care about YouTube Shorts?

It’s easy to shrug YouTube Shorts off as just another TikTok, but you should be paying attention. Brands and content creators have different reasons for flocking to the new YouTube addition, but they work hand in hand.

Why content creators should care about YouTube Shorts

The reason content creators, especially those focusing on building a subscriber base, should use YouTube Shorts is easy: money and subscribers.

YouTube is pushing hard for people to adopt Shorts. They know that if good content is there, people will come. As an incentive, they started a YouTube Shorts Fund of $100 million distributed from 2021-2022 that allows creators a chance at monetization. According to YouTube, “Anyone is eligible to participate in the fund simply by creating unique Shorts that delight the YouTube community.”

Yep, you read that right. YouTube Shorts creators can earn anywhere from $100 to $10,000 monthly. Not bad.

Why brands should care about YouTube Shorts

One of the bigger reasons a brand has to start using YouTube Shorts right now is that it’s still early days.

Despite being early, YouTube Shorts already has over 1 billion active monthly users. The people are there. But the brands aren’t—yet.

Active users + low competition = more opportunity to get seen, go viral, and establish a following.

Chances are that if you’re a brand that can start using YouTube Shorts in a smart way, your content has a good chance of performing positively and racking up those Shorts views. Probably in the millions.

The ultimate YouTube Shorts opportunity for creators AND brands

It’s a lot easier to get someone to watch a 15-second video compared to a 10+ minute YouTube video. And, if someone likes your 15-second video, there’s a good chance they’ll like your long-form videos too.

YouTube Shorts is the perfect way to gain subscribers by getting into the feeds of more people–and hopefully into their hearts too. You could think about Shorts as their trial run, their trailer, their commercial if you will. If they smash that subscribe button within shorts, they’re subscribed to your entire YouTube channel.

If you’re thinking there’s a ton of upside, you’re not wrong. While we don’t recommend suddenly dropping focus on any other high-performing social channel your brand might have just to crank out YouTube Shorts, we definitely would recommend giving it a try ASAP.

The effort versus potential payback, if you’re already creating vertical videos, is huge, so what are you waiting for?! Now that you know what YouTube Shorts are, check out our article on How To Use YouTube Shorts!