In September 2020, YouTube Shorts – a YouTube app feature that rivals TikTok and Instagram Reels – began testing in India. The beta feature enabled users to see and create 15-second videos with musical overlays. 

At the end of February 2021, Google and Alphabet CEO, Sundar Pichai announced that videos on the India-based Shorts player receive 3.5 billion cumulative daily views. The Shorts beta was fully released in the U.S. in March 2021, surpassing 6.5 billion daily views.

A few months later in July, Shorts launched globally in over 100 countries.

Like TikTok and Instagram Reels, marketing teams in Nigeria still struggle to explore or consider YouTube Shorts. They are in a battle of the strictly professional and the very playful. These platforms fall with the latter. 

Marketers need to know that YouTube houses millions of hours of branded content. As such, YouTube Shorts could be worth your time – especially if you already have a video strategy on the platform. Besides, in 2021, YouTube’s user base in Nigeria was approximately 5.29 million. 

See reasons marketers should consider YouTube Shorts: 

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1. Short-form creators could see a bigger reach
2. Shorts is not brand/industry limiting
3. YouTube Shorts is possibly less vulnerable
4. Shorts could provide long-term benefits
5. Content can be repurposed on Shorts

Short-form creators could see a bigger reach

YouTube, the second largest website globally, launched Shorts to more than 2 billion monthly active users. That’s a reach. So, determine how you want to tap into this. 

For example, say you regularly create long-form content related to your product or industry and find that it engages your audiences, you can use Shorts to create quick tutorials or step-by-step videos around those content topics.

Shorts is not brand/industry limiting

Content on YouTube is so vast that it brings in people from all sorts of age groups, countries, industries, and niches. There’s content for everyone on YouTube. With Shorts, more brands will be able to engage with audiences from a much wider range of audience targets. You can target Gen X, Y, or X on YouTube Shorts and reach them. 

YouTube Shorts is possibly less vulnerable

YouTube is one of the oldest and most successful online platforms, and it is owned by the publicly traded Alphabet. It is therefore seen as more trustworthy to governments than viral apps that provide less public data security information.

Shorts could provide long-term benefits

Shorts videos don’t disappear from YouTube – which could help grow long-term YouTube awareness. So, if a user who prefers short-form content stumbles upon your YouTube channel, they can see all of your short videos, rather than only being able to access your longer content.

Content can be repurposed on Shorts

Shorts are a great way to repurpose content. You can take content from a blog post, live stream, or downloadable report to create a short video. When the videos are done right, they pique the audience’s interests, who then look for other videos posted by the brand. Or visit other platforms where there may have been deeper longer insights.