The Surprising Truth About Audience Attention Spans

It's tempting to think that most consumers have the attention span of a typical goldfish.

After all, they're constantly bombarded with so many stimuli.

Every time they open their Twitter app, or check out Facebook on their lunch break, they're confronted with a nearly endless stream of content, each post vying for their attention.

So, you'd think that when it comes to content, shorter is better. Is someone really going to stick around for the full duration of a 20 minute video, especially on their phone?

Actually, yes.

Surprisingly, recent statistics indicate that longform video is actually increasing in popularity, especially on smartphones and tablets.

Most of the screen time people spend watching online video content consists of long videos, not short ones.

So whether you're selling a product, or you're monetizing a Youtube channel with ads, longform video is worth creating.

A recent article from Marketing Land provides some promising statistics.

Long-form video content passed a major milestone last quarter, making up the majority of time watched across every screen — connected TVs, computers, tablets and smartphones.

This news probably comes as no surprise to any parent of a teen with a phone, but on the whole, the numbers signal a major shift in how we are consuming video.

According to Ooyala’s latest video index report, consumption of long-form video consumption was up across the board, with smartphones seeing a jump from 47 percent last year to 55 percent during Q1 2017. PCs were up from 55 percent to 65 percent, and connected TVs up 96 percent to 98 percent.

The most notable increase happened on tablets, with long-from video consumption going from 65 percent in 2016 to 81 percent last quarter.

2016 to 2017 long-form video watch-time trends

[image source: Marketing Land]