Today I logged on to our YouTube channel to answer a question posed in relation to our video on how to complete your tax return and noticed that we have reached a small landmark, having now a grand total of 250 subscribers to our channel! Not bad for a little accountancy firm in Hazel Grove!
So, I thought I’d take a little look at some more of the stats what can I learn about what we can do which provides value to not just our clients and ideal potential clients, but to the business community as a whole?
Accountancy is admittedly not the most exciting of categories for a YouTube channel… I mean, we can’t do Joe Suggs style pranks, and if I look at the things my family and I have searched for recently on YouTube, it’s almost always a ‘How To’…. How to Bleed Shimano Hydraulic Brakes, How to Drill Through Wall Tiles, How to Make Slime, How to Walk Through a Field of Cows (there’s a story there, but it’s one for over wine ????????) If it’s not a How to, then it’s something my kids have got hold of…. Epic Mountain Bike Fails, Best Pranks Ever, Cute Puppies Falling Over…. So how on earth do we compete with that, and is it even worth it? Is YouTube really a channel we should be investing time in as an accountancy firm??
Well, let’s have a look at the stats and see what they tell us:
- We have a grand total of 250 subscribers to our channel
- We have had almost 60,000 views of our videos (59,659)
- The total watch time is almost 180,000 minutes (that’s 125 days worth!!!)
- And the average watch duration is exactly 3 minutes
Our Top 5 Videos are:
- Self Assessment Tax Return (2019) – Submit yours in 5 Simple Steps
- Company car or not if you run a limited company? Tax advice for UK businesses (2019)
- Business Mileage explained – Tax Advice for Business Owners UK (2019)
- Gift Aid Tax Relief Explained (2019)
- UK Corporation Tax Explained – Quick Guide (2019)
The best performing video, How to Submit your Tax Return (and quite frankly, can you think of a less interesting topic??), has had more than 47,000 views, over 160,000 minutes of watch time, 87 comments, 222 likes, and 41 dislikes… Blimey!
But what does that even mean? Have we got any clients from it? Well yes actually… in fact we’re creating quite a niche with young, London based, Uber drivers ????. So while not perhaps our ideal client, it certainly pays for itself, and that says more about the target marketing I didn’t think of when I did the video than the performance of YouTube itself.
In relation to this video in particular, what is interesting is the number of comments and queries. We do our utmost to respond to all queries quickly, and this certainly gives us an insight into what people in general struggle with when completing their tax return – so possible topics for us for future blogs.
Of more general interest is the audience information…
- Non subscribers amount to 99.3% of the total watch time, and 80% of those that find us do so via YouTube searching.
- 86.2% of our views come from the UK, which has got to be a good thing, given what we do
- 91.7% of our viewers are male… interesting – I wonder why that is? Do women use YouTube less to search, or are men more likely to be looking for accountancy related topics?
- Of these viewers, 70.6% fall into the age 25-34 category, 26% in the 35-44 age group and only 3.5% are aged 45-54.
So what can we learn from this…? Well maybe just a few more questions:
- So, does number of subscribers really matter for what we do? After all, we’re not trying to monetise our page by having millions of subscribers and advertising to them.
- How can we make our information more engaging, so our other videos are found more easily?
- Or, how do we better identify the subjects and topics which will be useful and searched for on YouTube, not just online in general?
- And how do we make our channel more sticky – how do we encourage more of the 59,241 non subscriber viewers to subscribe?
All good questions which can only make us better at providing valuable content.
I’d be very interested to hear whether there are any topics which you think we should be covering, and of course any of your top tips to make YouTube work for you!!
As always you can contact us at any time – post your questions on the video you’re watching, or get in touch directly via our website!
