Thinking of Creating a Job Video? 3 YouTube Analytics You Should Know

If you’re reading this, you are probably already sold on the idea that video is a dynamic medium to share jobs, and yield more informed candidates. Humans are wired for storytelling. We recall about 65% of what we see/hear vs. only 15% of what we read. Now more than ever, companies are using video as a way to attract and inform potential candidates about their jobs. But how can YouTube itself become a powerful source to attract talent? And what are the YouTube analytics that you should be aware of?

We’ve had the privilege of capturing and sharing a behind-the-scenes look at thriving, growing companies from Fortune 500 to small local businesses. In fact, we have 450+ job and company videos across Skill Scout’s YouTube and Vimeo channels. As resident data geek, I was analyzing our own video channels, and found 3 numbers from our viewership data that stood out to me. Here are those data points, and more importantly, what they mean to you:

​You’ve got 1 minute 36 seconds of a candidate’s attention.

This is the average amount of time candidates are watching our videos. That’s nearly two times the amount of time a candidate spends on a text ad before deciding whether or not they’re a fit. What does this mean for us? Our average video is between 1-2 minutes, but we’re going to push our clients and video team to be even more concise. An easy way to do this is to limit the number of people and messages featured in each video. Break up the content, and only share points that will make or break a candidate’s decision to apply. I suggest limiting to these 4 topics:

• Walk me through a typical day.
• What surprised you about this role?
• ​What are the challenges?
• Why do you keep coming back?

67% of job videos are viewed on mobile.

No surprise here, most viewers watch videos on mobile. What does this mean to you? If you want a video job description to convert to applications, your application must not be a pain to fill out on mobile. Your initial application should be as easy as signing up for a newsletter: 3 steps or less, and don’t require attachments.

53% of traffic on job videos comes from inside of YouTube.

In other words, potential candidates are discovering job videos *gasp* NOT on your company career page! YouTube itself becomes an on-ramp for candidates to discover and learn about your jobs. To benefit from these views, make sure to include a direct link in the video description so candidates can apply with ease after watching your awesome job video.
I challenge you to consider YouTube, not just a solid job video hosting solution to embed videos on a corporate site - but as a source of candidates and curiosity in your jobs.

I hope you found these tips helpful in your journey of understanding YouTube analytics! I will continue to share insights from Skill Scout’s job video viewership data on a regular basis so we can geek out together. Let me know what burning questions you have!