2021 YouTube Statistics Marketers Need to Know (40+ Stats!)

Fact: You can no longer overlook YouTube statistics if you want to run a successful digital marketing campaign.

If you’re a business, marketer, or content creator, you can’t afford to exclude YouTube from “getting the word out there” about your products or services.

And why would you ignore a social media platform that includes 2 Billion+ subscribed monthly active users?

And thanks to Google’s highly sophisticated algorithms, gone are the days of using Boolean search operators, punctuation, and magical spells to narrow or broaden searches—people can search for whatever they feel like.

Why is this important to you? Because Google owns YouTube.

Now that Google—the largest search engine in the world—and YouTube have joined forces, those expansive search opportunities make YouTube an exceptional video-sharing platform visited by billions of people daily.

So let’s dive into some compelling YouTube statistics that will have you wondering “Why” you haven’t included a YouTube channel in your marketing strategy yet.

YouTube Demographics Statistics

Outranking Facebook, YouTube users take the number one spot for online usage.

And surprisingly, the number of YouTube's active users does not drop off until the 65+ age group, which suggests a larger target market than just millennials.

1. Of the 2+ billion active YouTube Users Worldwide, who is consuming the most content daily?

• The U.S. captures First Place with 16.6% of the total world share.
• Second place goes to India at 9.3%.
• And third place belongs to Japan at 4.9%.

1. 74% of U.S. adults use YouTube.
2. Of the U.S. male population, 78% are using YouTube.
3. Of the U.S. female population, 68% are using YouTube.
4. U.S. YouTube usage by age group (Pew Research):

• 91% of people ages 18 to 29.
• 87% of people ages 30 to 49.
• 70% of people ages 50 to 64.

1. 80% of U.S. parents say their children watch YouTube videos daily.

YouTube Usage Statistics

1. Over one billion hours of YouTube video content are watched daily.
2. YouTube comes in second to Netflix as the preferred video platform among 18-34-year-olds.
3. 40.9% of YouTube consumption comes from a mobile device, according to eMarketer

• Interestingly this number is beginning to decline as more people are home due to the pandemic and are now watching more videos from their TVs and Desktop Monitors instead of their mobile device. 49.0% in Q4 of 2019 compared to 40.9% in Q3 of 2020.
• And as of March 19th, 2019, it is reported that YouTube viewing on TV has climbed to 250 million hours per day. That represents a 39% increase in less than a year.

1. 41.9 minutes a day is the average amount of time adults aged 18 and up spend on YouTube.
2. Over 500 hundred hours of video are uploaded per minute per day, representing a 40% increase since 2014.
3. An average YouTube user will spend time viewing 8.89 Pages Daily.
4. Noteworthy Trends according to YouTube in 2020 are as follows:

• 66% of people in Germany used YouTube to develop a new hobby.
• Total daily live streams on YouTube grew 45% in the first half of 2020.
• New channels on YouTube trying to build an audience have increased to 95%.
• 94% in India used YouTube to learn to do things themselves.
• 83% in Brazil used YouTube to watch replacements of live events.

What People Are Watching On YouTube

You may be surprised to find that music videos are no longer the number one type of online video gaining the most views on YouTube.

1. 1st place goes to commentary videos.

• Capturing the attention of many YouTube viewers is Vlogs. Vlogs are videos or video blogs showing the daily lives of others in a diary-type format.
• Although frowned upon by YouTube, commentary videos with conspiracy-focused content have become quite the rage as well.

1. In 2nd place, we have product review videos.

• Of these, the most popular YouTube videos are a viral sensation called "unboxing.” Unboxing refers to literally opening up a boxed product and discovering it for the first time.
• Another highly ranked category of product review videos is beauty tutorials.
• And it is reported that 79% of beauty consumers believe that “reviews and tutorials act as a physical test of products and help [them] decide what to buy.”

1. And third place goes to how-to/tutorial videos capturing 93% of the millennial audience.

• How-to/tutorial videos relating to the word “beginner” have seen a 50% increase in YouTube views daily from March to July of 2020.
• These videos are educational and walk a YouTube viewer through an instructional example of accomplishing a specific task.
• One such popular how-to video on YouTube is called "Dad How Do I?" which has managed to capture 3+ Million subscribers.

1. Notably, racial justice video trends increased exponentially in 2020. In June alone, YouTube saw an increase of “4x views of videos related to Black Lives Matter in the first 10 days of June of 2020 than in all of 2019.”

Why YouTube is Important for Businesses

With the advent of the current pandemic worldwide and "staying at home" being the "new normal" in 2020 and beyond, more people turn to videos to learn about the brands they are interested in consuming.

And with YouTube being the most prominent social media platform for video today, capturing YouTube's target audience has never been more critical.

1. 40% of consumers want to see more live videos from their brands.
2. Brand awareness increases by 70% when the content is video.
3. When incorporating videos, sales increase by 34%.
4. Conversions increase by 31% when utilizing video.
5. People are just becoming more interested in video, as evidenced by YouTube traffic increases of 51%
6. 85% of people say they feel more connected to a brand through video.
7. 88% of businesses using video report a positive increase in ROI.

YouTube Marketing Statistics

1. 90% of shoppers say they have discovered a brand or product through YouTube.
2. Nearly two-thirds of shoppers say videos have given them the push to purchase a product.
3. 51% of B2C and B2B marketers run YouTube Ads.
4. 62.9% of businesses say they post video content on YouTube, with Facebook taking the #1 spot.
5. Branded video content has increased by 99% on YouTube since June of 2017.
6. Video ads are the #1-way consumers say they discover new brands to purchase.
7. Content people prefer on social media; 81% video, 68% images, 31% text posts, 30% stories, 9% quizzes, and 9% live video.

YouTube Statistics for B2B Marketers

If you're a B2B marketer, discounting YouTube would be a big mistake. These YouTube video stats are useful for the latest YouTube trends in content marketing.

1. 46% of B2B technology buyers will purchase a product or service after viewing a video’s content.
2. YouTube ranks 4th amongst B2B as the best platform to place product or service videos.
3. 64% of B2B marketers increased their use of webinars and audio content as a tool to create brand awareness from 2018 to 2019.
4. 71% of B2B marketers ranked video as their number 5 go too for sharing content.
5. 82% of B2B marketers use explainer videos to drive engagement.
6. Videos that receive the most engagement online; informative 44%, entertaining 37%, and promotional 19%.
7. Live video by popularity breakdown; 43% enjoy live stories, 30% enjoy live events, and 27% enjoy webinars.

YouTube Advertising Statistics

1. 9% of small businesses use YouTube to advertise their products or services.

• What’s most surprising here is the underutilization of YouTube by small businesses.
• Common drawbacks to creating video content for small businesses have been the costs associated with producing high-quality videos.
• However, there is enormous potential here because creating video content has become easier today due to the technology of shooting videos on your camera.
• You can produce a quality video on your phone, which lowers the cost of producing a video substantially.
• Yes, a video’s production quality is essential; however, relatability is 1.6X more important.

1. Channels on YouTube have seen a 40% increase in ad revenue year after year.
2. There is a 90% increase in brand recognition when ads run on YouTube.
3. TrueView (YouTube's paid advertising system) increases video engagement by 10X on content previously viewed without TrueView.
4. 75% of people say they are more likely to follow a social media brand page if it contains a video.
5. 58% of businesses say they have a video on their homepage.
6. Internet users report spending 88% more time on a webpage that contains a video.

What Does The Future Hold for YouTube?

It’s projected that 82% of all consumer traffic will be in the form of video marketing by 2022.

And in the wake of a pandemic and social unrest, this market is exploding.

Social media channels like YouTube are becoming the mainstream way to engage and learn about the world and can no longer be dismissed as a fad.

YouTube entertains us, connects us, and allows us the vehicle to learn about almost anything—including brands, products, and services.

Including YouTube in your digital marketing strategy will become one of your best investments in 2021 and beyond.