200B views ≠ 200B buyers

Hey, Paige here!

Before we get into today’s best marketing research… 

In today’s release: 

• Short-form still rules the scroll → Shorts are clocking 200B daily views, TikToks over 60s crush watch time (+64%), and 63% of Gen Z admit they shop with their thumbs.

• Long-form is where the grown-up work happens → 1B+ hours a day on one platform, reach 55% monthly audience reach, and 25–40% conversions (and where they happen)

• The real flex? Running both without losing your sanity (here’s a system!)

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DEEP DIVE

Snacks get you discovered. Meals get you remembered.

Everyone’s hooked on the short-form dopamine drip. TikTok. Reels. Shorts. The endless scroll of cats, corporate mascots, and “Day in the life of a B2B marketer” skits.

Meanwhile, the deals? The loyalty? The trust? They’re happening on long-form.

Yet too many brands are stuck choosing one or the other (or over-investing in one). Truth is… a healthy content flywheel has both, strategically balanced.

Stop choosing. Use shorts as mini-shows to find new people, and long-form to keep the people who matter.

Here’s the data—and a system you can run without burning out.

What the data says

• Short-form = discovery. YouTube Shorts → 200B daily views. TikToks >60s deliver 64% more watch time than <30s. 63% of Gen Z report discovering products on TikTok.
  

• Long-form = loyalty. People watch 1B+ hours of YouTube daily on TVs. Podcasts hit 55% monthly reach in the U.S. Webinars with interactive CTAs convert at 25–40%, with end-placed forms hitting 65% completion.
  

• The bridge is built. YouTube now lets you link Shorts → long video. Instagram rolled out Reels series. TikTok has Playlists/Series. Platforms are literally nudging viewers deeper.
  

• Fatigue is real. Short-form engagement fell in 2024—the sharpest dip in 4 years—while long-form held steady. Platforms responded by lengthening “shorts” and shipping binge tools.

Short-Form: The reach machine

Think of shorts as serialized micro-shows. Their job isn’t to close the deal; it’s to maximize discoverability. 

Let’s think of your audience as a target. Right at the bullseye, you have your ICP. The perfect fit. Just beyond that, there’s people who are close to your ICP and likely interact with that persona pretty deeply. And beyond that, are people who are adjacent—care about similar things, hang out in the same places, share interests. 

Often, that ICP at the center of your bullseye is realllllly small (especially in B2B). And what do platforms need to maximize organic distribution? Attention. Interaction. Consumption. 

Your shorts should be built for that. They should appeal to an audience that your ICP is still a part of, but is much wider than your TAM. Inclusive, not exclusive.

(psssst. We’ll get to long form, which is quite the opposite, in a minute).

Serialized shorts are taking off. It started in social content (think influencer stories) and now it’s bleeding over into brand content… as it should. 

Fully leverage organic traffic by creating shorts that are built like “mini shows”. Serialized, related, and interconnected, but standalone. 

👉 The play: Run 1–2 arcs per month (3–5 mini shorts episodes each). Keep runtime tests alive: <30s vs 45–75s. And if your completion rates drop more than 15% over ~10 videos? Don’t panic-post more. Fix the hook.

Long Form: The trust builder

Here we go! The deeper stuff. This is where loyalty compounds. Long-form video, podcasts, webinars—they’re the formats people actually finish, remember, and act on.

But… they take commitment. First, you need to get discovered, then you need to connect with your audience well enough that they stick around for your long-form. 

Tighten up your content in your longform so it’s built exactly for your audience bullseye. 

👉 The play: Weekly (or biweekly if you’re small) long-form anchored around what your TAM cares about most. Prioritize retention: if YouTube long-form dips below 45–50% in the first minute or podcast completions fall 10 points after a cadence change, pause and repackage.

The Bridge:

Platforms are begging you to connect the dots:

• YouTube: Shorts → Related Video.

• Instagram: Reels series with “Next Reel.”

• TikTok: Playlists/Series to binge arcs.

👉 If you’re not pointing your short-form audience into the deeper asset, you’re wasting both.

The system:

Here’s the sanity-first approach:

1. Launch 1–2 short arcs/month (3–5 parts each).
   

2. Publish one long-form/week (or biweekly) — podcast, YouTube episode, webinar.
   

3. Bridge them all with links, series tools, pinned comments.
   

4. Scale only if quality holds. Completion steady within ±10%? Try another arc. Retention ≥45%? Layer a bonus long-form. Otherwise, fix the story first.

The big takeaway: The best B2B marketers in 2025 aren’t arguing short vs. long. They’re running both in tandem, using the platforms’ new bridges to guide people from a quick scroll into real trust. Do both (intentionally) and you’ll have a content system that works and keeps you sane.