Looking for some relevant YouTube marketing statistics for 2021? Look no further than this blog post!

YouTube is both a social media platform and a search engine, meaning you can directly engage with your audience and create content that’s there when they’re looking for it.

If the YouTube video statistics in this post make you want to start driving results for your business with YouTube, give our team a call at 888-601-5359 or contact us through our website.

Without further ado, here are 26 awesome YouTube marketing statistics you need to know.

6 general YouTube stats

1. Over two billion people log in to YouTube every month. (YouTube)

While your business’s channel probably won’t get two billion views (at least not immediately), you can capitalize on a large enough audience through YouTube optimization.

With YouTube optimization, you research topics, keywords, and create videos aimed at reaching people in YouTube’s search algorithm.

2. 81% of U.S. adults say they use YouTube. (Pew Research Center)

Facebook follows behind with 69% of U.S. adults saying they use the platform.

3. People watch one billion hours of content on YouTube each day. (YouTube)

You have plenty of options when choosing what type of content you’ll upload for people to watch.

Choose from educational videos, product videos, tutorials, testimonials, and more.

4. YouTube creators upload over 500 hours of content each minute. (YouTube)

If you aren’t on YouTube yet, what are you waiting for?

5. Mobile devices account for over 70% of YouTube watch time. (YouTube)

When creating your videos, keep mobile viewers in mind. A smaller screen means small visual assets (like text) will be hard to see in your video.

6. YouTube is the #2 site on the web for global Internet engagement. (Alexa)

At the time of writing this blog post, people spend an average of just over 19 minutes on YouTube.

5 semi-random YouTube video statistics

7. The first video uploaded to YouTube, called “Me at the zoo,” has over 160 million views. (YouTube)

In addition to its view count, the video has around 7.9 million thumbs up, and 189,000 thumbs down.

8. Seven out of 10 mobile viewers default to horizontal viewing on YouTube. (Think with Google)

You can check what percentage of your YouTube viewers use mobile devices with YouTube Analytics.

9. The top genres on YouTube are: Entertainment, Kids’ Entertainment & Animation, and Music & Dance. (Forbes)

Entertainment is also the top genre for videos on Facebook.

When making your own videos, keep in mind that you should be entertaining your audience.

10. “Hey guys” is the top greeting used in YouTube vlog videos from 2020. (YouTube)

The phrase held 36% of the share of the top five vlog greetings.

“What’s up” holds the title of second most popular greeting, taking up 20% of intro usage in vlogs, followed by “Good morning,” “Hi guys,” and “All right.”

11. Videos using some form of “beginner” in the title grew 50% in average daily views. (Think with Google)

The increase took place from March 15 to July 5 in 2020.

9 YouTube marketing statistics for businesses

12. YouTube is the second most popular channel for businesses to share their videos. (Buffer)

Facebook holds the top spot for business’s video marketing strategies.

13. More than 85% of U.S. adults say YouTube is important for learning how to do new things. (Pew Research Center)

Only 5% of people surveyed think YouTube is not at all helpful when they’re looking to learn something new.

Creating how-to or educational videos can help your business start to build relationships with avid learners so your brand is the first one they think of when they need something you sell.

14. Over half of U.S. adults surveyed say YouTube is important for helping them with purchase decisions. (Pew Research Center)

Just 20% of U.S. adults say YouTube is not at all important.

This means if you want to sell your products, you should have a YouTube marketing strategy.

15. Four out of five people alternate between both online search and video when researching products. (Think with Google)

This YouTube stat means that you need to be actively working on your search engine optimization (SEO) and your video optimization to fill the gaps in the buyer journey.

16. Three quarters of shoppers have used Google products (including YouTube) to help their shopping. (Think with Google)

If your business isn’t on YouTube, you’re missing out on potential customers.

17. 53% of B2B content marketers have used YouTube in their strategies. (Content Marketing Institute)

When it comes to paid strategies, just 11% of marketers use YouTube. That means there’s space for your business to take up in the paid video ads game.

18. YouTube is the second most important social media channel for influencer marketing. (MediaKix)

70% of marketers believe YouTube matters for influencer marketing, while 89% of marketers see Instagram as a critical platform for their strategies.

19. YouTube is the number one platform that impacts consumer behavior. (Animoto)

Whether you want people to make a purchase, subscribe to your newsletters, or download a guide, YouTube is a place where you can drive people to take action.

20. YouTube is the top purchase driver on social media. (Animoto)

Creating content for shoppers at all stages of the buying process can ensure your business guides consumers from awareness to purchase.

6 lead-driven YouTube ad stats

21. YouTube earned over $6 billion in ad revenue in the first quarter of 2021. (Alphabet)

In 2020, ad revenue from the first quarter hit over $4 billion. Year-over-year, the 2021 numbers amount to a nearly 49% increase in revenue.

22. Paid ads on YouTube mobile are 84% more likely to get attention than ads on television. (Think with Google)

Traditional television ads lose attention because of multitasking, changing channels, and fast-forwarding.

23. People pay attention to YouTube ads at a rate that’s 1.8 times higher than on other social media platforms. (Think with Google)

In addition, attention more than doubles when ads are shown on platforms that use full sight and sound features.

24. Brand awareness, ad recall, and consideration are higher with YouTube users who view ads for longer than three seconds. (Think with Google)

Keep in mind that your ads need to grab people almost immediately to see positive results.

25. Relevant video ads get three times more attention than regular video ads. (Think with Google)

These targeted ads should be created to meet your audience’s intent in order to see this boost in attention.

26. TrueView ads are the preferred ad format for eight out of 10 YouTube viewers. (Business2Community)

TrueView ads can appear within the stream of a YouTube video or as a clickable thumbnail next to other video results and recommendations.

Want to keep learning about YouTube marketing for your business?

Check out our guide on using YouTube for paid promotion!

If you want to learn more stats outside of this list of YouTube marketing statistics, we’ve got a great compilation of data about video marketing.