Time spend is the ultimate metric for digital #content #creators. "Time is money" and #timespent tracks closely with: ✅ creator #advertising and #brandedcontent revenue, in the aggregate ✅ creator #commerce revenue, at a per audience member level (assuming product-market fit) People over 15 years old have about 5.5 hours (40 hours/week) of disposable free time per day after work/study, domestic/personal care, and biological necessities, like sleep: ✅ advertisers buy just a little time (30 seconds, most typically) to reach as many customers, a certain number of times, over a given period ✅ fans spend money on content, creators and experiences on which they’ve spent an outsized share of their time in the recent past Recency of attention impacts both. That is, creator monetization potential depends on how much attention a creator commands during the specific periods: ✅ advertisers are flighting campaigns (which, in turn, is subject to consumer seasonality as well as industry, business and product cyclicality) ✅ that products/services they sell directly to fans are accessible, affordable, desirable, and well-known Advertising is dependent on a little attention from a lot of people. Commerce is about a larger share of attention from fewer people. Either way, total time spent is the best, single predictor of total value creation in the #creatoreconomy. Most content #distribution and #monetization platforms track time spend, but they vary in terms of making that data available, both to creators and at an aggregate level. Twitch shares both aggregate watch hours and minutes watched at the individual creator level. Roblox reports on aggregate user engagement hours and shares total play time with developers. YouTube shares creator level watch time data privately, but not in aggregate. Few share it publicly at the content or creator level (Netflix recently started doing it for some shows). I assume eMarketer arrived at the data below through sampling. Its importance seems underestimated by creators, platforms and the market alike, who often prefer to report and rely on metrics that are easier to get one’s head around, like views, unique visitors or peak concurrent viewers. While each is increasingly correlated to value for creators, none of them speak to engagement. Meanwhile, #engagement metrics such as likes, dislikes, comments and shares are less reliable as measures of true attention and interest. Likes and dislikes are low-effort, and reflect audience members' habits as much as engagement. Both comments and shares require them to publish which can be inhibiting. Time spend data stratified by unique audience member would add depth, especially on the commerce side, but remain a secondary analysis. Where do you get your time spend data? Are there metrics I haven’t considered? Let me know in the comments or I’ll remain pretty convinced. Time spend is the ultimate metric for digital #content #creators.
Dan Coughlin
1y
Fantastic post! And I totally agree. I think TikTok could have an even bigger share of the attention pie by 2024.
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1yLove time spent as a metric! Tough to gather, but keep me up to date if you find good ways to though.