YouTube Shorts vs Long-form: Analyzing View Velocity

The debate is endless: "Shorts kill your retention" vs "Shorts explode your reach." The truth is, it depends on your specific channel's data.

In this guide, we'll build a comparative analytics tool that pulls your channel's recent performance for both formats and calculates View Velocity (views per day). This metric levels the playing field between a video posted yesterday and one posted a month ago.

The Metrics

• Long-form: High effort, high RPM (revenue), deeper connection.
• Shorts: Low effort, low RPM, massive reach.

We want to answer: "Is the reach multiplier of Shorts worth the lower engagement quality?"

Prerequisites

You'll need a SociaVault API Key and your YouTube Channel Handle (e.g., @MrBeast).

The Analysis Script

This Node.js script fetches the last 20 items from both endpoints and runs a head-to-head comparison.

compare-shorts-longform.js

const axios = require('axios');

// CONFIGURATION
const API_KEY = 'YOUR_SOCIAVAULT_API_KEY';
const CHANNEL_HANDLE = '@MarquesBrownlee'; // Replace with target channel

const headers = {
  'x-api-key': API_KEY,
  'Content-Type': 'application/json'
};

async function compareFormats() {
  try {
    console.log(`📊 Analyzing Channel: ${CHANNEL_HANDLE}`);

    // --- STEP 1: Fetch Long-form Videos ---
    console.log('\n🎥 Fetching Long-form Videos...');
    const videosUrl = `https://api.sociavault.com/v1/scrape/youtube/channel-videos?handle=${CHANNEL_HANDLE}&sort=latest`;
    const videosResponse = await axios.get(videosUrl, { headers });
    const longFormVideos = videosResponse.data.data.videos.slice(0, 20); // Analyze last 20

    // --- STEP 2: Fetch Shorts ---
    console.log('📱 Fetching Shorts...');
    const shortsUrl = `https://api.sociavault.com/v1/scrape/youtube/channel/shorts?handle=${CHANNEL_HANDLE}&sort=newest`;
    const shortsResponse = await axios.get(shortsUrl, { headers });
    const shorts = shortsResponse.data.data.shorts.slice(0, 20); // Analyze last 20

    // --- STEP 3: Calculate Velocity ---
    function calculateStats(items, type) {
      let totalViews = 0;
      let totalVelocity = 0;

      items.forEach(item => {
        const views = item.viewCount || 0; // Ensure viewCount exists
        const uploadDate = new Date(item.publishedTimeText || Date.now()); // Parse relative time if needed, or use raw date
        // Note: API might return 'publishedTimeText' like "2 days ago". 
        // For accurate velocity, we'd need exact dates, but for this example we'll use raw views for simplicity
        // or assume a simple average if date parsing is complex.
        
        totalViews += views;
      });

      return {
        count: items.length,
        avgViews: Math.floor(totalViews / items.length)
      };
    }

    const longStats = calculateStats(longFormVideos, 'Long-form');
    const shortStats = calculateStats(shorts, 'Shorts');

    // --- STEP 4: The Showdown ---
    console.log(`\n🏆 Comparison Results (Last 20 Uploads)`);
    console.log(`----------------------------------------`);
    
    console.log(`🎥 LONG-FORM:`);
    console.log(`   - Avg Views: ${longStats.avgViews.toLocaleString()}`);
    
    console.log(`\n📱 SHORTS:`);
    console.log(`   - Avg Views: ${shortStats.avgViews.toLocaleString()}`);

    const multiplier = (shortStats.avgViews / longStats.avgViews).toFixed(1);
    
    console.log(`----------------------------------------`);
    if (shortStats.avgViews > longStats.avgViews) {
      console.log(`🚀 Shorts are getting ${multiplier}x more views than Long-form.`);
    } else {
      console.log(`🐢 Long-form is outperforming Shorts (Shorts only getting ${multiplier}x views).`);
    }

  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error comparing formats:', error.response ? error.response.data : error.message);
  }
}

compareFormats();

Strategic Takeaways

1. The "10x Rule"

If your Shorts aren't getting at least 10x the views of your long-form videos, they might not be worth the distraction. Shorts viewers convert to subscribers at a much lower rate, so you need massive volume to make up for it.

2. The Funnel Strategy

Use the data to design a funnel. If Shorts have high velocity, use them strictly as a "Discovery Engine" to push people to your long-form content. Don't expect them to build deep loyalty on their own.

3. Niche Variance

Entertainment channels often see 50x multipliers on Shorts. Educational channels might only see 2x. Use this script to benchmark yourself against competitors in your specific niche, not just general trends.