Why More Views Isn't Always A Good Thing
Looking at Ryan Davis' recent promotion of his comedy special on Instagram.
Hello and welcome to the 4 new subscribers since my last few emails, in which I talked about Netflix’s three-special deal with Kill Tony, and the proliferation of longer Instagram Reels.
And a special shout-out to Ross in Los Angeles, who sent me the promotional video that is the subject of today’s email. If something ever catches your eye that you think would make for an interesting article, feel free to send it my way.
Popping in to share this impassioned Instagram Reel from the comedian Ryan Davis, posted yesterday:
Quick Stats (at time of writing):
1.1M Views, 159K Likes, 22.2K Comments, 27.8K Shares
Like PCT: 14.4% | Comment PCT: 2.02% | Share PCT: 2.5%
Video Length: 2 min 10 seconds
Text Hook: none
Hashtags: none
For those of you not on Instagram, I’ve written out what Ryan says in the video, below:
Ryan: I spent $150,000 to produce my own comedy special, and then I took it to Netflix and they told me it wasn’t good enough.
Now when Netflix said that it wasn’t good enough or they were not interested, I’m not even gonna lie, it hurt my feelings, because it made me feel like maybe I’m not good enough as a comedian to be on their platform.
So, I decided to put clips of my standup on Instagram, and it totaled over 3 million views.
And, when I look at it, actually, each clip averages more views than the stand up clips on the @netflixisajoke page, that is three times more popular than mine.
Now, I know some of you are like, well you know, it looks like your videos did good views, but they don’t do a million. At least some of the ones on Netflix do a million.
I get that. But that’s only because I didn’t include the one that did 3.5 million views.
I wasn’t trying to flex, I’m just telling you, it was doing very well.
In fact, I wanted to see if there was some Instagram bias, and I took it to TikTok, and it did over 4.5 million views.
Now, that led me to believe that people actually do want to see my special.
And maybe I was right that I made something dope.
But here’s the dilemma, I still haven’t been able to get it out to the public.
Do I put it on YouTube? I can’t get into my YouTube page.
I don’t know what to do.
So I decided, I produced it independently, I’m gonna release it independently.
So March 27th, I’m gonna put my special out, you can see it on my Patreon.
I don’t even need you to sign up to my Patreon. If you support me, and you believe in me, all I ask you to do is like this video, comment on it, and share it in your Stories. That’s it, just tell the algorithm that this is a post that you rock with. So the word can be spread.
Because I want all the artists that want to take their career into their own hands to see that it can work. The success story behind this will be a success story if you let it. All you gotta do is support it. And you don’t even have to support it with money, you just have to engage with this post. Help a brotha out.
Ok, so a few things.
First of all, Ryan’s frustration makes sense. He spent a lot of money on his special, Netflix passed, and now he’s seeing lots of high numbers next to his footage.
But let’s not equate total perceived reach (“views”) with quality. Social media views are best thought of as a lagging indicator that a short-form clip is engaging.
And yesterday’s was exactly that. This video has the highest Like PCT (14.4%) and Comment PCT (2.02%) that I’ve ever seen on an Instagram Reel from a comedian.
Most Reels we analyze here only reach a Like PCT of 4-5%, and a Comment PCT of ~0.02%, quite literally 1/100th the amount of comments that Ryan’s video received.
But let’s take a closer look at those six Instagram Reels he highlighted when comparing them to Netflix’s, and the one outlier that received 3.4 million views:
Here’s some advanced data I pulled on each of the six videos, corresponding L-R in each row.
Ryan is well within his right to be proud of how these videos performed. These are absurdly high Like and Share PCTs across the board.
Now let’s take a look at the outlier video that reached 3.4 million views:
Quick Stats (at time of writing):
3.4 Million Views
Like PCT: 6.4% | Comment PCT: 0.1% | Share PCT: 3.7%
Video Length: 2 min 10 seconds
Text Hook: Your Woman Won’t Bring You Any Peace 😂😂
Hashtags: #HealthyLove #PeaceInRelationships #EmotionalMaturity #RelationshipHealing #HealthyDynamics #MutualHappiness #TrueConnection #EmotionalGrowth #SelfAwarenessJourney #HealingAndGrowth #TrustOverInsecurity #CelebratePeace
What jumps out?
For me, it’s a couple things.
Right away, you may notice this was a collab post with an account called @McBrideInstitute. You can tell @McBrideInstitute posted this Reel first and then invited Ryan to collab based on the name of the audio:
This makes sense, because this video is incorporating a ton of elements not seen on any of Ryan’s other videos, such as using a lengthy, obviously-written-by-AI caption (presumably for SEO / discoverability purposes) and 12 ridiculous hashtags:
By the way, the biggest giveaway that something is written by AI— other than those hideous emoji bullet points— is an ungodly amount of em dashes.
The other key thing to point out – this is a repost of Ryan’s most viewed video of the six we just looked at!!!
There’s also no poll above the comments section, which Ryan was using on every other video, I assume in the hopes of “increasing engagement”.
But let’s see how this video stacks up against the other six videos Ryan highlighted:
Yes, the reach undoubtedly increased, if you compare the bottom and top rows.
Furthermore, the views increased by adjusting two factors this mailing list has been banging the drum on for over a year now – text hooks and hashtags.
But the Share and Like PCT decreasing indicate this Reel got in front to the wrong people at scale. Evidently, those on the #TrustOverInsecurity and #CelebratePeace side of Instagram were not necessarily in-market for Ryan’s material.
That’s not to say using hashtags can’t increase reach and engagement rates.
As I highlighted in my analysis of Matt Rife’s videos, Ryan should explore more “audience interest” hashtags like #funny, #jokes, #comedy, and #standup.
Still, we did learn, once again, that you can repost a viral Instagram Reel.
Netflix may decide who gets a special, but the internet decides who gets an audience.
Ryan is betting on the latter.
dear david,
another fascinating piece! thank you for sharing!
love
myq