How do AdWords users consume help videos?

My team was curious about understanding what do people like and dislike about watching AdWords help videos and the ways in which we can provide them with better content. They were looking for insights that could help them tailor the YouTube channel to their users needs hence improving the overall experience.

I conducted remote sessions with AdWords users that consisted of exploratory interviews and usability testing. We were interested in learning from people who loved watching videos to learn and those who were neutral towards it as well.

What did we learn?

New users rely heavily on visual learning aids like videos and/or articles with images/videos. Once they are over the learning curve, they start falling into the category of proactive learning or reactive learning. 

Users consume videos to learn about AdWords in both, a reactive and a proactive manner. Reactive users meant users who are stuck in a situation while using the product and need to find a solution immediately.

Being stuck and the immediate clearly meant that people needed videos that was short, quick and interface heavy, hence easy (and fast!) to learn. This also informed us that their priority at such a time is to solve that situation in which they are stuck, regardless, whether it's through a video or reading text.

Proactive users are willing to spend time on watching videos and learning about AdWords as a product and also conceptual learning. 

In this context,

• Reactive Video Watchers: People who are watching help videos because that's the fastest way they can solve the problem at hand. 

          They need fast, focused, interface heavy videos.

• Proactive Video Watchers: People who are watching help videos to educate themselves about the product, new product features, etc. They are not necessarily stuck in a problem at the moment. These are people who generally like to watch videos to learn about things other than AdWords too.

         They need both conceptual and tactical                                     (product focused) learning videos. These can be long and/or concept          focused.

Reasons why users prefer NOT to watch videos

• People feel they are not able to control the content they are consuming while watching videos, because of the linear nature of videos. When people read text, they are able to scan through and skip sections of text that they think are not applicable to them.
• People find reading faster than listening to a person talk, esp. in videos where there is a host leading the video. People could read the subtitles fasters than hear the person talk and that led them to find an article and read that instead.

What did we do with it?

The team built a curriculum and defined video types (short videos, concept videos and How To's) that delivered structured content and a better experience to our users. 

Later, we measured the uptake rates that keep going up as we keep tailoring content and also the video drop off rate, that keeps going down!