Facebook Watch failed to take off in 2018, but some of its creators have found success

You’ve almost certainly come across Jay Shetty’s inspirational videos on Facebook. 

The former monk has grown from around 2 million followers at the beginning of the year to more than 20 million followers just 12 months later. 

“My highest viewed video this year was 360 million views on one video,” said the Facebook video creator when we spoke on the phone in December. “I have about 10 to 15 videos, over 100 million views each.” 

When it comes to revenue via Facebook, Shetty’s stats are equally as impressive. 

“I’ve been monetizing now for the last 5 to 6 months. And it’s been incredible for me,” Shetty explained. “To give you a few overalls, for me, I’ve been doing more than 6 figures per month, more than 7 figures over about 6 months. It’s been been really, really powerful for me.”

Shetty monetizes his content under the social network’s video-on-demand service, Facebook Watch. Creators receive 55 percent of advertising revenue, with Facebook taking 45 percent. But, beyond the monetization program, Shetty partially credits his Facebook Watch page for the exponential growth he’s experienced in the first place.

“I believe that a lot more of my followers were getting notified and able to see my content because I was on Watch,” said Shetty on the changes he noticed when switching his public Facebook page over to a Facebook Watch show page in February. “My videos have done around 2 and a half billion views since February when I started using Watch.” 

However, Shetty is a bit of an anomaly for creators on the platform. 

One year ago, it felt like Facebook Watch, Facebook’s then brand new video service was poised to take over the internet. With a built-in user base of 2.27 billion people and $1 billion dollars set aside to fund original content, Facebook Watch was the only video platform that could realistically challenge YouTube for the top online video destination crown.

Now, nearly a year and a half after it first launched in August 2017, Facebook Watch is struggling.

For every Jay Shetty, there have been numerous reports about how Facebook Watch has failed to make its users money. Watch creators have complained of making “less than the price of a McDonald’s happy meal” on videos viewed by millions. 

Even high-profile Facebook-funded productions have stumbled. Sorry For Your Loss, starring Elizabeth Olsen, received rave reviews yet still has failed to garner even six-figure digit view counts for some of its episodes.

In November, Facebook acquired the rights to show every episode of fan favorite Joss Whedon TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly. Despite Watch being the only place to legally view these series’ free online, many episodes have yet to break more than a few hundred views two weeks into premiering on the platform. One episode of Buffy oddly had as little as six views, eight days after the series was uploaded.

Mashable spoke to half a dozen Facebook Watch creators who shared their experiences with the service last month. Some have experienced an impressive degree of success on Watch. Shetty, for example, was doing so well that Facebook funded 12 episodes of a series for Shetty’s Watch page. 

However, even these accounts shine a light on the issues facing the platform. 

Certain types of content are struggling to find an audience as Facebook tries to expand its video service offerings. Successful creators have discovered that a very specific audience tends to tune into Watch.

“Watch is definitely more of a family content friendly platform. Maybe it just speaks to the audience overall on Facebook,” said Facebook Watch creator Ami McClure. “It’s more moms and grandmothers.”

Early on to help launch Watch, Facebook brought in partners of all types, from popular online creators to established media company. One of those early creators was The McClure Twins Family, who’ve amassed more than 1.3 million followers on their page. 

Before Watch launched in 2017, Facebook reached out to parents Ami and Justin McClure and signed a deal to bring their positive family-friendly content featuring the couple’s twin daughters to the platform.

Unlike Jay Shetty, who completely converted his original Facebook page into a Watch show page, The McClure Twins Family run a separate Facebook Watch show page: Discover Twins, which has 725,000 followers. They’ve discovered that despite having hundreds of thousands of fewer followers than their main page, videos uploaded to their Watch show page tends to perform better.

“Maybe it’s the way that their algorithm works or the way they’re pushing out videos, but Watch seems to get to a broader audience,” Ami McClure told us in a phone interview. “We get more engagement, more views. The comments show those [who view the Watch content] are the people who really sat through and watched the videos.”

Many creators believe that the company’s algorithm favors Watch show pages, even if Facebook says otherwise. The problem here lies in the fact that Watch show pages can only be created by Facebook partners. Because of this, Watch show pages are in demand. A blackmarket for these show pages have emerged online since Watch show pages are only available to specific Facebook content partners. Watch show page can fetch thousands of dollars on social media account sales forums, regardless of how many followers the show page has.

“On the Watch page, CPMs are better,” McClure said, when compared to the family’s Facebook page.

Facebook seems to have been prioritizing longer videos on Watch too. Many short form video creators have noticed a boost in reach when creating longer content. Partners have reported a push to lengthen video content too.

“Going from one minute to say three minutes seems to really make a difference” says Trey Kennedy, a G-rated comedian and musician who boasts nearly 2 million followers.

“Watch has been performing better for us in the past 6 months than YouTube,” explained McClure, who also runs family’s YouTube channel, which also has more than 1 million subscribers. But echoing other creators, McClure has also noticed a slowdown on Watch when comparing the platform to its own performance earlier in the year.

“Views are not shooting through the roof as they used to. Some of our earlier videos have 9 million, 15 million views. We’re still getting great views, no doubt. But we’re just not in that echelon anymore,” explained the mother of three.

McClure has a good guess as to why that could be the case for some creators.

“Being one of the initial adopters, they put out marketing dollars once we put out a video, boosting our posts and things like that,” McClure, whose creator deal which provided funding for the family’s video content ended over the summer, told us. “It think it’s probably because they’re not necessarily putting in a bunch of advertising dollars and pushing out videos in that way.”

While The McClure Twins Family have found a pathway to success even amid these Facebook Watch changes, Ami McClure has noticed some of her creator friends had a different experience.

“Some of these people were also early adopters and Facebook provided support for them. And then once that ended, I think a lot of them just felt like it wouldn’t be worth their time. They wouldn’t get their return on investment,” said McClure. “I don’t see them putting out content regularly anymore.”

Other Facebook creators we spoke with who wish to remain anonymous told us of a sharp decrease in revenue in recent months, compounded by a decline in reach for their adbreak-enabled videos.

A major issue that has dogged Watch is a startling lack of consumer awareness. According to one study, half of adult Facebook users had never even heard of Facebook Watch. Another 24 percent of users had heard of Watch, but never used it.

“I think people are still not fully aware that it [Watch] existed,” Shetty told us. “Slowly people are getting used to it. But I definitely think that a majority of people are watching in the newsfeed.”

Like Shetty, Ami and her husband have both too noticed that most viewers are watching via the newsfeed. This means that most of Watch’s video content isn’t being specifically sought out. It’s mostly consumed by people scrolling through their feeds and catching whatever video their friends and family have shared. Users and advertisers alike are just not viewing Facebook as a video destination yet.

It also doesn’t help matters that Watch is only available on Facebook’s website or app. Watch does not have a stand alone app. While Facebook is apparently working on its own set-top box, there is currently no way to view Watch content on your Roku, Apple TV, or other streaming media device.

In December 2018, Facebook released some interesting Watch stats. More than 75 million people spend at least one minute on Facebook Watch every day. The average amount of time spent on Watch is more than 20 minutes. More than 400 million people are spending at least one minute consuming Facebook Watch videos every month. When compared to YouTube, with its billions of views a day, Facebook Watch is simply not growing fast enough — even according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

One addendum to those recent Facebook Watch stats are that the minutes watched are nonconsecutive. This partially answers why some publishers have reported a lack of revenue from ad breaks: viewers may simply not be watching long enough to make it to the mid-roll ads.

Still, Facebook believes that Watch has progressed greatly from earlier in the year. Watch is now available in every country around the world. Creators in 40 countries can currently monetize their content with adbreaks. And, the company seems laser focused on its current ambitions for Watch.

“The goal is not to create just a library of content or the passive video consumption experience. Its to create an experience that makes you want to engage and connect,” Facebook head of video Fidji Simo told Mashable in a phone conversation last month. “Video has become more solitary and passive and we think that doesn’t have to be the case.”

Watch Party — Facebook’s unique tool which allows users to create sort of a private screening room where friends and family can watch a Facebook video simultaneously and chat about it — helps promote the socialization around video. According to Simo, there’s been 12 million Watch Parties created in Facebook Groups alone since it launched.

The push for audience engagement and conversation around Watch is also a good reason that Sorry For Your Loss, with its dedicated fanbase, was renewed for a second season.

While Facebook continues to march forward with Watch, it will still need to figure out how to address the video platform’s issues. Can Facebook draw in advertisers and make its partners happy? Will Facebook find an audience that’s looking for more than just feel good Hallmark Channel-like content? Maybe 2019 will have the answers.