The Perception Economy

These two videos are about the same Airbnb.

But one of them has almost 3M more views than the other (after 3 months).

Why?

Unlike what most believe, the YouTube algorithm is far from being perfect and has its flaws.

One of them is being heavily influenced by the viewers' perception (which is not a bug but a feature).

For example, it took this video over a year to find its audience.

Perception plays a big role in how a video will perform, driven by 2 key metrics:

- Impressions
- Watch Time

With impressions, you borrow attention. With watch time you pay it back.

It's important to note that I'm not talking about watch time you see in the analytics, it's much more complex than and it's from the algorithm perspective, not from the analytics pannel.

More specifically:

- you borrow attention (by making a promise)
- you pay it back (by delivering on that promise)

The more impressions you borrow, the more you owe in watch time.

If you deliver on your promise, the algorithm rewards you with more impressions.

If you fail to meet the expectations, your video gets buried.

This is where the Perception Spectrum comes in:

- Confusion: Weak or unclear packaging, there’s no attention to borrow

- Expectation: You borrow & repay enough to keep the impressions going

- Debt: You borrow attention but can’t pay it back (not enough watch time is produced)

Thanks to the Viral Economy, we can now measure that perception.

I used it to evaluate the potential of two very similar videos, and what I found was very interesting.

Look how similar the potential of each packaging is:

Yet, instead of also having roughly the same number of views, the outcome is completely different.

The video on the right carries a 700k views debt, while left one sits at the higher end of its range.

Let’s explore why one ended up in debt while the other successfully repaid attention.

Remember, it's the:

- Same concept
- Same Airbnb

However, different packaging strategies (perception) caused one video to gain almost 3M more views (after 3 months).

Here's how:

The left video's angle is "world loneliest capsule"

The capsule is in a remote place in the middle of nowhere.

Yes, it's a bit exaggerated, but it's still acceptable for the viewer.

The expectation aligns with the actual content.

On the other hand, the right video crossed the line into clickbait.

Angle: "World's luxurious mountain cabin"

Reality: Very far from it.

The packaging and the actual content don’t align, creating a disconnect for viewers. Here's the "luxurious" cabin:

One video maximizes its perception, the other falls flat because it pushed too hard and couldn’t deliver.

Now, from the perspective of the Perception Economy:

As we've seen, that video being in the 'Expectation Zone', allows it to fulfill its potential.

But because this one is in the Debt Zone, it fails to repay enough attention with watch time.

As a result, impressions gradually stop and the video eventually loses all momentum.

Worth noting: the creator who overused perception took the opposite approach for their next upload.

And that time, it clicked. No more attention debt.

By not overplaying the viewer’s perception, the video aligned with the perception range from the Viral Economy (after 3 months).

This is how perception can either boost or ruin your reach through the packaging even though it's the EXACT SAME content.

Here's another video where the opposite happens.

Both packaging present the same content, except the packaging on the right has far more potential.

And when the creator changed the packaging (from left to right in the picture above), magic:

Same here:

Perception can either kill your reach or take a forgotten video and make it blow up.

It’s not just about swapping packaging, it’s about mastering perception.

Click here for part.2