You're probably measuring the wrong things.

Views show you reach, followers show you awareness, and neither actually tells you if your content is building the trust required for someone to buy.

Source: The Content Minutes framework comes from Kallaway's appearance on Open Residency. Kallaway runs one of the most analytically-rigorous marketing YouTube channels, breaking down content strategy into measurable components. Open Residency is a podcast that goes deep on content creation and audience building.

Trust is measured in time. Specifically: minutes watched. The math is more predictable than most people realize and it has direct implications for how agencies should structure content strategies for clients.

The Trust Thresholds

Different actions require different amounts of accumulated trust. Here's the rough math:

~4 minutes of content consumed: Enough trust to give you an email address. They've decided you might be worth hearing from again.

~12 minutes of content consumed: Enough trust to buy a low-ticket product ($50-$100 range). They've decided you probably know what you're talking about.

~400+ minutes of content consumed: Enough trust for high-ticket purchases ($5K-$10K+). They've decided you're someone they want to work with.

These aren't arbitrary numbers but patterns that emerge when you track audience behavior across enough conversions. Someone who's watched 5 hours of your client's content before booking a call is a different lead than someone who saw one video and clicked.

The Platform Math

Here's where it gets interesting for content strategy.

A YouTube video with 10 minutes average view duration delivers ~10 minutes of trust per viewer per video. If someone watches 5 of your client's videos, they've accumulated 50 minutes of trust and that viewer is probably ready for email. A few more videos and they might be ready to buy something small.

A YouTube Short with 30 seconds average view duration delivers 0.5 minutes of trust per view, so that same person would need to watch 100 Shorts to hit the same 50-minute threshold.

This is why long-form content converts better than short-form content, even when short-form gets more views. A million views on Shorts might deliver less total trust than 10,000 views on long-form YouTube videos.

The rough multiplier: A 10-minute YouTube video with strong AVD builds approximately 20x more trust per viewer than a typical 30-second Short.

Implications for Client Strategy

If you're running content for clients, this framework changes how you think about platform mix and content goals.

For clients selling high-ticket services (agencies, consultants, enterprise SaaS):

Long-form content is mandatory. You can't shortcut 400 minutes of trust accumulation. Shorts and reels can drive awareness and top-of-funnel, but the actual trust-building has to happen somewhere else.

This is why YouTube performs so well for B2B. It's one of the only platforms where people consistently watch 10+ minute videos, and podcasts serve a similar function: high trust-per-minute and cumulative across episodes.

For clients selling low-ticket products:

You have more flexibility. Short-form can get someone to the 12-minute threshold faster because you can produce more of it and it's more likely to get seen, but it takes more touch points.

For clients building email lists:

The bar is low enough (~4 minutes) that even a well-designed short-form funnel can work. One good video that gets watched completely might be enough to earn the subscribe.

Designing for Trust, Not Views

Most content briefs optimize for the wrong metric. They focus on what will get views rather than what will accumulate trust.

High-view content often has low trust-per-view. Clickbait hooks, shallow takes, and entertainment without substance. People watch but they don't remember you and they certainly don't trust you more afterward.

High-trust content sometimes gets fewer views but delivers more per view. Genuine expertise, specific experience, and points of view that only you can hold. People finish these videos feeling like they know you.

For clients where conversion matters more than awareness, the brief should prioritize trust density over view potential.

Questions to ask during ideation:

• Will someone who watches this feel like they know the client better?
• Is this content that only this client could make (one-of-one)?
• Does this demonstrate judgment, experience, or values?
• Would we be comfortable showing this to a prospect before a sales call?

If the answers are yes, it's probably high-trust content. Prioritize it even if it won't get the most views.

The Accumulation Effect

Trust compounds across content, but only if there's coherence.

Someone who watches 10 videos on 10 different topics from your client doesn't accumulate trust the same way as someone who watches 10 videos on related topics. The first viewer knows your client covers a lot of ground and the second viewer knows your client deeply understands a specific problem.

Depth beats breadth for trust accumulation, and this is another argument for content strategies that go deep on specific themes rather than trying to cover everything.

For agencies, this means content calendars should have intentional sequencing. Not random topics, but themes that build on each other. If someone discovers your client through one video, what's the natural next video for them to watch? And the next?

When this is done well, you're designing a trust journey, not just creating content.

Tracking Content Minutes

If this framework is useful, you should be measuring it.

For YouTube clients, the data is available. Average view duration times views equals approximate total minutes delivered. Track this alongside conversion metrics and you'll start seeing the correlation.

For multi-platform clients, it's harder. You're estimating based on platform norms and the content types you're producing, but even rough estimates are better than ignoring the metric entirely.

What you're looking for:

• How many content minutes does a typical buyer consume before purchasing?
• Where are those minutes coming from (which platforms, which content types)?
• Is the content strategy actually producing enough minutes to hit the trust thresholds required for the client's price point?

If you're trying to sell $10K services but your content strategy only delivers 50 total minutes to the average prospect, there's a math problem.

The Objection: "But We Need Reach"

Yes, you do. Reach matters because it determines how many people have the opportunity to accumulate trust. Zero reach means zero trust building which means zero conversions.

But reach without trust-per-view is a vanity metric and a million views that deliver no trust don't help your client.

The ideal strategy balances both. Short-form for reach and discovery, long-form for trust accumulation, and cross-promotion so the short-form audience finds the long-form content.

The mistake is assuming that maximizing reach automatically maximizes conversions. It doesn't and you have to design for the trust journey, not just the first touch.

The Bottom Line

Content strategy should be accountable to business outcomes and for most clients, business outcomes require trust. Trust is measurable in minutes watched.

When you frame it this way, a lot of content strategy debates resolve themselves. "Should we do more Shorts or longer content?" Depends on the trust threshold required for conversion. "Is this topic worth covering?" Does it build trust or just get views? "Why isn't our content converting?" How many minutes is the average prospect actually consuming?

The math cuts through the vibes. That's the point.