alice_palmer20•16d agoProlific Poster

I was a hater of short form video for clients, now I eat my words

For like 18 months I told every small business client to skip Reels and TikTok because nobody buys from a 30 second clip. Then last quarter I ran a test for a local HVAC company in Cleveland, 40 videos, all shot on a phone, zero production value. The result was 3x the phone calls compared to their blog posts and static ads combined. The key was showing the actual repair process, not dancing or trends, just real before and after stuff. Now I think most B2C brands are leaving money on the table if they ignore short form, but I still hate the algorithm. Has anyone else flipped on a channel after seeing hard numbers like this?

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joel60315d agoMost Upvoted

Cleveland HVAC in 40 clips, that's a solid test and I get why you flipped. But I see it differently because the same experiment failed for me twice. I ran a plumbing company in Columbus last fall, 60 videos, same phone-only approach, same before and after repair stuff. The calls were up maybe 15 percent, but the calls that came in were mostly price shoppers who ghosted after one quote. Meanwhile, a boring two page case study on their site pulled in half the calls but almost all of them closed. Short form brought in volume, not quality, and my client had to sort through a lot of noise to find a real job. I think the difference is the market and the price point, HVAC in a big metro might have more impulse demand than a niche trade. So I'm not buying the channel is king argument, I'd want to see it repeat across three different cities before I trust it.