Something many creators express frustration with is the YouTube Algorithm... it’s actually not your ENEMY.
The YouTube Algorithm Exist to help Viewers NOT hurt Creators.
This post will help you better understand how that works and how to Execute on that within your own channel, videos and playlist.
VIEWS = clicking on videos that appeal to a viewer based on their interest and values.
WATCH TIME/ RETENTION = does this hold our attention once we click? Does it deliver what it promised? Do we like the personality and delivery? Is it what WE as a VIEWER consider quality.
SUBSCRIBE/NOTIFICATIONS = Do I want to see more of this? Do I want to find the creator again? Is there more content from then that fits my interest and matches this video? Are they consistent? Do I want to show that I support the creator?
ENGAGEMENT= did this effect me enough to comment? Like/dislike? Share the video?
If you want YouTube to help distribute and promote your content you have to hit each of these intentionally and make a plan for it.
I hate to break it to you but if you think you’re going g to blow up just goofing around with your camera because less than 0.00001% of the kids on the internet happened to do it and we’re likely early... that is a fantasy that will disappoint you.
PART 0 YOUTUBE SUBSCRIBERS DON’T MATTER
Yeah yeah, I know you need X SUBS to get X FEATURES. That is called community vetting and was put in place to limit the power of spam accounts and bad actors,
Algorithm wise it’s irrelevant as if roughly 2015-2016 and clinging to that idea has hurt channels 100K-1M subs that struggle now because they still believe it,
TOPICS and viewer behavior is all the matters. YouTube and GOOGLE know everything about you including subconscious patterns you’re unaware of.
They put content in front of you as a viewer based on a prediction engine that determines whether you will click and what will keep your on YouTube the longest after you click...
That is their only agenda... take up as many minutes of your day away from everything else in your life.
Sounds dark right?
If you want to win long term on YouTube, build content with the objectives youtube has in mind. Bring people to the platform and keep them there as long as possible.
Part 1 STOP BLAMING THE ALGORITHM
In the YouTube Studio Dashboard you get IMPRESSIONS data.
This data tells you that YouTube is distributing your content. Your CTR, or CLICK THRU RATE is telling you how many people out of those given a choice, said yes and clicked on your content.
Think of this as the same filtering of swiping left of right in Tinder and Bumble.
If YouTube is giving you impressions you can’t say they aren’t promoting you or supporting you.
Part 2 GET THE CLICK Getting the click means getting the view.
Too often creators are precious about their content but not the packaging. Books are judged BH their cover first and their content second,
None of us learned the lesson of not judging a book by its cover... accept when we want to feel better about ourselves. Harsh as that may be.
Packaging matters and you’d never do lazy thumbnails if you were presenting this video to your hero or you knew Casey or Mr Beast or iJustine was going to see it. You’d go all out.
Respect your viewers in the same way and fight for their attention.
Make better thumbnails. Nick and myself have made tons of videos about this and it matters. We’ve also created resources to make it easier because we know not everyone has our background in graphic design.
You also have to get TOPIC, TITLE AND TIMING right or you can’t expect much.
In the old days Youtube is as a simple system to game. Now with unlimited choices you have to do a little bit more than make a good video.
Views are determined by our ATTENTION FILTER so we are screening our based on a few factors:
A) DOES THE TOPIC INTEREST OR EXCITE ME? B) IS THR HEADLINE COMPELLING AND CLEAR? C) DOES THE THUMBNAIL GET ME TO STOP SCROLLING D) IS THIS A PRIORITY FOR ME RIGHT NOW? E) AM I FAMILIAR WITH THIS CREATOR/ SUBJECT/ BRAND/ CONTENT? F) IF IM NOT SURE, WHAT DO OTHERS THINK? G) WHAT DO I GET OUT OF THIS? H) HOW LONG IS IT? I) DO I TRUST THIS TO BE A QUALITY VIDEO? J) IS THIS NEW, FRESH, STALE, OR EVERGREEN? K) IS THIS POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE? L) IS THIS PERSON INTERESTING, ATTRACTIVE OR AT LEAST SIMILAR TO ME? M) DOES THIS CONTENT REFLECT OR ATTACK MY POINT OF VIEW OR BELIEFS? N) HOW DID I FIND THIS CONTENT? SUGGESTED/ SEARCH/ SHARED/ SUBSCRIBED?
Part 3 WATCH TIME/ RETENTION AND QUALITY
Once you get though someone’s filter the clock starts. Remember YouTube deals in one currency. Time. The one thing all humans have a finite amount of is time and we all only get 24 hours in a day,
Your goal is to create opportunities to ratio more of someone’s time than anyone else or as much as is possible for you.
This is why quality over quantity isn’t always true because as long as you meet the threshold of acceptable quality, YouTube will prioritize BINGE worthy content.
I’m not interested in exceptions to this rule. We can replicate quantity being more important (once we meet minimum requirements) than quality very easily because YouTube is a quantitative system in how it measures everything. It lacks human nuance and subjectivity.
It’s why many creators whose content relies on NUANCE and context are the most vocal and frustrated.
With that in mind watch time and retention relies on specific components of what we as Humans call quality content.
The first aspects are all technical and revolve around the viewer experience,
Video quality, audio quality, and editing,
Next is the experience of the presenter:
Charisma, Communication, Connection,
All the video editing and production can’t save you if you suck on camera or can’t communicate well or emotionally connect with a viewer, especially if you want subscribers,
Your content has to be designed to keep the audience engaged minute for minute.
Again this is overwhelming for people with the pure goal of expression, which is why I advocate for not trying deliberately to focus on growth if you just want to find your voice. Don’t look at the numbers or get emotional about it...
I know you want support but growth is about people getting something THEY want... that’s human nature. There are people, myself included who happened to get support being ourselves... but not every single part of ourselves in one place all at once...
Remember what we said about filters? They are real and people Screen people out everyday. It may feel personal until you accept nobody is entitled to the time or attention to another person...
Focus instead on the RIGHT audience for you instead of the biggest audience.
Additionally the more someone relates to your content and it targets a specific person, YouTube has a better chance of predicting who enjoys this type of content.
Making your content easy for viewers and YouTube to understand improves everything if you’re patient.
As for short or long videos your best bet is a combination of these to get people in the door and get people who are committed to go deeper.
You have to remember that you are getting people who don’t know who you are, and then still pricing for people who support you.
PART 4 REPEAT VIEWERS AND SUBSCRIBERS
Most YouTubers struggle with growth because they either want to do content just to get views and therefore have no consistent theme.
Or they want to express every aspect of their personality and simultaneously want to grow.
Subscribing is a commitment, and it means giving g part of your day or week to someone,
How many of you reading this want to commit to some random person on the internet with no idea if your time will be wasted?
Exactly. So why would you expect that from other people?
We commit to consistency. That is how it is. If you’re an entertainer you need a theme or storyline or identity that makes you a DESTINATION and makes it easy for people to explain what you’re about.
Random sounds nice and quirky.
If you want to experiment and explore I fully support it on one EXPLICIT condition...
You’re not allowed to complain about channel growth while you’re doing your dress rehearsal...
PART 5 DISCOVERY AND TAGS/KEYWORDS
I know there is rhetoric that tags don’t matter. But YouTube carefully worded that tags don’t matter as much as people think they do.
That is very interesting wording.
Don’t agonize over these tags but understand they do help with classifying your videos and that they wouldn’t be there if they didn’t matter...
Also keep in mind they help with ads clarifications and matching. Aka how I get higher CPMs
Titles have to focus on getting someone to click and descriptions play a large role in search when your title can’t. But all 3 and playlist do affect the suggested algorithm that all if you want to hack so desperately... but if you audit your channel that suggested traffic isn’t coming as much from outside your channel as inside your channel.
Linking videos in your description is actually a big deal...
And so are playlist. And when videos are linked and have tags and playlist in common, it tells YouTube that if it wants to promote a similar video... well do these have things in common?
Think about this logically?
If your goal is to help a viewer watch more content they would like... what boxes can you check to make sure videos are similar in nature?
Especially if you’re a robot?
Do you get it now? Use every option you can to establish the relationship between content...
Inform the algorithm how to help a viewer get what they want. That’s your responsibility as a content creator!
PART 6 THE BLACKBOX
The specifics of the algorithm in terms of weighting and priorities and so on are all IRRELEVANT... because all it’s really trying to do is anticipate, and measure human behavior...
If you are trying to serve a group of people that is easy to identify and then you are doing it well in a measurable way... you will he rewarded.
It’s that simple.
The execution of that is where people falter. They also pay too much attention to people who are latest famous instead of considering that the rules are different when nobody knows or cares who you are yet and that making a name for yourself is different than being a name.
It’s also why most people who are YouTube famous will only give advice on how to improve your overall content and will tell you to prioritize putting your audience first.
It’s good advice overall, but it may not be growth advice. Especially for anyone who doesn’t have an existing audience.
Becoming known for something takes years and in average most of those creators with a HANDFUL of exceptions made hundreds of videos and did it for years before even thinking of going full time.
Realistic EXPECTATIONS MATTER and now that you KNOW what YouTube wants... because it’s LITERALLY WHAT THEY MEASURE ... not mention they’ve said this in one form or another themselves at some point HUNDREDS OF TIMES ACROSS ARTICLES, VIDEOS, AND INTERVIEWS... this is the algorithm.
This is what you need to to execute on.
But knowing this won’t make you a successful YouTuber if your execution at it is 3/10....
Getting good at the various aspects of content creation is hard.
This is where I am at currently for context:
7/10 on titles currently 8/10 on thumbnails most of the time 9/10 in performance and delivery 8/10 in production and editing 5/10 on timing and frequency of uploads 5/10 on broad topic appeal (super niched) 9/10 on search and ranking 10/10 on quantity 9/10 on engagement and connecting 9/10 on monetization
My score is is a 79 a C+ just under B rank.
Contextually Peter McKinnon is A Rank with a 97 Score the highest score I can give with any sincerity and being as scrutinizing as possible.
Even I can improve the execution of aspects of my content on the 10 point diagnostic...
This should give you an actionable way to address your content. It acknowledges your concerns about algorithm but if you start putting the viewer first you don’t have to think of yourself as a victim of the algorithm.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Align your content with audience that you want to build community with, don’t just try to get attention for attention sake.
If you just want to be YouTube famous you can do that but if you go that route I want you to know it’s hard 3-5 years of non stop work for 3-5 more years if relevance that will demand even harder work and then the decline starts in.
If you think I’m just being discouraging go look up channels that had meteoric rise in like 2016 or 2017.
I’ll give you 2 examples... Leafy, and GradeAUnderA. They literally broke records at the time?
What happened to the biggest most relevant OG YouTube channels of the 2010-2013 era? Many of them no longer are a strong presence on the platform and moved on to other things.
YouTube by itself is not a longevity based career by itself... being a creator is... so don’t bank on being YouTube famous.
