YouTube Is Rigged | Help For Small Channels

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: YouTube is rigged. Let’s jump into it.

So many of our readers have wondered how we got our YouTube play button with only 800 subscribers, and we’ll get to that. But first, YouTube isn’t actually rigged, at least not in the way you’re thinking. This being said, there are real methods to achieve real growth on YouTube and the best channels and creators out there are taking advantage of them. We work with a lot of clients to help them grow and optimize their YouTube channels and our play button is for one of my clients who’s done very well.

Okay, now what you’re really here here for: How did we scale a YouTube channel to play button status? Here’s how we did it.

YouTube The Creative Platform

YouTube is very much a creative platform. The content you put out must be relevant and high quality with an attention to the small details like lighting, staging, and framing. Not to mention the content you’re actually sharing. Now before we get to the video content, let’s talk about the first thing that everybody sees: thumbnails. Our first recommendation is to create high quality, attention grabbing thumbnails. These should be high contrast so they stand out against the backdrop of YouTube, as well as against the large number of videos you’re competing against. You want to draw attention to your video as quickly as possible. Think about how to portray to your audience what your video is about in one image, and use colors, layers, and texture to your advantage. If you aren’t sure where to start, take a look at some of your favorite creators thumbnails or the thumbnails of creators in your field and see what gets traction.

Don’t copy these thumbnails exactly, but this is a great place to draw inspiration for your own thumbnails. While this is a creative element to growing on YouTube, just like everything in the digital marketing space, YouTube is very analytical.

YouTube The Analytical Platform

We all know the almighty YouTube algorithm determines our fates, but all this means is there are some rules to play by, and we’re here to break down a few of those for you. One very important aspect to YouTube success is keyword research.

Keyword Research

Keyword research will help you know what your audience is searching for and will even help you know how competitive those searches are. You can then take that information to optimize your video title, description, and even your video content. One great tool that a lot of YouTubers use for keyword research is vidIQ. While I would definitely recommend this tool, YouTube is also about connecting with your audience, so don’t just throw keywords in a title and description and call it a day. Take the information you get from your keyword research to craft a clever headline that not only connects with your audience, but conveys what your video is about.

Knowing Your Audience

Now, it’s a little hard to connect with your audience without knowing your audience. Take a minute and think about who you want to reach with your videos.

Got it? Great! Once again, you can look to other creators to see what kind of content is connecting with the people you want to target, as drawing inspiration from experts is never a bad thing. Additionally, if you work in an industry, it’s good to know what types of searches your customers are performing so that you can know their wants and needs. This can be accomplished pretty easily with keyword research and through conversations with your customers. You might even have some of this data on hand if you’ve ever run an ad campaign.

Audience Retention

Next, let’s talk about audience retention. YouTube’s algorithm loves click through rate, audience retention, and watch time. In fact, all the tips we just gave are to increase your click through rate, audience retention, and watch time.

Another way of defining audience retention is once you get the right people to your video, you want to keep them around. This is where structuring your video in an engaging way is key. One tip would be to lead off your video with a hook and not just an intro. You want people to get invested in what you have to say right off the bat, especially if you’re a small channel. This will keep more people around, increase engagement, and ultimately prompt youtube to promote your videos to more people.

YouTube Ads

Now the last thing we’ll mention here is Google Ads. Through the Google Ads platform, you can run YouTube Ads with a call to action to watch your video or even subscribe to your channel. Now, growing your channel this way can cost a lot of money and it can hurt a video’s organic performance, so it’s important to be selective about the videos you choose to run as ads. But we will say many clients of ours have had great success implementing Google Ads in addition to the strategies that we just talked about. Managing and growing a YouTube channel just needs to be done wisely and by someone who’s proficient in Google Ads.

One other note: Google Ads usually requires an expert in order to turn a campaign that actually results in views and subscribers. Please reach out to a professional before throwing money at a campaign. If you aren’t sure what you’re doing in the Google Ads platform, it will only cost you money and yield little to no results. However, the investment is worth it. The same goes for video editing or any other stuff we talked about in this video. If you’re committed to growing on YouTube, contact a professional who can edit quality videos, optimize your keyword, thumbnails, title, and description, and ultimately help you grow on the platform.

We haven’t even scratched the surface in terms of deeper strategy, so make sure to stay tuned to our blog and our YouTube Channel for more helpful tips.

Working With Canvas Digital Marketing

Canvas Digital Marketing is here to provide helpful tips and tutorials to help you grow on YouTube, Google, Facebook, Instagram, or any other platform.

We stay ahead of the trends and on top of the algorithms so you can make informed decisions for your brand or business. We are a full-service digital marketing firm with over 15 years of experience providing video editing, Google Ads Management, YouTube Channel Management, and more, to businesses in Tyrone, Peachtree City, Fayetteville, and Newnan, GA, with YouTube Channel Management services. So if you want to see how we can partner with you to take your business or channel to the next level, feel free to send an email to chat@canvasdigitalmarketing.com to Reach Out!