So you want to be a famous YouTuber. You have great content ideas, and the talent needed to put out quality videos. But your videos just can’t seem to get the amount of attention you want. The views are coming in but really slowly. Sharing your videos on your social media handles is only doing so much. You want to increase your audience base, and get more popular. So how do you go about doing that?

P.S. If you are looking to run paid ad campaigns for your YouTube videos, contact our team of Social Media Marketing experts right away!

How do I optimise my YouTube videos for more views?

1. Write good titles.
2. Make eye-catchy thumbnails.
3. Work on your YouTube SEO.
4. Understand what your audience wants.
5. Engage with your comments.
6. Promote other videos on your channel.
7. Organise content using playlists.
8. Focus on audio and video quality.
9. Use your website and social media to promote yourself.
10. Collaborate with other YouTubers.
11. Experiment with paid campaigns.
12. Communicate with your audience.

Let’s start off with the first two things that a viewer sees even before they open your video, the title and the thumbnail.

Pay attention to your video title

Your video title must capture a viewer’s attention. If you’ve paid attention, the most popular channels all have a similar style of writing video titles. They use words, sometimes in all caps, to catch your attention. Titles like “You NEED to see these apps…” or “UNBELIEVABLE beaches in India” are very common. You can find them in almost every type of video.

Let’s discuss different strategies you can adopt when creating a video title. 

• First things first, do your research. Use online tools like Google Ads keyword planner to find what people are searching for. Type in a few phrases that relate to your video, and these tools will give you other phrases that may have more search traffic. 

• If you’re targeting people who are not on YouTube, it would be wise to include “video” in your title. Most people looking for videos on Google will type in “video”. This little trick helps your video be discovered on search engines other than YouTube.

• Include your main keyword in your title. This has proven to improve your rankings for that particular keyword. If possible, start your title with the main keyword.

• Use emotional words like “insane, amazing, shocking”. Eg: “5 AMAZING Android Apps For Video Editing!”

• If your video is about a list of something, write your title accordingly (like our article’s title).

• Stay away from clickbait titles. Just don’t. Tricking your audience into watching your videos is a sure way to get dislikes piling up on your video.

Create eye-catchy thumbnails

Since YouTube is a visual platform, people will pay attention to your thumbnails. A great thumbnail can get more people to watch your videos. 

YouTube gives you the option to upload a custom thumbnail. Always upload a custom thumbnail instead of choosing one from your video.

You get the option to choose what your viewers see even before you click on your video, make it count. Make sure that your thumbnail is of high quality with a resolution of 1280×720. 

You can also add text to your thumbnail cover. Just make sure that the text is bold and stands out, you want it to be visible even when the thumbnail changes size over different platforms. This text also gives you more space to entice viewers into watching your video.

Try combining a great photo, with an interesting phrase on your thumbnail. These days we even see stuff like “5 Million Views!” which basically tells the viewer “This is the video everyone is watching”.

Work on your YouTube SEO

Everything you type into your title, description and even your tags can affect how your video appears on a search result page. Here are some ways to improve your search engine optimization for your YouTube videos.

• Keyword research is key

Make a list of keywords you’d like to use, and simply type them into the search bar. YouTube has a great feature of completing your search terms with the most searched terms. This gives you an idea of what people are searching for. Just add those keywords into your list of keywords to use. Incorporate these into your video title or description.

Another easy way to find well-performing keywords is to find videos in your niche with a lot of views. You can check out what words they use in their title and description. You can also use an extension to check out the tags they’ve used.

You can also go to your channel’s analytics section and check out your traffic sources. These show keywords that people have used to find your videos.

Another strategy is to look for low-competition keywords. Go to Google, and search for “your keyword site:youtube.*”

On top of the search results, you’ll see “About _____ results”. This shows you how many videos there are with that specific keyword. You want to use keywords that have fewer results. These are low-competition keywords. 

Why do you want to use low-competition keywords? If you’re starting out, using high-competitions will have your video getting buried under tons of other videos from larger channels. People won’t be able to find your video easily. Using low-competition keywords give you a better chance of being discovered.

• Make high viewer-retention videos

YouTube wants people to watch videos until the end. This makes them stick around to see/click on all the ads. If your video can do that, YouTube will rank your video higher.

Here are three ways you can increase your viewer retention.

1. Start off with a quick summary of what people can expect to see in your video.
2. Get right to the content, ASAP. Keep your intros very short. Preferably 3-5 seconds. Avoid loud music in your intro as well. You don’t want to annoy your viewers.
3. Keep your viewers engaged by telling them about what’s coming. Stuff like “We’ll talk about that in a minute” or “We’ll be discussing one more super-secret tip at the end” works really well.

• Say your keywords

You’re probably aware that YouTube transcribes videos. It used to be hilariously bad once, but it has improved a lot.

When you say your keywords in your video, YouTube will understand that your video is indeed related to your keyword(s). This helps your videos rank higher.

• Video tags

Adding appropriate tags can also help your videos to be discovered. 

1. Add your keyword(s) as tags.
2. Add variations of those keywords.
3. If your video talks about other things, mention those in your tags as well.

In short, help YouTube understand what your video is all about.

Understand your audience

The key to creating good video content also lies in the proper understanding of what your users want. There are many ways you can understand your audience.

You can check YouTube analytics to understand your demographic. These show the countries your viewers are from, their approximate ages and more details. We’ve got an article on YouTube Studio if you need more information on this. Check it out here.

If you know of a channel similar to yours, check out which of their videos are the most popular. The comments section is also a great place for you to understand what your viewers want. Do they want more tutorials? More top ten videos? Or do they think you’re already nailing it? Make sure to remind them to leave a comment. Which brings us to our next topic.

Engage with your comments

Just like you would on any other social media platform, encourage comments and reply to them. When viewers leave comments, YouTube knows that your video is good. This also helps you create a strong and loyal fanbase. You can also pin comments to the top. Since a large majority of people check the comments, you can pin an important message that could remind them to like, subscribe, share, etc. Just be nice. 

Promote other videos in every video you post!

On every video, when you write your video description, add links to other videos on your channel. YouTube also allows you to add cards in your videos. These can even be linked to other videos on your channel. This is a great way of showing a new viewer what else they can expect to see on your channel.

Organise content using playlists

I remember this one time when I was searching for tutorial videos. I clicked on one video that looked promising, and I loved it. I then went to the channel and looked for a playlist where I could find other tutorial videos from them. What did I find? All their videos were organised into different playlists. Videos belonging to the same category were in their own playlists. I immediately became a fan.

People love it when you organise your content using playlists. It’s a great way to make sure a viewer is exposed to similar types of videos on your channel. You can even create a series of videos, and add them to a playlist. This helps people find all your videos at one convenient place.

Focus on quality

Not just on the quality of content, that goes without saying. Focus on production quality as well. Make sure the video and audio are of the highest possible quality. The biggest names in YouTube, like MKBHD and PewDiePie, are all famous for their ultra HD videos and crystal clear audio. Now you may require costly equipment to step up production quality. If budget is an issue, and it almost always is, just create the best you can with what you have. You’ll be surprised at the quality you can achieve even with cheap equipment.

Use your website and social media

If you’ve got a website, you could embed your videos in your blog articles. Or even on the homepage. Same goes for your social media platforms. When you start out, you won’t have many subscribers. You will need to depend on your friends and social media contacts. Spend some time and plan out mini strategies to promote your videos. 

Never upload your video on your social media. Maybe upload a small snippet of an interesting part from your video, and add a link to the full video. Uploading entire videos on your social media accounts is a sure way to decrease the views you could be getting on your video on your YouTube channel.

There’s a quick tip I just remembered from our article on Instagram Marketing. Whenever you add a “swipe up” feature on Instagram, or even when adding links to your stories on WhatsApp/Facebook, don’t just post one story. Post around 3-4 stories. The first one could be a short introduction, the second could be a snippet from your video, third could be the link, and so on.

Collaborate with other YouTubers

Another strategy to get more popular on YouTube is to collaborate with other YouTubers. Work on a video with them. This opens up your channel to the other YouTuber’s audience, giving you a small boost. We’ve seen this happen a lot with channels like VSauce, Veritaseum, and others.

Experiment with paid campaigns

You can experiment with creating video ads with Google Ads. This allows you to reach a new audience. But before you do this, follow the other steps we’ve discussed to make sure that your channel and its videos are in good shape first.

With paid campaigns, your video can appear as an ad before another video starts playing, next to the video, among the search results, or even at the YouTube homepage. 

You can choose clips from your channel to give people a preview of what they can expect from subscribing to your channel. Make sure to keep your ads short and concise. Longer ads are alright if your video is compelling and engaging. You can also create different versions of your ad and find out which performs better.

In terms of targeting, you have many options too. You can select audiences based on topics that they are interested in. You can even choose to display your ads on a channel of your choice. If you want, you can target people who have seen your videos but haven’t subscribed to your channel yet.

We have an amazing article on YouTube ads that you should check out to know more.

Communicate with your audience

Finally, talk to your viewers! Don’t just upload a video and get straight to the point. Address your viewers, maybe say hi, and appear pleasant mannered. Asking your viewers to leave a like if they genuinely liked your content is a great way to get more likes. Just be nice. 

So there you have it, 12 different ways you can promote your YouTube videos to get more views! Try out these methods, and keep creating good videos. The process may seem slow, but you’ll get there! If you need to talk about paid promotions, we’ve got experts you can talk to. Talk to our social media marketing experts today.