YouTube recently changed the analytics dashboard of every channel. The change made one thing clear: YouTube cares more about minutes watched than the number of views a video has. That makes sense. If a video has over 1 million views but the average view duration is just two seconds, then there’s a problem.
There is now a greater need to create lengthy, high value YouTube videos that grab people’s attention. But even after you create those videos, how do you get the ball rolling? Just because you create an awesome video does not mean YouTube will promote it to the masses.
You need to get the views on your own, but not just any views. Quality views are more important. You want people to watch as much of your YouTube video as possible. So how do you get more YouTube views and minutes watched? That’s what this blog post is all about.
Create Videos Consistently And Frequently
The more often you add videos to your channel, the more often your subscribers will check for new videos. Subscribers who like your videos naturally want to watch more of your videos. If you are consistent and frequent with new video uploads, then your subscribers will know to look at your channel a few times each week.
If you consistently publish videos once every six months, then it’s more difficult for you to grow a devoted fan base.
Even if you don’t have many subscribers, it is important to get comfortable with the process now. Not only will this strategy help you grow your overall audience, but consistently and frequently publishing YouTube videos won’t be a problem once you have thousands of subscribers.
Minutes Watched
YouTube changed the entire analytics dashboard to reflect the importance of minutes watched. We as YouTubers need to change our strategy too. Instead of short videos, it is becoming more important to produce lengthy videos.
One of my most recent YouTube videos was over 45 minutes long. I’m sure people are thinking, “Who would ever watch that entire video?” The truth is that not many people watch it for all 45 minutes.
However, my average viewer watches the YouTube video for over 10 minutes. Minutes watched is a valuable metric, and to get 10 minutes per video is a game changer. One of my other videos about scheduling pins with ViralWoot is about five minutes long.
Even if one of my viewers watches the entire ViralWoot video, the total minutes watched will be less than the average minutes watched for my 45 minute YouTube video.
The short-term results are difficult to see. However, in the long-term, your video is gaining an edge on YouTube’s search engine based on minutes watched. Soon enough, your video will get more views from YouTube’s search engine.
Turbocharge Your Videos With AdWords
For as little as $1 per day, you can get over 100 views for your YouTube video. Add a few extra zeroes next to the price per day and the number of views per day, and the possibilities become clear. Spending $10 per day results in 1,000 views per day.
Of course, your video needs to be optimized to get those types of results. Some tinkering with AdWords may eventually result in an optimized ad that gets $0.01 views for your YouTube video.
AdWords is a very reliable platform to promote your YouTube videos.
Breaking Even With AdWords
The video I currently promote with AdWords promotes my writing course. In addition to the social proof, the AdWords campaign also results in the sales of my training courses. You can break even by promoting YouTube videos that promote your products or landing pages. There are other options too, but products and landing pages seem to be the most popular.
Once you discover how to profit from AdWords, it’s just a matter of feeding the beast.
Promote It To Your Audience
Regardless of how large your current audience is outside of YouTube, you can promote your YouTube video to that audience. When I publish a new YouTube video, I always send a tweet to my Twitter audience. I’ll share it on Facebook and pin it on Pinterest.
I leverage the audiences I have built on other platforms to promote my YouTube videos.
Sometimes, I will even use my email list to promote my YouTube videos. If you are willing to provide valuable videos to your YouTube audience, then you might as well share those videos with your other audiences.
If you don’t have an audience outside of YouTube, ask your friends to spread the word. Create a content marketing strategy in which you contact influencers within your niche and kindly ask them to share your YouTube video.
Many of the most successful entrepreneurs state that it takes more time to market the product than to actually create the product. The same rule applies for YouTube videos. Put in more of your time towards marketing your YouTube video than the amount of time you actually spend creating the video.
If it is not possible for you to invest time towards marketing your YouTube videos, then consider outsourcing that part of your strategy.
In Conclusion
YouTube is changing the rules of success on their platform. The change is a good one. Views are no longer the ultimatum. We now need to go after quality views and create attention-grabbing videos.
We needed to follow these rules before YouTube made its changes. However, the new changes YouTube made have emphasized these rules and put them at the forefront of importance.
What are your thoughts about minutes watched being the key metric for YouTube success? Which of these tips was your favorite? Sound off in the comments section below.
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