TUTORIAL ARTICLE

Beginner

5 min

Strategy: Get more views on YouTube

Everything you need to know to get more views on your YouTube videos and YouTube Shorts

What you’ll need
Practice in the app

Overview:

YouTube is the number one video content platform in the world, with over 2.1 billion active monthly users globally and approximately 5 billion videos viewed on the platform per day. If you’re looking to grow your YouTube channel, you’ll know that the top statistic you should be concerned with is views. For those looking to monetize their YouTube content, number of views is the most crucial statistic that will ultimately help you to monetize your channel through advertising and sponsorship deals, as well as selling your own products or services.

Whether you’re a business making use of YouTube to raise brand awareness, or a creator looking to make it as an influencer, we've collated 20 methods to increase your YouTube views now and over time.

But first, let’s talk about clickbait!

Why clickbait is a bad idea

Clickbait is when an article or video uses an overly exaggerated title or thumbnail to encourage people to click on the content. While it’s okay to do what you can to make your content appear interesting and clickable, there is a balance between marketing your content and being sensationally misleading. While clickbait might get you some extra clicks and attention, it’s only good for short-term success. When you look at the statistics behind clickbait content, you’ll find that while clicks might be high, so too will the bounce rate. These pages will also find that they don’t get many repeat visitors and that their clicks will gradually decrease over time, even if they eventually stop creating clickbait content.

To summarize, clickbait may work in the short-term but it’s not a respectable marketing tactic and will only lead to disappointment for your viewers and a negative perception of your brand. Don’t do it if you’re looking to grow a reputable page.

20 ways to get more views on YouTube

1. Create compelling content

It should go without saying, but we’re going to say it anyway: the number one way to get more views on your content is to simply create great content that people genuinely want to watch. If you are in-tune with your target audience then you can easily create content that they will find intriguing, valuable, and entertaining. For those of you looking to build a brand, it’s important to create content that really connects with your audience and teaches them more about you, as well as enjoy discussions around the topics in which they are most interested. If you’re not sure what content you should be creating, check your analytics to see how your existing content is performing, or carry out some market research.

2. Create better thumbnail images

Thumbnail images have an enormous role to play when it comes to getting views on your content. The best YouTube thumbnails include people with interesting facial expressions or body language and have the title of the video included on the thumbnail image for clarity. Thumbnails should also be bold, eye-catching, and — if you’re a business — on brand.

Not sure where to start? Use Adobe Express’ range of YouTube thumbnail templates to create yours now:

3. Educate yourself on SEO

One really key thing to consider when publishing content on YouTube is SEO. YouTube is one of the only social media channels that allows your content to be discoverable both within and outside of the YouTube platform. Making an effort to optimize your videos for search engines will help your videos appear higher in search results, and we all know what that means — more clicks. To optimize your content, you’ll need to include keywords in your title, description, and make sure that your keywords are included in the name of your actual video file. When uploading your video, it’s important to make use of tagging, as well as selecting the correct category for your content. All of these steps will help YouTube and other search engines to understand what your video is about and get it in front of the right audience.

4. Get to know your target audience

A big part of growing a YouTube channel is being able to find your niche and create content that appeals to a specific target audience. If you haven’t already, it's worth establishing your audience personas as well as carrying out research into who your audience currently is and what their interests are. The better you know your audience, the easier it will be to create the content they want to see.

5. Create episodic content

One very effective way of increasing traffic to your channel is through episodic content where multiple videos are created around a particular topic. The beauty of episodic content is that anyone who enjoys one of the videos in the series is likely to then go and watch the other videos, leading to an increase in views and subscribers for your channel.

6. Use social media to promote your channel

Social media is probably one of the best marketing tools available for promoting your YouTube channel, if not the best. If you’re looking to grow your YouTube channel, you should absolutely have a social media presence across at least one other platform. Our recommendation would be to choose another video-prominent channel such as TikTok or Instagram where you can preview snippets of your content and encourage your audience to watch the full video on your YouTube channel. Not only does this serve to help you promote specific videos and reach new audiences, but a social media presence outside of YouTube will allow you to be more front-of-mind with your target audience who may use other social channels day-to-day more than YouTube.

7. Create a channel trailer

YouTube gives you the option to set a channel video that will appear and automatically begin playing for anyone who visits your YouTube channel. This video can also be different depending on whether the person viewing your channel is a subscriber or not. We’d recommend setting your most recent video as the channel video for those who are subscribers. However, for those who are not yet subscribed, a channel trailer is the ideal video to fill this space by showcasing exactly what you and your channel are about and enticing them to watch more of your videos.

8. Nurture your community

When your focus is on views and attention, it’s easy to forget that your audience craves interaction. When looking to grow your YouTube channel (and increase your views as a result), take the time to read and reply to your comments and form connections with your target audience, as opposed to simply putting out content and not making the effort to engage. When your audience is made to feel that you appreciate their comments and are open to conversing with them, they will automatically feel much more connected to you and interested in consuming content from you in the future.

9. Create playlists

Playlists are a great way to encourage viewers to watch more of your content. And the best part? Playlists on YouTube are auto-play. This means that when somebody is watching a playlist on your channel, the next video in the playlist will begin to play automatically as soon as the previous video finishes. This is great for retaining the attention of your audience and doesn’t rely on the viewer to take the initiative to click to continue watching content from your channel.

10. Make the most of YouTube’s video-editing tools

YouTube’s video-editing features allow you to be strategic with your content by adding prompts to subscribe to your channel, and links to other videos of yours at exactly the optimal moments. End slates (also known as end cards) are another great way to remind your audience at the end of your video of their options to subscribe and promote other content for them to watch next.

11. Use YouTube Shorts to tease full-length videos

If you’re looking to grow your YouTube channel, creating YouTube Shorts is a worthwhile endeavor. Not only are YouTube Shorts great for catching new viewers who have a preference for short-form content, but they can also be used to showcase snippets from your longer YouTube videos to encourage people to watch the full-length video on your channel.

12. Publish content at optimum times

It’s a no brainer that you’ll want to publish your content to hit peak times for when your audience is online. For most, the best time to post on YouTube is between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m., although this will vary depending on your specific audience. Experiment with publishing times and keep an eye on your analytics to find the best publishing times for you.

13. Optimize your channel

Your channel homepage is a great place to really “sell” people on your channel and get them to subscribe and watch more of your content. As a result, it’s important to make this page look as exciting and pleasing as possible by ensuring your profile image, channel art, channel description, and pinned video are the very best that they can be.

14. Captions

You should always try to make your content as accessible as possible by switching on the option for captions. It’s possible to add subtitles when uploading new video content, or you can edit existing content within the YouTube Creator Studio to add captions to your content. While YouTube does have the technology to add automatic captions, it’s worth reviewing these or adding your own to avoid any chance of error.

15. Ask viewers to subscribe and turn on notifications

Our top tip for getting what you want? Ask for it. Whenever you are filming your next video for YouTube, be sure to ask your viewers to subscribe to your channel and turn on their notifications so that they are notified whenever you publish a new video. You’d be surprised how effective a quick suggestion can be in reminding your viewers of these options and getting them to complete these two small actions.

16. Focus on improving watch time

To improve your viewership, one key statistic you need to be focusing on is your watch time. Your watch time is the length of time that people were watching your content before they stopped or clicked away to watch something else. Paying attention to your watch time can help you to make strategic decisions that will keep your audience on your channel, such as adding buttons to promote other content of yours at the exact time someone would typically click away from your video. You can also learn a lot from your watch time by taking note of what happened when the majority of your audience stopped watching to avoid doing something similar in the future. Improving your watch time will naturally improve the quality of your videos and help you to grow your audience over time.

17. Add watermarks to videos

A watermark is a small icon (usually your logo, but could also be your website address or some text) that you add to your video content. Typically transparent and subtle in appearance, the watermark is designed to add an extra layer of branding without being too distracting, as well as allow you to protect your content from being stolen and passed off as if created by another. Watermarks are great for making your content look more professional and can help you to increase your subscriber base as anyone who hovers or clicks on your watermark will get a link to subscribe to your channel. To add a watermark to a video in YouTube, you need to enter the YouTube Creator Studio, head to “Customization,” and then “Branding.” From here, you can upload a watermark.

18. Enable video embedding

Enabling video embedding allows your video content to be added to other websites where your content can be viewed without having to visit your channel within YouTube. While this is amazing for increasing the views on your content, it's also great for growing your subscribers by opening yourself up to more attention from other sources outside of YouTube.

19. Collaborate with other creators

Collaborating with others will always be an amazing way to get exposure to a new audience and pick up some new subscribers in the process. Carry out some research into YouTube channels who create similar content to yourself and have a similar audience. Begin to interact with their content over time and eventually reach out directly to ask if they’d be willing to collaborate by creating a video to be published on your channel, and one for their channel. If you’ve managed to grow your audience to a decent number, this should result in a mutually beneficial agreement by allowing the other creator to be discovered by your audience, and as well as enabling you to get some exposure to theirs.

20. Keep on top of trends

If you spot a trend that feels on-brand and relevant to you then, by all means, get involved. Trends are popular for a reason. Joining in is a no-brainer if you’re looking to grow your YouTube channel and get more viewers.

How to get more views on YouTube Shorts

Make the first few seconds count

Attention spans are short — especially when it comes to short-form content. The first few seconds of your Short are the most impactful to whether your viewer will watch your full video or swipe away to something else. Try not to ramble, immediately make it clear what your Short is about, and get to the good stuff ASAP.

Master the aesthetic

To maintain your audience’s attention, you need to keep things moving throughout your YouTube Short. YouTube Shorts have a very different editing style — especially if you’re used to working on full-length YouTube videos — and you’ll need to adapt to this style to avoid losing your viewers’ interest. Shorts often use fast cuts and interesting transitions, and generally are briskly paced and concise.

As you can see, there are many ways to bring more attention to your YouTube content, as well as grow your channel over time. However, the number one way to get more views on your YouTube content will always be to create high-quality content that speaks to your target audience. Focus on this as your primary target before implementing any of our other tips and tricks.


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Adobe Express

December 6, 2023

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