THE 3 SECRETS TO YOUTUBE SUCCESS ARE BOTH SIMPLE & HARD...

There are 3 fundamental things you have to accomplish to succeed on YouTube that seem very simple in principle and hard in execution.

1. Get Them to Click the Video
2. Keep Them Watching The Video
3. Get Them Watching More Videos

Okay, so now what? It can't be that simple, right?

The "mysterious YouTube Algorithm" can be demystified by focusing on these 3 things, and it's something I've gone on record saying over the years, but I never clarified it down to just 3 steps, because each of these things has it's own unique challenges.

It also shouldn't be a mystery as these are the very metrics YouTube displays in the YouTube Analytics Dashboard, particularly after the 2018 updates that display CTR (Click-Thru-Rate) and that also show us the Retention and drop off rate within a video and what percentage of viewers watch a video all the way to the end.

CLICKS/VIEWS = VALUE (What We Care About)

WATCH TIME/ RETENTION = QUALITY (How We Feel Watching)

MORE VIDEO VIEWS/SUBS = QUANTITY (What We Want More Of)

PART I HOW TO GET THE CLICK AND INCREASE VIEWS

Getting the CLICK is everything on YouTube and nothing starts without it. This for most people is the hardest part and clicks are reflected publicly in the form of VIEWS, the metric the community cares the most about.

VIEWS are not the most important metric for YouTube as a platform. Unlike the community, YouTube cares very much about the QUALITY of a view and they measure that in the form of WATCH TIME and RETENTION to determine RELEVANCY.

The community views relevancy in a ratio or relationship between VIEWS and SUBSCRIBERS, but this is a false vanity metric because YouTube (contrary to Urban Legend) does not give distribution based on Subscriber Counts within the current system. It hasn't for many years, but many Creators and Viewers are still clinging to that era of YouTube because it was their earliest experience of the platform.

Getting the Click Revolves Around 4 Things Usually:

1. TOPIC - what are people interested in?
2. TIMING - what is on-trend and is this a good time to release?
3. TITLE - a compelling title that triggers emotion or curiosity
4. THUMBNAIL - a thumbnail must make a viewer stop scrolling

This is why just getting a click is a challenge. No matter how high quality your video, no matter how hard you work on it, if you fail to get the click, it will fall short on views. Period. That's it.

The above FUNNEL from YouTube Analytics perfectly demonstrates YouTube's Priorities and the basis by which they end up recommending content.

Initial performance within the first 1-hour window, 24-hour window, and 72-hour window determine the overall distribution of a video (in most cases).

PART II KEEP THEM WATCHING THE VIDEO

This is where QUALITY MATTERS. You have to make quality videos in order to get more watch time and you have to keep people engaged to retain their attention.

Now while everyone says MAKE QUALITY VIDEOS... I will explain how what that means in clear terms. There are 2 ASPECTS of Quality:

PRODUCTION AND PERFORMANCE

Production Quality is how most content creators interpret Quality.

PRODUCTION QUALITY IS:

• Video Quality and Aesthetic (Eliminate Distractions)
• Audio Quality (Eliminate Distractions and Clarify Communication)
• Editing Quality (Amplify the Storytelling and Eliminate Mistakes)

Production Quality MUST BE IN SERVICE OF THE STORY OR PERFORMANCE OR INFORMATION. If it is not, then it becomes a distraction itself. This is what the term "overproduced" means. It was non-essential or failed to enhance or amplify the message in any meaningful way.

PERFORMANCE QUALITY IS:

• CHARISMA - The confidence and body language
• CLARITY - The communication style and tonality
• CONNECTION - The emotional and intangible elements

Performance is often referred to by content creators as "personality", which is a fair if somewhat incomplete description. The filter for most viewers to continue watching will be an acceptable level of production quality, but no matter how high the production quality is, it cannot make up for the performance on camera.

You also have to establish a format that based on the data, allows you to keep the audience watching and you need to pivot and adjust based on what that data tells you about your viewers and where you tend to lose them.

PART III GET THEM TO WATCH MORE VIDEOS

Depth of content matters and so does consistency. So many creators want to chase "viral bangers" videos that go big and get attention, and that can work if you have the money and time and resources to sustain that, and you understand the culture.

There is a 99.9% chance that if you're reading this, and were capable of that, you'd have already done it... harsh as that sounds.

You need to develop a content strategy around the content that is performing the best that can create binge-watching sessions.

If you are getting started you need at least 5-10 videos with a similar value proposition so that you can get viewers to make a commitment to you and to increase the likelihood of them either extending their viewing session or watching multiple videos back to back within a certain time frame.

The more of your videos watched in a certain time frame by a viewer the more YouTube prioritizes your content to that viewer and viewers with similar viewing history and behavior.

Pay attention to those words... VIEWER HISTORY AND BEHAVIOR.

What most people don't' realize is the benefit of YouTube collaborations is not just tapping into the audience of that creator based on the viewers who watched the collaboration videos, but building a pattern of behavior, so that YouTube can identify the relationship between you and your potential shared audience.

This also works for individual creators who have multiple channels.

If you're reading this you already know that all social media platforms algorithms are built on observing, classifying, documenting and predicting user behavior and reacting to it accordingly to fulfill the goals of the platform.

What are YouTube's Clearly Defined Goals?

Well, You Need to Look No Further Than YouTube Analytics, Google Analytics or Good Old Fashioned Common Sense.

• GET PEOPLE ON THE YOUTUBE PLATFORM
• KEEP PEOPLE ON THE YOUTUBE PLATFORM FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE

If your content and YouTube channel accomplish these simple tasks, you will be rewarded. In other words, MAKE YOUR CHANNEL A DESTINATION HUB.

FINAL THOUGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS

While knowing all of this is helpful, and while most content creators, even successful content creators know this INTUITIVELY, applying it in practice and execution and doing so effectively is another story entirely.

You could know all of this and if it conflicts with your creativity you may not be able to execute well or you may try to circumvent this in some way, banking on that creativity and originality to mean something to viewers.

There is also the variable of talent, time, and training.

Executing on the core principles of Getting the Click, Keeping them Watching, and Getting them to watch more, is NOT SIMPLE, it is in fact very hard to do. This is why among an estimated 70M YouTube Channels only 12,000 have ever achieved 1M Subscribers and a Gold Play Button Award.

The failure rate vs success rate of YouTube is extraordinarily high.

But this framework for approaching content helps us by making us respect the viewer and realizing the filter for their attention is VALUE driven by their interest and then we must deliver on that VALUE with the right combination of QUALITY content, and enough QUANTITY to satisfy their wants and needs.

It gives us a clear and concise way to actually put the audience first.

Roberto Blake is a YouTube Certified Marketer and the Founder of Awesome Creator Academy, an online training platform for Influencers, Entrepreneurs and Social Media Professionals. His main YouTube Channel has over 1300 videos for building your brand and business online and he has a community of 420,000 subscribers.