Even YouTube Uses Algorithms
Jenna Ahern
Founder & CEO at Guardian Owl Digital | Forbes Ad Council Member | Google Certified Partner
When is an algorithm not a rule? When a human being doesn’t set it up. Sites such as YouTube use ‘machine learning’ to make their algorithms more robust and accurate. The main concept behind machine learning is that an application becomes more intuitive the more use it gets. When the algorithm is rewarded (in a sense) for being correct (i.e., you watched the whole video that it suggested), it learns what the user’s interests are and makes increasingly accurate suggestions based on those results.
Many factors are at play, not just whether the user viewed the video. As a marketer though, your goal is getting users to click on your video. There are many tools to get users to watch it, such as using catchy titles, embedding the featured content later in the clip, and utilizing an eye-catching thumbnail. There is a fine line between drawing viewers and converting them into subscribers. So don’t assume that a click equates a sale.
Building an audience base for your channel isn’t easy, and takes careful consideration about your content. You want to make it easy for YouTube’s algorithms to choose your videos. Videos are a great medium for introducing your business, rolling out new products or services, and engaging with your subscribers. Video production is at an all-time high, while user attention spans are at an all-time low, so make those minutes count. As with any social media platform, video sites such as YouTube are more about reaching your audience versus solidifying a sale, so focus on building relationships with your videos.
It’s also important to consider physical user behavior. For example, how they access videos is rapidly changing. By 2022, PCs will account for only 19 percent of IP traffic, whereas smartphones will account for 44 percent of total IP traffic. Traffic from all wireless and mobile devices combined will account for 71 percent of total IP traffic by then. So it’s not enough just to have information available, but to make it readily viewable on the user’s preferred device. Mobile-friendliness is an important factor in search engine rankings too.
Guardian Owl has a YouTube management team that can help you develop a presence and create a following for your YT channel. Contact us today to put our expertise to work for you.