How’s your week going? Last week was a FULL week for me! (More like the last month.)

It’s been a fun and busy time!My team and I launched three of our Video Labs courses, we’re planning the second launch of our Story Labs course, we had another long team retreat (virtual this time) to chat about what’s coming up next for us, and I got to teach an all-day workshop for Crossroads content teams.

One of the things I feel like I’ve been teaching and talking a lot about is how to get more views on YouTube. The answers are the same from the individual clients we work with to the churches!

YouTube is designed to show people what they want to see.

The reason we spend so much time teaching our creators and clients about how to make better content is because that’s the thing that, ultimately, will get you more views.

More views = More people you can reach with your messages = More lives changed

We’re not saying that technical things aren’t important. In fact, today I’m going to share a few simple steps you can take to get more views on YouTube. Just remember, this is only a piece of the puzzle.

  1. Analyze your top performing videos. What trends do you notice in your top performing videos? Do all of the thumbnails have text or not have text? Is there a topic or subject they have in common? How can you reproduce the success of this in the new videos you’re creating? Use the ideas in the video above to create high performing videos again.
  2. Analyze the audience retention graphs on your videos. Similarly to the first step, what trends are you noticing in your audience retention graphs? I have friends that know exactly, down to the second, how long they can talk before someone drops off of their video. Studying your audience retention graphs can show patterns over time that will help you create better and better videos over time that get more views.
  3. Analyze your end screen CTRs. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. Watch time is EVERYTHING. You need to get people watching to the end of your video. To avoid people dropping off that are making it 3/4ths of the way through your video, don’t use any ending language or signs that the video is ending. Have your end screens come on screen while you’re still talking and give a quick pitch to have people head over to another one of your videos.
  4. Do tons of experiments. Don’t get into the same rut of doing the same things over and over again with no results! Your big break out idea won’t come. What are some NEW ideas you can try to move the needle on your watch time, views, etc? Once you have an idea, tie it to data. I walk you through how to do this in the video above.
  5. Use playlists more intentionally. Use playlists as a way to get more people to watch your content. Think of them like a TV series. What is the natural order of videos people would want to watch a series of videos in? Be strategic in the way you craft these. These should have no more than 4-8 videos in them.

Studying and knowing these analytics and tools will help you use them to make the best possible content and channel experience you can. This, in turn, will get you more views so you can reach your channel goals!

I hope this helps you start to make even better content and succeed on YouTube.

Thanks for reading!

Keep changing lives,

Tim

P.S. Need some help with these steps? My team and I would love to help you look over your analytics and understand what they mean in a 1-hour consultation call. .