The main indicator for YouTube video promotion
Let’s start with the most basic indicator, which is written about in all blogs and say at any conference – audience retention. Audience retention is a percentage characteristic. It shows how many people watched your video until the end.
The higher the percentage is, the more interesting the video is to the viewer. You’re unlikely to watch a 10-minute video until the end if it’s not interesting. Conversely, if the video is great, you are more likely to watch it in its entirety.
Audience retention is the main YouTube metric (but not the only one) that affects many indicators.
Some people say you should make short videos because they will have a higher retention rate. That makes sense. Let’s say a 30 second review of a chair will be seen by a lot more people than the same 10 minute review. But is that really the best video for YouTube? Let’s try to look at the videos from YouTube’s point of view.
YouTube makes money from advertising. The longer a person is on the site, the more likely he/she interacts with the ads. So what’s more profitable for a 2-minute video with an 80% retention rate? Or a 30 minute video that only 50% of people watch to the end? Of course the 30-minute one, because users will spend a lot more time on the site.
Do your own test: enter all kinds of queries and check the length of the videos in the top. They will almost always be long videos.
Of course, the algorithm is much more complex. For example, it takes into account what the user does after watching the video. If the video has good retention but users leave the site after watching it, this is a bad signal. If they start watching other videos (not even from your channel), it is a positive signal and the video with the worst retention is ranked higher.
Conclusion: a video will be ranked well if it keeps people on YouTube. Don’t be afraid to make long videos. The time the user spends on the site after watching the video may be more important than the overall retention rate.
Ranking factors for commercials
The most important ones are:
- Audience retention. Long videos (10+ minutes) with good retention are much easier to get to the top.
- Optimized title and description. How to pick up the keys will be discussed a little later. They should appear in the title and the first lines of description. The description should be as long as possible and, obviously, completely unique.
- Views on the video. YouTube can’t ignore videos that were viewed by many people. To boost it you can buy YouTube views.
YouTube and Google SEO. Selecting semantics
Organic traffic is very important. For some videos, it can become the main source of views. So it shouldn’t be neglected. In addition, search traffic is almost always the cheapest in the long term.
In general, the SEO of videos and sites are very similar. Also important keywords, behavioral factors, linking, links are important. But there are differences and we will talk about them.
The problem is that not always keywords from the semantic core for Google and YouTube are the same. Your task is to make two lists and choose words and phrases that will be relevant and popular for both sites.
Keep in mind all the ranking factors, as well as the correct selection of keywords and descriptions. It will allow you to bring your videos to the top and drive organic traffic. Most importantly, remember that the process of gathering semantics for videos has its own characteristics.
What is important to know when promoting a video?
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Gaining YouTube views
It’s important to get the maximum number of views in the first 2-3 days. It increases the chance of getting your video to the top of categories up to the home page.
In general, everything is banal here: if you have a budget to order the best seeding. If you have no budget, then use all means: social networking profiles, own sites, mailings, etc.
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Working with cards
This is a very powerful tool for achieving any KPI for a video: to gain subscribers, bring people to the site, improve some behavioral factors, etc.
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Calls to action, communication with the audience
If the description or comments are asking people to take some action (like, comment, share), the result will not keep you waiting. It’s very important to maintain a dialogue with the user because it’s not only a good signal for YouTube. It also helps you get to know your user better and make future videos better.
Working with analytics
When you have a few videos posted, it is time to start working with analytics. You can learn a lot from analytics.
Audience retention
The retention report allows you to understand which types of videos work well and are of interest to the audience and which do not.
There are two types of retention reports in analytics:
- Absolute Retention. It shows how interest in the video decreases during viewing by comparing the number of people in a given period of time with the total number of views.
- Relative Retention. It compares your video to other videos of the same length, shows interesting moments, etc.
Your task is to analyze the graphs, to see at what moment the viewer stops watching, to understand at what moment people come back to watch.
Realtime
Realtime shows how users have interacted with your video in the last 48 hours. By analyzing such reports you can understand when it is better to release a video to get additional views in the first hours.
Summarize
Promotion on YouTube is not an easy task. In addition to creating content, you need to analyze a lot in order to understand which videos are best watched, which are popular in your particular case. There will be no immediate success but if you make enough effort, you will succeed.
