A YouTube Analytics report says 500+ hours of video hit YouTube every minute. That's a lot of content to compete with. But growing your YouTube channel isn't just about creating great content—it's about getting that content seen.
There are dozens of factors that can influence your visibility on the site, but the most important one is the number of views you get on your videos and channel.
This blog explores tested strategies for growing your YouTube channel and how to get more views on YouTube. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced content creator looking to increase your numbers, these tips will help you reach your YouTube marketing objectives.
Growing a YouTube channel today requires a shift in focus: it's no longer about the number of subscribers who subscribe to your channel but the individual videos that get the maximum likes and comments.
When your videos attract constant views and engagement, YouTube's algorithm notices it. This makes the content valuable for more viewers, resulting in a powerful cycle: more views = more engagement = more visibility = channel growth.
That is why making powerful videos your audience wants to watch and engage with is the foundation of any YouTube marketing strategy. Just as important, however, is how you promote your videos so that they get the love and attention they deserve.
Before we discuss how to increase the number of views on your videos, let's clarify what counts as a view.
Views are the total number of times your video or channel has been watched. YouTube counts each view each time a viewer plays and watches a video for at least 30 seconds. If a viewer views your video several times, that's to say, every time is counted as a new view.
This applies to all devices, whether a person watches via smartphone or desktop. It also applies to embeds and videos shared on social media platforms like Facebook.
You also get a view whenever someone comes to your YouTube channel. Using YouTube Analytics, you can go to the overview tab to see how many views your YouTube channel has got over the past 28 days.
Views are essential for the growth of your YouTube channel. Let’s discuss how to get more views on YouTube and how you can increase your video views. When the number of views for your videos increases, YouTube promotes your content to others. More views usually mean more subscribers and growth for your channel.
Views are also a gateway to making money on YouTube. The more views, the more revenue generated and, in turn, more opportunities for brand partnerships. The more you earn on your channel, the better your chances of creating more compelling content.
Views increase your brand's reach. Every view is an opportunity to reach a potential customer or fan. In the long term, higher view counts help create brand awareness and affinity toward larger business goals.
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YouTube marketing is all about Good Presentation.
Titles are crucial to the success of your video. Do you present your content to your audience as a "must-see "?
A killer title involves gaining the interest of your audience without resorting to clickbait headlines. People love entertaining content, and they also love to know exactly what your video is all about from your title.
For example, Athlean X's fitness-related video is good. This channel's contents put relevant keywords into the titles while sounding conversational and engaging.
"Well, best-of" lists and "how-to" titles are always safe.
The takeaway is that you should spend time mulling over engaging titles rather than sticking with the first idea that pops into your head.
Many have noted that the ideal YouTube video title length should be around 70 characters. Meanwhile, tools like CoSchedule's headline analyzer recommend 55 characters for an enticing headline. Although CoSchedule's tool is not designed specifically for video titles, it is excellent for brainstorming YouTube-friendly titles to encourage more views on your YouTube channel.
For instance, here's some food for thought: YouTube videos appear in 70% of the top 100 Google search results.
You can check that any given product or "how-to" query on Google returns something from YouTube.
Sometimes, YouTube results pop up before traditional blog posts or websites. YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world. Just as people search for products and need problems solved via Google, the same is true for YouTube.
Think of your YouTube videos as any other content that needs to be optimized for keywords, tags, etc.
Just in case, to increase your chances of increasing your video visibility and views, here are some of the best practices in YouTube SEO:
Titles and Description: Include target keywords within your titles and descriptions. You can use keywordtool.io to get ideas for keyword phrases.
Mention keywords in your video: Experts suggest speaking your target keywords in your video so that YouTube gets a clearer idea of what your video is about.
Engagement: YouTube uses engagement, such as likes, comments, and views, to help determine where videos rank in search results.
Categories: Use categories that help YouTube better understand who to show your videos to.
Tags: Beyond categories, you could also tag your videos with information that could give YouTube more context about what your video is about. You can use quite a few tags, so add as many as you can think of.
This is like SEO on your website; do not use keyword stuff, only use them when it makes sense to use them and not just because you need them themselves.
However, whatever content you produce, you want to ensure it's aligned with your audience's needs. Knowing your target audience and what content they want to see from you can be a prerequisite for writing a blog or creating a video.
If this is your first time promoting your YouTube channel, look around for people marketing your competition or fellow video creators. See how some of these videos get the most views and the engagement level of the video. This would be a starting point for knowing what and how they want to learn and which video style they prefer.
Several paid and unpaid competitive analysis tools can help you monitor your competition. Track important YouTube metrics such as views, engagement, and followers and set meaningful benchmarks against which you can measure your own performance. You can also use tools listening features to track keywords and mentions and monitor audience sentiment around topics and brands.
Another option is to review your YouTube Analytics if you have uploaded videos. YouTube details your audience's demographics, location, engagement, and other helpful stats. You can then take it to the next level with YouTube reporting and see how your content stacks up against other social videos you've produced.
Sometimes, the best way to get noticed is to ask for engagement, considering the immediacy and connection that video content can create.
Not everyone will remember to drop a like on one of your videos or subscribe to your channel, so standard practice is to put reminders in the description or even in the video itself.
Especially if you're a new channel, there's no stigma against asking for some love directly. Indeed, asking visitors to answer a question in the comments or to check out another video is an excellent way to keep the engagement rolling. You can also link to other videos or include an external link to your site to serve as a CTA.
Live video is one of the biggest social media trends and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. With apps like Facebook, Periscope, and Instagram making it easier than ever to stream live video, more and more brands are getting on board.
YouTube has been around for years with its live video functionalities but has been gaining momentum only recently. Here's a look at some of the most popular videos on YouTube Live to get an idea of how different brands are making use of the platform:
Examples to demonstrate how your YouTube Live videos look like:
Don't worry if your streams go differently than planned. Part of the fun (and risk) of live video is you never know what will happen. The unpolished, organic nature of live video makes it compelling. For more tips on how to get started with YouTube Live, check out Google's introduction to live streaming.
YouTube Shorts leverage the addictive, quick-hit vertical video format dominating social media—think Instagram Reels. It's a great way to hold the attention of viewers who scroll through endless streams of videos on their phones.
YouTube Shorts is not a trend; it's a powerful tool for growing on the platform. Here's how you can integrate Shorts into your brand's content mix:
You can also repurpose your longer videos into these short videos for better reach and brand awareness. Make sure to add a CTA asking them to view the full video on your channel so they can send views that way.
You might not consider YouTube a social network per se, but the site represents an active community where users participate through content, profiles, "likes," and comments.
Sounds pretty "social".. Right?
As mentioned above, you can think of any interaction with your audience as a thumbs-up indication to YouTube. Responding to subscribers' comments would have helped create a relationship with their audience. "Like" a comment takes just seconds, and so does pin a top comment as one's note to the subscribers.
For example, the music channel Artists Of Morality regularly likes and responds to comments on its recent uploads. The channel’s creator regularly engages with subscribers to show appreciation and answer questions. She even posts a call to action or challenges in her pinned comments, like the one below:
YouTube is no different, just as you’d respond to comments and engage with your followers on any other social network.
Creating custom thumbnails is one of the simplest yet effective tactics to promote your YouTube channel. Think of your title and thumbnail as a one-two punch to grab a viewer’s attention.
By default, YouTube snags a screenshot from any given video and uses it as a thumbnail. Unfortunately, the image it sometimes grabs is a blurry shot of you adjusting the camera or a transition.
Not a good look, right?
Creating thumbnails makes your videos look more appealing and signals a certain sense of professionalism.
Thumbnails don’t have to be rocket science, either. You can even create a template with a particular font and style to make it more consistent and on-brand. This can be made easy with the help of image creation tools such as Canva.
YouTube is killing it when it comes to SEO.
Now, create content for more than just search engines or people; however, you must promote your YouTube channel with that sort of eye to SEO.
Examples include product reviews, how-to's, and long-form videos (10+ minutes) on specific topics found in keywords. If you're out of ideas or want to jump on the buzzword bandwagon, think about how to do this using YouTube marketing.
The more videos you create, the less likely people are to be able to navigate your channel.
That is why playlists are so important. They do two things: they help you group your videos into categories to organize your channel and play to your viewers' desire to binge.
For example, Jason Whaling has a Learn Digital Marketing channel with hundreds of videos that create tons of content. Those different playlists lead viewers to where good digital marketing content playlist-wise rather than requiring them to dig through.
Pay-to-play generally means more visibility for the marketing campaign, and you can always increase your presence using paid YouTube ads. YouTube gives the user ad formats as follows:
Let’s discuss different types of YouTube ads:
1. Skippable Video ads: YouTube's skippable video ads feature before, during, or at the end of a video. However, with this kind of ad, a viewer can skip it after 5 seconds if he is uninterested. Now, if you choose this kind of ad, then you have options for three different bidding and billing models:
Of these three, the most popular bidding method is Cost-per-View.
2. Non-Skippable Video Ads on YouTube: The user cannot skip your video ad using this ad format. The video ad can go up to 15-20 seconds, depending on the country. Unlike skippable ads, you can pay here only on a CPM basis. This means you can set the maximum CPM you wish to pay and then pay on impressions.
3. Bumper Ads: Similar to the ones above, bumper ads are ad formats played before, during, or after a video. However, the bumper ad is 6 seconds or less long, so viewers must complete it.
4. Video Discovery Ads: Discovery ads is a YouTube advertising format whereby YouTube puts your video in three places:
Your video would be displayed as if it were an organic video suggested by YouTube. Like an organic video, the ad has a headline, description, and a thumbnail.
5. Display Ads: Display ads refer to the banner ads in the right-hand sidebar, the image and text, and a CTA button linked to your website. They come in various sizes and formats, including images with animation. Still, they need to support autoplay sound to avoid hindering the video player, though they are there only on desktops.
6. Overlay Ads: Overlay ads are semi-transparent ads that overlay the video's lower 20% part. An overlay ad allows advertisers to place traditional banner advertising inside streamed video. Like display ads, overlay ads are only available for desktops.
7. Masthead Ads: A YouTube Masthead is a high-impact ad displayed at the top of the YouTube home feed. It's displayed on YouTube's home page for 24 hours and is accessible to about 60 million people. The homepage ad can contain several videos, CTAs, and social media sharing buttons. The YouTube Masthead is seen on desktop and mobile devices.
Of course, you can mix various ad formats in one campaign, so choose from several formats depending on your needs.
You must put on your producer hat and add some pre-production best practices. There is so much to go into making a video before the camera records, but these methods will streamline your content production.
Contingency plan: What will you do if shooting at your chosen location is problematic? What if your talent gets ill? Plan; that way, you'll be prepared for the worst.
Plan video concept from start to finish: Create a storyboard that itemizes each video part. Use the storyboard to mark the visually funny segments, animations, call-to-action, and more.
Create a Shot List: A shot list will help you consider lighting, location, and camera angles. Once your script and storyboard are complete, list every scene, note the action and dialogue needed for that scene, and mark what kind of shot you want—e.g., wide angle vs. close-up.
Streamlining your content production means you’ll likely be able to produce more videos because your process is a well-oiled machine rather than one that always needs repair. A set process will also help ensure each video strikes the right chord because you’ve taken the time to think through important visual details and logistics that will add value to viewers.
Since you’ll be able to create more relevant videos, you’ll get more views and grow your YouTube channel over time.
The most important things are promoting your videos, building a subscriber list, and creating high-quality content. What makes high-quality content varies from niche to niche, so you need to know your audience's needs before getting started on YouTube.
Yes, and you should absolutely! Start optimizing your videos by using descriptive and keyword-rich titles, including tags, optimizing your thumbnail image, and creating transcripts of your videos.
YouTube SEO is the process of optimizing your videos so that they rank higher in YouTube's search results. Like traditional SEO, several factors contribute to your ranking, like adding keywords to your titles and descriptions.
Growing a YouTube audience is never an overnight success—it takes strategy, consistency, and patience to stand out in such a competitive space.
That’s why having diverse promotional tactics is essential. While some strategies may take more effort, every tip shared can help increase visibility, attract more viewers, and grow your subscriber base.
If you're ready to scale your YouTube presence and achieve measurable business results, JanBask Digital Design can guide you. By combining consistency with high-quality content and advanced analytics, we help you refine your video strategy for impactful growth and long-term success.
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What a nice informative blog, I am definitely going to follow the tips mentioned in this blog to increase views of my youtube channel.