Want more than views on Youtube? Of course you lot practice. Yous're a human with a pulse and a video to share! Information technology'due south simply natural.

YouTube is the world'south second nearly visited website. More than two billion people use it every month — that's 1-third of all internet users. 74% of adults in the U.S. are watching videos there. (We could go on, only you can read all the latest YouTube stats on your own time.)

We've compiled this guide to point out all the piece of cake wins that volition amplify your make's message on YouTube, but we're also going to item some of the more avant-garde techniques the pros use to get more than YouTube views.

To see how we're getting views on our YouTube channel (which we started from scratch, because yolo), check out our cool video:

Psst: If y'all're starting from scratch too, nosotros have a primer on how to create a YouTube aqueduct.

Now, let's go those views rolling!

Bonus: Download the free 30-day plan to grow your YouTube following fast , a daily workbook of challenges that will help y'all kickstart your Youtube aqueduct growth and track your success. Go real results afterwards one month.

What counts equally a view on YouTube?

Each fourth dimension a viewer intentionally initiates the playing of a video on their device and watches for at to the lowest degree 30 seconds, that counts as a view. Pretty unproblematic!

If y'all play your own video, that will be counted as a view.

If a viewer watches your video more than than one time, each screening will be counted equally a new view. (That beingness said, refreshing over and over again to endeavor to game the system volition be detected by Youtube.)

Any views that take place with embedded Youtube videos or Youtube videos shared on Facebook will also be counted.

Live views are counted on YouTube, also.

Youtube analytics are updated every twenty-four hour period or two, so if yous're not seeing an instant reflection of your activity, bank check dorsum afterwards.

What doesn't count as a view on Youtube?

Youtube's algorithm is designed to disregard whatever plays that might look like they were automated. It just wants to count the number of times a existent homo watched your video on purpose.

So when a single user or bot refreshes a video over and over, or if a website auto-plays a video, these views are non counted towards your full view numbers.

16 ways to become more than YouTube views

Globally, people sentinel over one billion hours of YouTube every single mean solar day. If y'all want to stand out from the crowd and snag some of those eyeballs, here's how to exercise it.

1. Ensure your YouTube nuts are upwards to snuff

Kickoff nosotros walk, then we run. Take a look at your fundamentals and make sure you've ticked all the boxes. Read our list of beginner tips for YouTube, then come back to dig into our advanced tactics.

Your basic YouTube housekeeping includes:

  • A consequent visual identity (your aqueduct icon, YouTube channel fine art, like in the Rupaul'southward Drag Race example below, etc.)
  • A completed and informative Nigh section (unless you are a breakout YouTube star like Joana Ceddia)
  • Up-to-date contact information (so all your potential customers and futurity brand partners tin can arrive touch)

RuPaul's Drag Race YouTube channel description

Source: Rupaul'southward Drag Race

2. Zippo in on your specific niche (and your ideal audience)

If you're aiming to optimize your YouTube marketing strategy, y'all want to get precise and ruthlessly selective about your goals—and the content that will get y'all there.

Because you aren't making videos for anybody. You're here for someone special: your audience.

Yoga with Adriene has thrived because she makes ultra-specific videos with titles like "Yoga for Joy" and "Yoga for Courage," and fifty-fifty releases versions of her videos in Spanish. She's but one of the thousands of Youtube yoga instructors, walking people through poses, but her ultra-inclusive concepts and mental attitude have struck a chord — she's got almost 10 million subscribers.

Pro tip: Accept you worked up your audition personas withal? They're kind of like Dungeons & Dragons characters, except make it business organisation.

3. Exercise your research, and improve your video'south search ranking

Yes, YouTube is a social platform, but it'due south also a search engine. And one of the top strategies for getting more than views is YouTube SEO, i.e. optimizing your videos for search.

In other words, when your ideal viewer types in your called keywords, you want your video ranking near the top of YouTube's results listing. That means you demand to know what your audience is looking for—tutorials, inspiration, or entertainment.

YouTube results list keyword ranking

Ranking in search results is the best way to get brand new optics—not simply subscribers and people who are already interested in your aqueduct (although we'll talk more about them later) — on your videos.

Simply, this is easier said than washed. So, what tin can you do to improve your videos' search ranking on YouTube?

Inquiry. You lot're going to want to employ a tool like Google Keyword Planner (note that you'll need to set upwardly a Google Ads account) to do two things:

  • Notice inspiration for your next video based on what people are already looking for (i.e., take a await at search patterns and come across what keywords take a lot of search queries, simply few videos, a.one thousand.a. low competition)
  • Take those relevant keywords and utilize them in your metadata (i.east., your video title, tags, video clarification text, subtitles)

Pro tip: If you haven't already, now is the time to familiarize yourself with how the YouTube algorithm works. This AI determines not just search results, but recommendations for that important "what's up next" suggested videos sidebar, besides.

Merely remember that it all comes dorsum to your ideal viewer: the algorithm doesn't care if your video is "expert," it cares if a specific user wants to watch it. That being said, users typically want to watch "good" videos.

iv. Use metadata to get recommended after a pop video

If your goal is to go more YouTube views, take a cue from the most pop videos in your niche.

Outset by taking a look at your top competitor'southward most popular video. (Become to their video library and sort past "most pop.")

YouTube's principal goal is to keep viewers on the platform for as long as possible (so that they'll see as many ads equally possible.) Thus the algorithm'southward job is to feed viewers one (hopefully highly-seasoned) video after another.

Just how does YouTube figure out what people might like? The algorithm takes the following into consideration:

  • Videos that are oft watched together
  • Videos the user has watched in the past
  • Topically related videos (which requires some keyword finessing!)

The only signal you can control here is the third.

So when you're choosing keywords, think like a librarian. Describe your video'south topic and depict its overall category, and retrieve of other words a person might utilize to search for that topic. (Check out more tips on constructive YouTube descriptions and keywords here.)

Need a footling inspo? You can actually peek behind the scenes of a competitor'south video to run across what keywords they use by correct-clicking on the webpage and selecting View Page Source. And so CTRL-F "keywords" until you notice the list.

popular video keywords

But earlier yous go alee and only copy-and-paste a more popular video's metadata over to your similar video, think about your audience: they won't want to watch the same video again. Possibly the beginning video raised a new question that needs answering, or there's an interesting tangent to be explored. How tin your video add value to what they just saw so that they'll desire to click on it?

Take the ball and run with information technology.

five. Increase your views with custom thumbnails

When your potential viewers are in discovery mode—skimming through search results and recommendations—thumbnails are a major part of what they decide what to watch.

custom video thumbails

While a lot of communication out at that place is a graphic designer's nightmare — screaming fonts, cluttered information — permit's get objective: what are the properties of an effective thumbnail?

  • The thumbnail is clear and authentic nigh the video information technology's describing (if your thumbnail misleads people into clicking, YouTube will know because your watch time will get down when the viewer gets annoyed and stops watching. The algorithm won't like that.)
  • The thumbnail stands out.
  • The thumbnail works in tandem with the video's title.

'Standing out' tin can be as elementary every bit picking a bright color. Or making sure your giant hi-res confront is making a weird expression in good lighting. Or, if your niche is full of shrill, high-cardinal visuals, and the best way your channel can stand out is by being the calm, minimalist vocalism of reason.

six. Multiply your views by creating playlists

Organizing and creating video playlists on YouTube is the all-time manner to minimize the chances that a viewer volition move on to another channel in one case they've consumed your content.

Why? Because playlists go past the same rules as Netflix: as soon as 1 video ends, the adjacent begins.

Since yous've already done the hard piece of work of helping your viewer find your video, click on it and lookout man the unabridged thing, it makes sense to guide them towards the video content they're going to desire next.

J.J. McCullough's YouTube content covers a range of cultural commentary, then he'southward divvied everything upwardly nicely into thematic playlists. His fans who love his content on earth leaders (and who wouldn't?!) will be served upwardly hit after hit.

J.J. McCullough playlists

7. Direct traffic to your videos using cards and end screens

Besides playlists, cards and terminate screens are two of the only tools that YouTubers can use to featherbed the algorithm and directly influence our audition'due south next choice.

Cards are clickable, interactive areas that appear whatsoever time during the video. They come in a variety of formats that tin can be used for things like fundraising or selling merch, simply in this case, nosotros're interested in increasing views, and then choose a card that links to another one of your videos — or fifty-fifty better, playlists.

(Note: cards aren't available to utilise on videos identified as for kids.)

Cards are pop-ups, so information technology's very of import that they add value. You don't want viewers feeling spammed. The videos or playlists you link to need to exist relevant to the moment and provide boosted data or entertainment.

For a super-meta example, check out how this All Virtually Cards video has a card itself near learning well-nigh different kinds of cards.

Pro tip: If you have a noticeable memory problem with pregnant audience drop-off at a specific point in i of your videos, effort inserting a link card at that moment.

Meanwhile, end screens are visual calls-to-action that you can add to the end of your video (in the concluding 5 to 20 seconds) to encourage viewers towards a next stride. They're valuable because you know if a person has reached the biting end of your video, they are probably pretty interested in your great content.

Using end screens to encourage viewers to subscribe to your channel or visit your website are both good choices. But if you want more views, using your end screen to promote your other videos or playlists is the best choice.

(Note that to use end screens, you'll need to include a few actress seconds at the end of your video when you're editing information technology.)

Youtuber SssniperWolf features end cards that direct to four more of her videos. It's like a choose your own hazard for… whatever her shtick is.

SssniperWolf end cards with related videos

8. Go beyond the how-to video (i.e., make videos no i else is making)

Chances are, when you're researching your target keywords (similar nosotros did back at bespeak #3), y'all're going to see a lot of search terms that involve the phrase "how to." (The title of this article included, ahem.) This is because there's a lot of search volume for how-to content.

Merely while yous must piece of work to attract new optics, you likewise want to make time to preach to the converted. On YouTube, your make's value-added features come in the form of content that is meaningful to people who are already your fans.

Youtube chef Tabitha Brown, for instance, doesn't just share her vegan nachos recipe… she sits downward with her husband to talk about their relationship, giving fans an intimate look into her personal life. (And if they happen to go inspired to whip upwardly their ain batch of guac in the process? That'southward a bonus.)

9. Build relationships with your viewers

"Audience engagement" is only another term for building relationships. The finish goal hither, of class, is really just the realistic, organic and sustainable path to getting more YouTube views.

That is, engaging with other YouTubers (creators or commenters both) volition increase the chance that they'll care almost your make, that they'll subscribe to your channel (see #12), and watch more of your videos overall.

Bonus: Download the free 30-day plan to grow your YouTube post-obit fast , a daily workbook of challenges that will help you kickstart your Youtube channel growth and track your success. Get real results afterward one month.

Get the free guide correct now!

Ideas for breaking the fourth wall, and creating a ii-way conversation might include:

  • Respond to comments (it's polite!)
  • Run a YouTube competition
  • Make reaction videos
  • Include other people's content in your videos (with their permission)

Pro tip: This tutorial on how to engage your community on YouTube using Hootsuite's annotate and sharing features will save you lot fourth dimension equally you build your audience.

10. Partner up

Crossovers, guest appearances, mash-ups, covers: people love that jolt of unfamiliar familiarity. Observe the He-Man to your make'southward She-Ra; and the Billy Ray Cyrus to your Lil Nas 10.

Maybe you're a brand with a budget, and hiring a creator with their own following is an obvious choice. But if you're a creator or aspiring influencer yourself, getting more views is your first step on the way to making money on YouTube, non spending it. In which example your best bet is to partner with like-minded creators.

Ideally, your potential partners are fairly aligned in values, popularity, and charm. And y'all actually like them. And you have fun together, and it shows, and information technology makes people happy to come across you happy, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Like shooting fish in a barrel, right?

This video is like a super crossover: two drag queens plus e.l.f. cosmetics plus Chipotle all go in on the mix. The cantankerous-promotion opportunities are quadrupled, by our count.

Pro tip: If you lot practise a crossover that involves a agglomeration of different videos—similar one from your partner'due south perspective to live on their aqueduct, and one by you lot to live on yours, and peradventure some supporting outtakes, any necessary background, etc.—make a playlist to compile them so that interested viewers can stan it all.

eleven. Promote your YouTube videos across all your social media channels

Y'all're going to want to leverage all of your social media might to promote your YouTube channel.

But, if you desire more YouTube views, DON'T do the post-obit:

  • Go to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok and mail service text or an epitome with a link to your YouTube video. Linking to YouTube makes objective sense, just the problem is that social platforms want to keep people on their platform (merely like YouTube does). So their algorithms will not promote a text-only mail with an off-platform link. In other words, your impressions and CTR are going to be low, and so will your YouTube views.
  • Upload your entire video onto those platforms. This is what Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter want you to do (IGTV is a direct competitor for YouTube, don't @ me). Posting your full video will probably get you bang-up engagement and accomplish on those platforms. Just organic Facebook video views aren't monetizable, are they? And they aren't going to get you YouTube views.

Promote your video by doing this instead:

  • Post a brusque teaser video to your social accounts equally native video, and add a link to the full video back on YouTube.

Note that you are not going to desire to mail the aforementioned thing beyond your social channels.

Financial counsellor Max Mitchell puts a little trailer for his money-themed Youtube videos on his Instagram feed to pique involvement, and links to the full video in his bio.

Pro tip: Curt of hiring an assistant to handle your social media, a scheduling tool like Hootsuite is the best way to arts and crafts and schedule those posts for your followers.

12. Ask your viewers to subscribe to your channel

Your subscriber count corresponds to your organic reach on YouTube. The more than subscribers your aqueduct has, the more views your videos will get right off the bat when you hit publish.

Peculiarly if those subscribers have their notifications turned on.

Growing your subscriber count is its own claiming with its ain tactics, but i that is intertwined with increasing your views. For that reason, we have a total guide on how to become more YouTube subscribers.

It's mutual do to inquire viewers to "similar and subscribe" every bit a sign-off in a video, but many YouTubers — like dazzler pro Patricia Bright — even include this call to activeness every bit a visual at the cease, as well.

Patricia Bright like and subscribe call to action

xiii. Enable embedding

Give your fans a chance to help spread the good word about your work by enabling embedding. The more than fresh eyeballs see your video, the more than views you rack upwardly (and perchance even snag a new subscriber or two in the process).

To enable embedding, go to Youtube Studio and click Content. Select your video and tap Edit. Select Embedding, and toggle on or off.

channel content embedding YouTube Studio

14. Amp up the watch time

While Youtube counts anything over thirty seconds as a view, there are benefits to getting viewers to stick effectually longer.

If you can get people to sentinel your video for longer, Youtube will learn that you've got some content with quality. And videos with college Watch Time are favored by the Youtube algorithm, giving you lot a leg up in the recommendation engine.

audience retention analytics

15. Transcribe your videos

Adding captions to your videos helps hearing-impaired viewers follow forth, and makes your content more appealing to the 69 percent of people who lookout man mobile video with the sound off.

Having a transcript likewise makes translation an option, opening your video up to international audiences. Global views! Can you imagine!?

Youtube's help page tin walk you step-past-pace through just how to prep your transcript file — you just demand a .txt document.

YouTube transcript file

16. Post your video at the correct time

Dropping your video at the exact moment your biggest audience of subscribers is online means that they'll all receive that sugariness, sugariness "new post" alert right when it goes alive.

But what if that's in the eye of the night? Or while you're on vacation? That's where the ability of a scheduling tool like Hootsuite comes in. Tee your video up to go out at the exact predetermined time of your option to fit with your content calendar, and so continue and alive your life.

Abound your YouTube audience faster with Hootsuite. Schedule videos and moderate comments in the same identify y'all manage all your other social networks. Try it free today.

Become Started

Grow your YouTube channel fast with Hootsuite. Easily moderate comments, schedule video, and publish to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Try it for Free