Rene’s Top Five on YouTube: February 1, 2024 Edition
Feb 01, 2024 – [[read-time]] minute read
Hail and well-met, peoples of YouTube! As your liaison — the person whose literal job it is to help YouTube better understand creators and creators better understand YouTube — I’ve once again scoured YouTube, X/Twitter, Instagram, and Threads to find, bring, and bind you all the most impactful news of the week!
🗞️Guess what’s back? That’s right, the Creator Insider News Flash is back, back again, and you should most definitely tell a few friends! Conor’s set to return next week but, this week, Louis breaks down Top Community Clips, Schedule Members-Only Videos, Improved Playlist Analytics, and Research Tab. No spoilers, just head on over to Creator Insider and watch!
👍 End Screens: You can add end screens to the final 5-20 seconds of your long-form videos and saved live streams. You can use those end screens to put up a big honking avatar-as-subscribe button, if you must. But you can also use them to recommend another of your videos you think someone who just watched the current one would love to watch next, which will increase the chances of them being recommended even more of your videos in the future. You can let the recommendation system pick a video it thinks they’d love to watch. You can do both and pit your precognitive powers up against the algorithm. Some people use them to A/B test thumbnails and titles or to promote a related video with a special deal or offer. Basically, creativity is the only limit! And YouTube Creators has a fresh new video up to show you how end screens work.
😍 Advertisers heart creators: “Consumers have always trusted creators — and 92% of advertisers consider creator content ‘premium’ according to a first-of-its-kind study.” That’s via YouTube Advertisers, and they have all the deets in the Tweet… er post! We already know YouTube creators and advertisers make so much magic together, but I also think 2024 is the year we start seeing everyone from advertisers to academies of arts & sciences recognize just how premium YouTube creators really are, how strong our communities have become, and how inspiring and valuable the creator economy has become!
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🙋Q&A: If I’m changing up my content, should I uncheck the box for sub-feed and notifications, so my existing audience doesn’t choose to skip it and tank the performance? I’m getting this question a lot lately and the simple answer is — no! The more complicated answer is two-fold — 1) even people who are subscribed and get notifications typically watch from the Home page, not from the sub-feed or notification (see last week’s blog) so it wouldn’t make a difference for them anyway, and 2) performance is primarily driven by the data from where the video was served (Home for Home, Search for Search, etc.), so how people react on the sub-feed or notifications won’t have a big impact on home page notifications, so it also wouldn’t make a difference for them. So, leave the box checked, enjoy any extra views you get from the existing audience, and focus on building that new/different one.
📈 Tip of the Week: Continuing on this theme! Some creators worry that if they make an off-topic video, their regular audience will reject it, causing the recommendation system to think it’s a dud, stalling growth so it nevers reaches a new audience that could potentially embrace it. Other creators worry that if they make an off-topic video and it goes viral, it will attract a new audience that isn’t interested in their main topic, so if they’re recommended those videos, they’ll skip them, and overall channel performance will suffer. Basically, we’re worried both ways! Now, if all you care about is max fastest growth, sticking to the same topic while continually innovating and iterating on presentation is the way to go. Like speed-running straight up the mountain. But if you also want to explore some side trails, it may take a little longer, but you also may enjoy it much better. Like an Avengers actor doing an indie flick. If that flick fails, make another Avengers. The audience is almost assuredly still there for it. And if it becomes an unexpected hit, then just like an off-topic video going viral, you can enjoy it as bonus exposure, or you can lean into it, maybe even on a new channel, and see where it can take you as well!
Now get with the contenting!