Transcripts
1. Intro: Most beginner
creators think that the YouTube algorithm is a secret system that is
working against them. But in reality, the algorithm is much simpler than
people make it seem. Its job is not to
stop your growth. Is job is to figure
out what your video is about and find people
who will enjoy it. In this course, you'll
learn how YouTube actually tests and
recommends videos. Why some videos spread
and others die quickly and how to make your content easier for the algorithm
to understand. So if you're tired of confusing advice and fake
YouTube Hacksa don't work, this video will simplify
everything for you. By the end, you won't just understand the
YouTube algorithm. You'll also understand
how to work with it instead of fighting
it. Let's get started.
2. What The YouTube Algorithm Actually Does: What the YouTube
algorithm actually does. Before going into
the nitty gritty, let's understand how
the machinery works. The YouTube algorithm
is not your enemy. Its job is very simple. Understand your video,
find the right audience, and keep viewers watching for longer on the
platform. That's it. The good news is
that YouTube doesn't care if you're a small
creator or a big creator. It only cares about one thing. Do people like this video
enough to keep watching or not? Your job is to make it extremely clear who
the video is for, what the video is about, and why should someone click? The clearer your content is, the easier it gets
recommended on YouTube. See, also, most beginner
content creators really work very hard to
confuse the algorithm. Now what I mean by that is one video they will
upload like a tech video. For example, they bought the latest phone and they
will upload a video about it. Then they upload a random
travel blog or food blog. Then they randomly
upload a fitness video, then a random motivation video. This confuses the algorithm. Even YouTube will start asking, who should I recommend
this channel to? Remember, I said
channel, not video. And that is a big
distinction because YouTube will categorize
your channel's audience. Like, who will watch
this particular channel. They won't filter out
just the audience just based on your
specific video. That's why you can't upload videos from all the
niches in the world. You have to pick your battle. The thing is you want your channel to be
predictable in a good way. The algorithm is not trying
to stop your growth, it's trying to find
the right viewers, and your job is to make
that process easy.
3. 3 How Videos Go Viral: How videos go viral. When you upload a video, YouTube doesn't immediately push it to millions of people. Instead, the start is
usually very slow. First, YouTube tests your videos with a small group of people. And this group will consist
of people who enjoy watching that particular topic or have already watched
your videos before. And now YouTube just waits. And they see how this initial batch
responds to your videos. Do they click? Do they watch for more than 20
seconds, 30 seconds? I'm assuming you're
uploading a longer video, like 4 minutes, 5 minutes. Do people even watch
10% of the video? How much do people watch? Do people like? Do people share? Do people leave a comment
and all these metrics? These reactions or the lack thereof will tell YouTube
whether it should recommend your video
to a bigger group of audience if the basic metrics
of your video are good. For example, you get
high click-through rate, you get stronger watch
time, audience retention. People click DO video, but they watch other
videos of you as well. Then YouTube will recommend that particular video to
a bigger group of people. And if that bigger
audience responds well to the video gets recommended to even
bigger group of people. And this process is
repeated over time. Causing videos to go viral. You must have noticed every time you just watch a
video that goes viral, the engagement percentages
on that are off the charts. For example, just as an
example, for example, most videos on YouTube with really good engagement
get 10% likes. For example, if they
have 10,000 views, they have 1,000 likes. I'm talking like this is considered really,
really good engagement. And as the number of views
increase, for example, on 1 million views, you won't get 100,000 likes. It's very rare. But for videos that
go completely viral, you will see it shattering
the like barrier, the number of comments, and every single metric is
going to be off the charts.
4. Core Audience is Everything: Core audience is everything. If viewers subscribe for a tech video and you suddenly
upload a cooking video, even the viewers
will be confused. Not because the video is bad, your recipe may
actually be good, but because it's not
what they came for. And this matters
more because YouTube always tests your new videos with your core audience first. And if they respond
negatively, for example, they completely
ignore your video or you don't get watch time, click-through rate your video
will die down completely. Some creators think
I don't want to be tied down to one niche. But niche consistency doesn't mean that every video
will be identical. You just have to make the video for the
same group of people. For example, a tech creator, for example, I make videos on
latest iPhones or whatever. I can create videos
on new applications. I can create videos on laptops. I can create
informational videos on what is happening behind
the scenes in tech companies. For example, Apple
just got a new CEO, so I can talk about it as well. There are plethora
of topics that I can talk about in my niche or
any niche for that matter. Just ask yourself this, would the same person click
on all of these videos? This question is extremely
important because your goal should not be
to attract everyone. Your goal is to become extremely valuable to a specific
type of viewer.
5. Why Most Beginner Channels Confuse the Algorithm: Why most beginner channels
confuse the algorithm. One of the reason we have
talked about before uploading random videos that are not related to each
other, for example, one tech video, one travel blog, one fitness video,
one motivation video, there is zero audience overlap. The same person will most likely not be interested
in all of these videos, so none of these
videos will go viral. Another important mistake that I want to talk
about specifically, and people barely talk about
this particular mistake, yet pretty much
everyone is making it. Asking random people to subscribe to your
YouTube account. It sounds harmless, but it can really and dramatically slow
down your YouTube growth. Let's say your cousin
watches football content, your aunt watches cooking
videos, you're another cousin. He or she watches
gaming live streams, and you ask all of them to subscribe to
your YouTube channel, and they do because they're
friends and family. But now, what will happen is you upload a video,
even if it's good. They are not your
target audience. So it doesn't matter
if they watch the video completely or if
they ignore it completely. They are not your target
audience in YouTube's eyes. After a few uploads, even these people will
completely ignore your videos. Right, completely. They will completely ignore your videos. And and I have
already said this, that YouTube tests your video with your core audience first. So no matter how
good the video is, your friends and family won't
watch it since they are not the target audience,
they won't watch it. They will ignore the video and the video will
die down completely. In turn massively slowing
down your growth. Like if your own subscribers are not clicking on the video, the video will fail to
spread any further. Like that's why having 100 highly targeted subscribers is much better than
1,000 random ones. Also another fact,
YouTube generally needs 20 to 30 videos before it actually understands who
will watch your content. A lot of content creators
quit even before YouTube gathers enough data on who will watch their videos.
6. The Stats that Actually Matter: The stats that actually matter. Most beginner creators obsess
over the subscriber count, but subscribers are not the main growth signals
on YouTube anymore. The three most important
stats are click-through rate, watch time and
audience retention. These three numbers tell YouTube whether people actually
enjoy your content or not. Click-through rate
tells YouTube, people are interested
enough to click. And this usually comes
from your topic selection, your title, your thumbnail, if you're able to generate
any form of intrigue or emotion in a fellow viewer
through the thumbnail. Click-through rate
will get a click. Watch time actually
determines whether YouTube will recommend that
video to more people or not. The longer people stay the more valuable YouTube
considers your video to be. That's why creators should
focus heavily on better hooks, faster pacing, cleaner editing, and stronger storytelling. The first 30 seconds are especially important because
in those 30 seconds, people will usually decide, am I leaving or am I staying? This is why long intros
usually hurt the retention. Get into the value quickly. The faster viewer
becomes interested, the stronger your
retention becomes.
7. Thumbnail & Click Through Rate Basics: Thumbnail and
click-through rate Basics. Your thumbnail and
title are a team. They should work together to
create one complete story. The thumbnail creates
emotion, curiosity, tension, and the title explains the context
and the topic. A huge beginner mistake I see is the thumbnail and title
say exactly the same thing. For example, their
thumbnail text would say, I bought the cheapest iPhone, and the title says
the exact same thing. I bought the cheapest iPhone. There is no curiosity gap, no new information
and no tension. Instead, the thumbnail
and the title should complement each other and not
repeat each other's story. The brain should understand
the thumbnail instantly. That's why clarity is more
important than fancy design. A simple thumbnail with
one face, one object, strong emotion usually
performs better than a cluttered thumbnail full of tiny text and too many
different images.
8. Secret YouTube Hacks: Secret YouTube hacks. One of the biggest
mistake new creators make is constantly searching
for secret YouTube hacks. People look for magical upload
times, hidden settings, algorithm loopholes,
secret keywords, tricks dad guarantee views. But the truth is much simpler
that there is no trick. YouTube growth usually
is a compound effect. Small improvements repeated over a consistent period of time. This is what actually
grows channels. The problem with most
YouTube hack videos is they focus on shortcuts
rather than skill building, and shortcuts rarely last. The algorithm keeps
changing anyway. So even if you do discover something that is going
to give you more views, it will work this month, but most probably it won't work next month because the
algorithm changed again. But the audience
psychology barely changes. People still click on the video that they
find interesting that is able to generate intrigue or curiosity
with their thumbnail. People will still keep watching the video because
the pacing is good, the editing is good, and
the storytelling is good. And the viewer still leaves if the video feels too slow or
the intros are too damn long. This is why creators
should focus heavily on creating content for people
rather than the algorithm. That's why content
creators should spend less time trying to beat the algorithm and more time in actually improving
the viewer experience.
9. Focus on Humans, not the Algorithm: Focus on humans,
not the algorithm. One of the biggest mindset
shifts for you would be stop making videos of
the algorithm and make videos that
people actually enjoy. The algorithm's job is
very simple to understand what topic your video is on and show it to the
right group of people. That's it. Your job is to help the process by clearly signaling what
the video is about. Making the video enjoyable. A lot of creators become
obsessed with hacking the algorithm that they completely ignore the
actual viewer experience. I call this as
backwards approach. Because viewers today have endless options, at any second, they can choose to watch
a different video or hop onto Instagram or read it or
even just another platform. If I were you, I'd spend most of my effort in creating videos
that are enjoyable to watch. This means focusing
on stronger hooks, better storytelling,
tighter editing, more emotional thumbnails
or generate curiosity, faster pacing, clearer
communication, more entertaining delivery. Instead of constantly asking, how do I hack the algorithm ask, why would someone
choose to watch this instead of everything
else available?
10. Outro: Hopefully by now,
YouTube algorithm feels a lot less mysterious. Don't stress if growth feels
slow in the beginning. It's meant to
compound over time. Focus on improving
one video at a time, because when your stats
consistently improve, when you click-through
rate, watch time consistently improves, the algorithm usually follows. You don't need to beat
the YouTube algorithm. You just need to make videos
that are worth watching. Thanks for taking the course and good luck with your channel.
Shubham Jain, Everything about Etsy & Social Media
