Even with videos published, a new YouTube channel feels invisible. Thoughtless uploads won’t grow views. With planning, channels can make the right videos to drive clicks and views to their content.
Growth happens one click at a time via Snaphappen.com. There are cases where videos have gained traction multiple weeks after publishing, so learn to build your strategy before you burn out from the race to the top.
Start With a Clear YouTube Niche and Audience
YouTube can more easily suggest videos when it knows who to suggest them to. There is a greater clarity with a ‘channel helping busy beginners to strength at home’ compared to ‘fitness’.
Who are you trying to help? What do they know? What is the problem they face? What is the outcome they desire? A novice with a DSLR and a wedding photographer are both searching for camera advice; however, they have very different needs.
Related topic groups of videos that you create and cluster together encourage audiences to watch more than one video. For example, a channel focused on home cooking could cover weeknight meals, budget grocery plans and knife skills.
Use YouTube search predictive text to find out what people are actually searching for. Look at Google Trends to see if there are any seasonal interests and what is popular. You can also use vidIQ or TubeBuddy to check out what related keywords competitors are using. Go beyond just views. Look in the comments section for the popular video because you can often find the questions that were not fully answered.
Productions Can’t Save Ideas that No One Searches For
A good idea can’t be saved by a good production team. With quality in mind, you must first understand what people are actually searching for. Search-driven videos usually work since the person has already shown interest.
Beginner level problems are fantastic fodder. A new gardener may search “why are my tomato leaves turning yellow?” A buyer of either product may search “iPhone vs Samsung camera comparison.” These folks don’t want to view your long explanation, they want an answer.
Try to diversify your evergreen and trending videos. Making evergreen videos can keep sells coming, such as tutorials and how to’s, product comparisons and reviews, step by step how to’s and fixes, and a various amount of buyer’s guides. Trending videos may include product launches, holidays, and software updates. The great thing about these videos are that they expand your audience, while the former builds your library.
Some formats naturally provide the viewer with value such as:
1) Tutorials – A step by step guide on how to achieve a task culminating with a view of the end goal.
2) Comparisons – Help the viewer decide how to solve a problem or which method to use to accomplish a goal.
3) Reviews – Who should buy the product, who should skip it, etc.
4) Case studies -Shared results of a decision and what lessons were learned.
5) Reactions – provide context to video, do not just watch and share someone else’s work
Before each recording, answer the question “After watching, the viewer will know how to…”. Be concise, and if you can’t answer this easily, then you should improve this idea as you are not providing value to your audience. The goal is to provide value to your audience and grow your channel along with it.
Improve Titles and Thumbnails for Click-Worthy Videos
A video gets an impression from YouTube showing the video’s thumbnail. Click through rate (CTR) is the ratio of impression to actual video view. Titles and thumbnails each have a role in getting the viewer to take that benchmark click.
A good practice is to place the main idea at the beginning of the title. Instead of “My Best Tips for Taking Better Pictures With Your Phone,” have “Fix Blurry iPhone Photos in 5 Minutes.” While “My Best Tips…” may be better from a creative/elaborate standpoint, “Fix Blurry…” title is much clearer and more appropriate in this instance because of the speed and distance from which videos are viewed.
Titles that guarantee a specific outcome and don’t deliver in the video are a quick shortcut to losing viewers and a longer term decline in audience interest.
Thumbnails should have a simple layout of a subject with contrasting colors and an image that supports the title. To the extent then are permissible on mobile, use legible large text to convey a few important title words.
Simple thumbnails along with the use of creative and appropriate titles are the best way to help your videos cut through the clutter. Gaussian Blur and poor lighting seem to be plaguing a good number of today’s videos leaving an opening for high quality content.
You can try different thumbnails along with a creative title to see if you can boost the number of clicks based on the analytics provided by YouTube.
Establish Attraction Within The First Few Seconds
Clickbait is just the first step. Audience retention and average view duration determine whether the video was successful. Viewers form an opinion, good or bad, in the first couple of seconds.
To combat this, immediately respond to the primary question surrounding the topic at hand, and show the answer you are promising. Say your video is on how to fix a leaky sink, show the leaky faucet, and talk about all the tools that you need. Skip the lengthy animations, introductions, and anything that may take away time from the answer.
The video structure should be simple:
- State the issue. Show the end result the audience will see after completing the steps.
- Step description in an easy to follow fashion.
- Show common mistakes or examples to show the step is important.
- Show the finished result. (Video bonus show related content).
Structure is the most important factor. Rushing to cut everything results in a mess. A video is not a presentation. If the goal of the video is to show the audience how to do something, include a lot of angles, and change the subject in the video when you change the subject. If some of the topics in the video will be similar, take a moment to pause and use that time to rethink structure and your words.
The retention graph should be checked after the video is published. If retention drops off in the first few seconds, viewers lost interest or the video doesn’t match the title, it’s too long, or it’s too slow.
If there are spikes or periods of peak interest in a section of the video it’s probably confusing to the audience, skip this section next time.
Use Shorts And Promotions To Gain New Audiences
Shorts have the ability to attract new audiences. Each Short should have an idea associated with it. People will not waste time trying to figure out your interesting idea from a random sentence.
Extract a strong moment from one of your longer videos, and edit it vertically. Subtract everything that doesn’t contribute to the idea, and write with captions. It is perfectly fine to promote your 30 second tip, as it will likely produce an audience that needs your longer tutorial.
Sharing a Short on an audience that isn’t your usual viewer base will get you the most results. Share on email newsletters, your website, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, WhatsApp and groups pertaining to the particular topic where sharing is permitted. Collaborations with other creators can also expose you to a new audience, but both creators need to bring value to the collaboration.
Do not invest money to buy fake views, fake subscribers, or fake comments on your page as the engagement is fake, and does not attract real viewers. buying engagement will most likely sabotage your whole channel.
Create a Sustainable Publishing System That Actually Works
There is no need to publish anything daily in order to increase your channel views. A publish schedule that you can keep for at least a few months is better than a ‘Publish and Pray’ approach. If you’re a solo creator, most likely one long-form video (15-20 minutes) and a few shorts each week can be a solid starting publish schedule.
Wherever possible, do tasks in ‘batch’ mode. Research, script outlines, and video filming can all be done in one session.
A 30 day plan can be simple:
- Decide on three audience problems, and brainstorm long form videos around each.
- Share a standalone tip or brief moments as Shorts to accompany each problem.
- Add each long video to its appropriate playlist, and provide a ‘suggested next video’ resource in the description.
- After publishing, spend time and comment on videos, and editing statistics.
Playlists are a great way to provide viewers with a way to control where they go next within a collection of videos. A video on beginner sourdough can provide a pathway to even more videos on shaping, baking, and storage.
Looking at ‘What Works’ Can Help You Transform Statistics into Long-term Success
Analyze You Tube Analytics weekly and track impressions, CTR, average view duration, audience retention, traffic sources, return viewers, and subscribers gained. Each metric helps answer questions.
Low impressions may mean not enough demand for a topic or audience & audience fit for YouTube. Low CTR often means poor packaging. If there is good clicker retention, your opening, pace, or the video promise may need work.
Don’t take a disappointing result as a reason for a complete channel makeover. Fine tune with one or two changes. Use similar uploads for comparison, and track which videos keep a strong retention and audience engagement. Make follow up comparison videos to answer the buyer’s next question. If a previous video tutorial is being searched, update the upload with a new angle.
The object is not to achieve a larger view count, it is to figure out a pattern. This involves topics, packaging, and viewing that will encourage them to come back.
Conclusion
To achieve thousands of views, you must have a clear promise to the audience and a useful video. Earned clicks through clear promises and video editing to focus are a reason for retention.
Broaden your discovery with Shorts and promotion, and let the analytics be your next decision. Viral success though will bring more long term success than one make or break video.
Research 3 problems your audience relates to, and plan your next 3 videos around solutions to those problems.



