Shownotes
Our YouTube channel recently reached 26k subscribers! It’s also our strongest lead generation tool and is where I go for all of my hirings. Here are the 9 things I’ve learned about cracking the YouTube algorithm for a successful YouTube channel.
First, I need to thank Evan Carmichael and Uzair Kharawala for all of their guidance and mentorship in launching our YouTube channel.
Post every single day
Make sure to niche down!
You want your videos to be 10 minutes or longer
Aim for a 70% retention at the 60-second mark
Your primary call to action should NOT be to leave YouTube
Thumbnails are absolutely key
Your title needs to be clear and compelling but shouldn’t over-sell the video
Use the video description to offer additional resources, time-coded notes, and deeper calls to action
Ask for the like and subscribe!
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0:00 Cracking the YouTube Algorithm
1:07 Post every single day
2:53 Make sure to niche down!
6:33 You want your videos to be 10 minutes or longer
8:49 Aim for a 70% retention at the 60-second mark
11:01 Your primary call to action should NOT be to leave YouTube
11:54 Thumbnails are absolutely key
12:48 Your title needs to be clear and compelling but shouldn’t over-sell the video
13:02 Use the video description to offer additional resources, time-coded notes, and deeper calls to action
13:45 Ask for the like and subscribe!
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Transcripts
I'm gonna teach you to crack the code on YouTube which, by the way,
2
:I didn't learn to do myself, I learned
from others two people in particular
3
:Uzair Karwala, SF Digital, out in the
UK, my buddy and YouTube mentor, the
4
:reason this YouTube channel exists,
thank you so much, forever grateful
5
:to you, And Evan Carmichael, and
I've got a funny story about Evan.
6
:If I can weave it into this, I will.
7
:But let's just dive in.
8
:I think a YouTube channel is maybe
one of the most powerful tools you
9
:can have from a marketing perspective.
10
:I actually think it's more
powerful than podcast.
11
:People spend more on YouTube than.
12
:Any other website on the internet,
on average, isn't that amazing?
13
:But it also makes a lot of sense, right?
14
:Like YouTube is meant for long form
content, deep dives, retention,
15
:subscription, and people get
really obsessive over YouTube.
16
:It's a really powerful medium.
17
:It's visual and audio, audible,
audio based, It's sticky, and
18
:everybody uses it, dig into YouTube.
19
:But it's also tedious to manage.
20
:It's tedious.
21
:And if you want to be successful,
the first tip is the hardest.
22
:And it might be repellent
to you, by the way.
23
:You have to post everyday.
24
:You have to post every single day.
25
:YouTube loves consistency.
26
:As a matter of fact, you'll notice
that you're going to start posting
27
:and you're not going to get any
views, likes, comments, subscribes, or
28
:anything for 90 to 180 days, depending
on the niche that you've chosen, but.
29
:If you can get past that timeline,
YouTube starts to say, you know what?
30
:I think this person's serious.
31
:Let me start prioritizing their
videos and actually referring them
32
:out to other people organically.
33
:And then you can start to see like,
duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck.
34
:I it just starts to climb slowly.
35
:Surely when we started, we had like
300 fake subscribers and we're at 26,
36
:000 subscribers, which by the way is
not a lot in the world of YouTube,
37
:but it's a lot given our niche.
38
:Right?
39
:Like we're not marketing, we're
not digital marketing, we're not
40
:paid media, we're Google ads.
41
:And I'm starting to expand a little bit
out of that, which is another strategy
42
:that we can talk about a little bit.
43
:You start super, super,
super, super, super niche.
44
:So you can actually, A, provide value,
let people know who you are, and
45
:then also capture people's attention.
46
:And then you slowly zoom out as
you've established that niche.
47
:And you look at the other
people who've done this.
48
:Look at Gary V.
49
:Gary V started talking about wine.
50
:And that's it.
51
:You want to talk about niche.
52
:Like, Gary Vee is famous because
he was talking about wine, and then
53
:people liked him and his personality,
and then he started to, expand.
54
:So post every single day.
55
:Now, that doesn't mean that you
need to record every single day.
56
:I batch record.
57
:I usually record five to ten videos
a week, generally in one sitting.
58
:I just sit here, and I've got all my
slides open, and they're based off of
59
:Twitter threads that I've written, I
power through them, which is, it's the
60
:easy thing to do to get into a cadence,
and I'm, you know, kind of used to,
61
:I've got my, podcast voice on, and the
camera's rolling, and it's just, it's
62
:easier to carve out, you know, an hour
or two, and I can bang out a whole week's
63
:plus worth of videos in about an hour.
64
:You can do that same thing too, so
if you can dedicate an hour a week,
65
:you can have a YouTube channel, but
you have to post every single day.
66
:Every single day number two, you have
to make sure to niche down niche niche.
67
:Who knows how it says nobody
knows There's no consensus.
68
:I like niche But except when I rhyme
it with riches riches are in the niches
69
:YouTube needs to know who you appeal
to Google is a matching mechanism.
70
:It matches searchers with And
the more niche you are, the more
71
:effective you're going to be.
72
:Alrick Heck, who has been on
my channel a couple times,
73
:been on my podcast a few times.
74
:Really brilliant guy.
75
:Alrick, at 12 years old, started
a YouTube channel teaching old
76
:people to use their iPhones.
77
:Great niche, right?
78
:Like, a lot of foresight there.
79
:Really brilliant guy.
80
:He was a millionaire
before he was 18 years old.
81
:Pick a niche.
82
:and here's the thing.
83
:You don't have to live
in that niche forever.
84
:I have a concept that I call
the hourglass of niching.
85
:And the hourglass of niching says that
you choose the niche and maybe it's a
86
:little broad to start if you're not sure.
87
:Where to go so like I owned a Google
Ads agency my niche as far as Google
88
:Ads made all the sense in the world But
you might say like hey, I want to launch
89
:YouTube channel I'm not entirely sure
exactly what my niche is, but I do know
90
:that I want it to be in personal finance
Okay, so I'm inside of personal finance
91
:I'm at the top of my hourglass and then
I start to shoot videos and I've got
92
:videos on Budgeting and videos on side
hustles and videos on crypto, God forbid.
93
:And then all of a sudden you're like, man,
my side hustle videos are like taken off.
94
:I'm getting two, three, four times
the number of views I'm going to
95
:start to narrow my niche and all of
a sudden I'm side hustles and you
96
:know what so now you're, traveling
down the hourglass and it's not just.
97
:side hustles.
98
:I noticed that I'm getting a lot of stay
at home moms, like all my commenters, the
99
:messages that I'm getting really feels
like there's like, you know what I mean?
100
:I'm speaking to the
stay at home mom crowd.
101
:And so I narrowed down
my niche even further.
102
:And so now it's like, I've got a
YouTube channel about side hustles for
103
:stay at home moms in North America.
104
:Like that's a great, great, great niche.
105
:So now \ you're at the center of the
hourglass where the hourglass tapers.
106
:And if you try to taper it any further,
you realize like, Oh, that went too far.
107
:This is good.
108
:I'm narrow as I want to get.
109
:That's where maximum efficiency is
found, from a niching down perspective.
110
:However, the issue that you run into is,
you can't scale and maintain efficiency.
111
:So when you find maximum efficiency,
you also notice that you actually kind
112
:of run out of the ability to grow.
113
:I'm there now with my YouTube
channel, our growth rate plateaued
114
:at around 22, 000 subscribers.
115
:And then our subscriber rate started
to slow because there's only so
116
:many people that want like dedicated
Google ads content every single
117
:day, which is why I'm zooming out
into broader business topics, right?
118
:I'm, I'm, I'm now starting to branch out.
119
:I would not have been able to do that
at the beginning and achieve the same
120
:level of traction because there's so many
people in the broad business topic space.
121
:But because I have my subscriber
base of 25, 26, 000 people, I get the
122
:views and the clicks and the likes and
the comments to allow me to compete
123
:with the other people that are in
the mildly broader business space.
124
:And you'll notice that most of my
content still speaks specifically
125
:to agencies, small business owners.
126
:So it's still kind of the same avatar.
127
:that says you taper down out
of the hourglass of niching.
128
:So you start a little broad, you taper
down, you find maximum efficiency and
129
:you maximize that efficiency, by the way,
you don't broaden out right out of the
130
:gate, but you wait and decide like, okay.
131
:I think I've run out of runway here.
132
:gotten as much juice as I'm
going to get out of this audience
133
:and I want to continue to grow.
134
:So I'm going to broad now to get
that's the hourglass of niching.
135
:I hope that's helpful.
136
:I think I'm gonna make a
whole separate video on this.
137
:I just actually wrote a note for myself.
138
:Isn't that fun when it happens live?
139
:Number three!
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:You want your videos to
be ten minutes or longer.
141
:This comes directly from Evan Carmichael.
142
:Who, by the way, is brilliant, brilliant.
143
:If you don't know Evan,
you should go follow him.
144
:Super, super sharp guy.
145
:Tons of amazing interviews
on his YouTube channel.
146
:the space of an hour, taught
me, like, more than I ever, ever
147
:cared to know about YouTube.
148
:YouTube likes long form content.
149
:Which is interesting.
150
:Now, there's a difference between YouTube
and YouTube Shorts, and you can use
151
:YouTube Shorts in order to drive towards
your YouTube videos, but you want to
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:have your videos 10 minutes or longer.
153
:Not all my videos end up being 10 minutes.
154
:I don't like to force it.
155
:I like to just shoot the video for
as long as it needs to be with the
156
:understanding that maybe when I'm Ideating
the ideas should be 10 minute ideas.
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:So don't take a three minute
idea and make it 10 minutes.
158
:Don't take a 45 minute idea
and make it 10 minutes either.
159
:Right?
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:The idea will take as long as it
needs to get out onto the table.
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:And I've actually had some people recently
complained in the comments that I ramble.
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:And you know, the problem with that
is, is that's my comfort zone from
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:a content creation perspective.
164
:If I'm too strict and rigid and
scripted, I don't have any fun.
165
:I don't execute very well
and it just doesn't happen.
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:And so this is where I like to live.
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:And if you don't like the rambling.
168
:not trying to push you away.
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:I love you.
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:I'm rooting for you.
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:Don't watch my channel, you know, and
go find somebody who just gets it out
172
:the way that you want it to get out.
173
:be comfortable in your delivery
of content in the way that you're
174
:pushing it out and that will help you
reach some of these time thresholds.
175
:And I actually think it's
okay to make it organic.
176
:I prefer that.
177
:I like listening to thought
leaders that hop in and they're,
178
:thinking and learning as they go.
179
:Jordan Peterson is like this for me.
180
:when I listen to Jordan Peterson,
I can see him discovering the
181
:topic as the discussion happens.
182
:It makes me feel like a participant.
183
:It makes me feel like I'm
actually, like, actively there.
184
:I like to do that same thing.
185
:Not that I'm anywhere near as
intelligent as him, but trying
186
:to follow kind of those themes.
187
:That'll help you get to 10 minutes.
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:Instead of just saying like,
here's the news, right?
189
:You're not a newscaster.
190
:Don't use a teleprompter.
191
:Talk about what's happening and then
what your ideas are behind that thing.
192
:And again, YouTube
likes long form content.
193
:And by the way, 10 minutes is
the minimum you could have.
194
:We've got some of our highest
traffic videos are hour Or more.
195
:As a matter of fact, one of our
highest performing ads was an hour.
196
:Can you believe that?
197
:It's unbelievable.
198
:Number four, aim for a 70%
retention rate at the 62nd mark.
199
:Also, from Evan, you want
people to click and to stay.
200
:70% retention at the 62nd mark.
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:And by the way, this is hard.
202
:I rarely achieve this.
203
:As a matter of fact, I've got a Slack
channel where my marketing team.
204
:Dumps in our YouTube analytics,
so I'm gonna read you my analytics
205
:from last week Monday uncovering the
dark side of Google's price fixing
206
:Retention rate at the one minute mark
71 percent That's great Tuesday, why
207
:you should embrace imposter syndrome.
208
:Retention at the one minute mark, 62%.
209
:Wednesday, how I lied my way to
the number one spot on Amazon.
210
:Retention rate, 59 percent
at the 60 second mark.
211
:Thursday, why scaling and
maintaining efficiency don't mix.
212
:59 percent retention at 60 seconds.
213
:And Friday, Rest in peace, Google search.
214
:Generative AI is here and it's awesome.
215
:61 percent retention.
216
:So out of five days, I hit the 70
percent retention mark one time.
217
:Now, obviously I want to optimize
that, but just here to tell you, this
218
:is a gold standard and it's hard.
219
:However, what it means is you actually
don't want to clickbait videos.
220
:You don't want clickbait titles,
or at least you want to be really
221
:careful, like obviously you want
your titles to be compelling.
222
:But you want to be so compelling that
the person who clicks and starts to
223
:watch goes, You know what, this isn't
as interesting as the title was,
224
:because then they're gonna leave.
225
:And you're not going to get recommended.
226
:And being recommended as a YouTube
video is, is, that's the mecca.
227
:Like, that's where you
want to be, you want to go.
228
:So aim for a 70 percent retention
rate at the 60 second mark.
229
:One of the ways to do that is
to front load all of, like, the
230
:amazing nuggets and sound bites.
231
:And so I stole this from Evan.
232
:We used it for a short period
where it said coming soon, and
233
:then there was like all these quick
little snippets and quick hitters.
234
:I ended up stopping that
for a couple of reasons.
235
:I didn't like that it took the wind out of
the sails of the remainder of the videos.
236
:And then, I also felt like, just because
I do a lot of shorter form content
237
:than people like Evan do, you know,
I'm not doing a three hour interview.
238
:And so, if you're doing a ten minute
video and you bring all the, highlights
239
:forward, it's a little less effective.
240
:But it can work for you if
you're doing longer form content.
241
:Number five!
242
:Your primary call to action
should not be to leave YouTube.
243
:everybody's called action is like go
to my website and fill out my form
244
:schedule an appointment go buy this thing
YouTube's number one goals retention
245
:Then I think they're stated number one
goals retention and google very rarely
246
:tells the truth about their goals so
that this will be a first google wants
247
:the people to stay in app You have to
feed that by recommending other videos.
248
:So instead of the recommendation
being to go do anything else, and
249
:you can have those softly, right?
250
:It's like, hey, if you ever want help
with Google Ads, you can go to my
251
:website and request a free action plan.
252
:And then that'll happen
every now and again.
253
:But, your primary call to
action is to watch this video.
254
:And this video is a video that's relevant
to the video that you're watching.
255
:So right now you're watching a video on
cracking the code on YouTube algorithms.
256
:So maybe the next video that I recommend
to you is like, content creation,
257
:video production made easy, how do you
run YouTube ads, that type of thing.
258
:Primary call to action should
not be to leave YouTube though.
259
:You want to help YouTube
maintain retention.
260
:Number six!
261
:Thumbnails are key.
262
:And I hated this part
to be honest with you.
263
:I was like, if my video is
good, if my content's good,
264
:why do my thumbnails matter?
265
:Here's what's sad.
266
:Your thumbnails matter more
than your video content.
267
:Doesn't that hurt to hear?
268
:It hurts to say.
269
:You wanna overinvest in your thumbnails?
270
:We have our designer, her name is Jack.
271
:She's brilliant.
272
:She's a, literal genius, and she comes
up with these amazing thumbnail ideas and
273
:you know, one of the primary reasons that
our YouTube channel's been so successful.
274
:and, technical details, you want your
text on the left, not on the right because
275
:it'll get covered by the time code.
276
:You want your image on the
right and you want your text
277
:to be bold and easy to read.
278
:We used to slam our.
279
:Thumbnails with just lots of text
and nobody could get through it.
280
:So make sure your thumbnails are good With
AI tools now that I'll actually get better
281
:and better and better And then you also
want sure your title has to be clear and
282
:compelling And don't oversell the video
because you're gonna hurt your retention.
283
:So make sure that your title is
very Consistent maintain continuity
284
:with what it is that you're offering
people that was number seven Number
285
:eight use the video description to
offer additional resources, timecode
286
:notes, and deeper calls to action.
287
:Anytime I'm on a video that I love, I
notice that one of the first comments
288
:that people like, above all other
comments, is anybody who's gone in
289
:there and offered the timecoded notes.
290
:So they like it, you know, one
minute, thirty seconds, they do this.
291
:At four minutes, they talk about this.
292
:At nine minutes, they talk about that.
293
:Just do that for people!
294
:Naturally.
295
:It's not hard to do.
296
:And then give them stuff.
297
:Give people the ability to
like, comment, subscribe.
298
:Obviously Instead of YouTube, but like
give people the ability to sign up and
299
:for your newsletter or request something.
300
:Let them know what you want to do.
301
:What is it you're selling?
302
:Because as people learn to know and trust
you they also want to buy from you and
303
:you want to give them that opportunity.
304
:And the description is
the best place to do that.
305
:Number eight Is you have to ask
for the like and the subscribe.
306
:You have to tell people
what it is that you want.
307
:I'm, not very good at this.
308
:I usually make it a dismissal.
309
:But when people like, and comment, and
subscribe, those are indications to
310
:YouTube that you're doing something right.
311
:So, if you're watching this video, and
I've offered anything of value, like would
312
:be great, a comment is better, and if you
actually want to hear from me every day,
313
:because I shoot a video every day, then
go ahead and hit the subscribe button.
314
:I appreciate everybody YouTube channel.
315
:Truly grateful to you and for you.
316
:and I'll see you tomorrow.
