Creator Playbook Version 4 youtube.
What’s New in this Version Since we released the first Creator Playbook in July 2011, quite a bit has changed on YouTube. And, as the platform evolves to reflect our new strategies and recommendations for audience development, so too does the Creator Playbook. New and Revamped Sections: • Live: YouTube Live gives your fans another reason to tune in. Cover timely events and create new ways for your fans to interact with you.
Table of Contents Optimization Welcome Introduction Playbook Structure Icons & Key Definitions 2 3 4 Programming Captivate Your Audience Calls to Action Regular Schedule and Frequency Playlists Tent-pole Programming YouTube Live Checklist 6 9 11 15 19 22 27 Appendix Resources Video Upload Checklist Glossary 82 83 84 Metadata Thumbnails Annotations Channel Page Maintaining the Channel Feed Reaching All Audiences YouTube Analytics Checklist 29 33 36 40 45 48 51 59 Community Build Your Community Cross
Introduction We’re excited to provide our partners with a great resource that compiles important tips, best practices, and strategies to help you build your audience on YouTube. We hope that you find the information helpful to your creative process, and we hope to help you take your channel to the next level. First, we want to address some questions you may have about what kind of information is presented in the Creator Playbook and how you should use this resource as a tool to achieve your creative goals.
Playbook Structure The Creator Playbook is structured into three sections: Programming, Optimization, and Community. Each section presents several optimizations or strategies for building engaged audiences on YouTube. These best practices are explained in stages to help you understand each point and guide you through taking action. Overview Details Includes: • Provides context and further detail on why this specific best practice is important or how to implement it.
Icons & Key Definitions Progress Bar Impact Rating Progress bar appears at the bottom of the page showing the progress through each best practice.
Section One Programming Build a cohesive channel strategy and viewing experience. Gone are the days when YouTube was exclusively a place for one-hit viral videos. If you’re a creator interested in building a successful channel on YouTube, you’ve got to consider your channel’s long-term plan. What does this mean, and how do you execute it? The answer largely lies in developing a viable programming strategy.
Captivate Your Audience Impact 3 out of 5 Strategy: Time Cost Effect • Retention • Annotation CTR • Views Hook viewers from the start of your video to keep them watching. Why It Works: Videos and channels that retain their viewers create the best viewing experience. YouTube optimizes search and discovery for videos that increase watch time on the site.
Captivate Your Audience Hook your viewers Keep them watching Many viewers decide whether they’ll keep watching a video within the first few seconds. Hook viewers early, and keep their attention. Follow your video’s catchy opening with awesomeness. The right length for a video is exactly as long it keeps people glued to the screen. That said, basic production techniques help! • Make the first shot fascinating. • Address the audience immediately.
Captivate Your Audience 8 Optimize for long-form content Optimize for serial viewing • Pique viewer interest for what’s coming up through graphics, in-video messaging, or other creative techniques. If you create narratives that extend across multiple videos, sweet! But be sure to use these tricks to keep your viewers happy -- and not disoriented. • For non-linear narratives, use annotations and graphics to allow viewers to jump to specific sections of the video.
Calls to Action Impact 4 out of 5 Strategy: Time Cost • • • • Direct viewers during the video to take actions that can help build engagement and audience. Why It Works: Online video is an interactive experience. Prompting your viewers to take action will help them feel more invested in your work. How To Do It: Accomplished through production and/or annotations.
Calls to Action Watching video online is an interactive and social experience. Content creators rely on the actions of their audience to help them succeed - but many viewers won’t act unless you prompt them. Your videos should have specific Calls to Action (CTAs). CTAs should be minimal and simple; too many prompts can cause confusion. Make it as easy as possible for viewers to act. How to include CTAs Types of Action • In-video graphics.
Regular Schedule & Frequency Impact 4 out of 5 Strategy: Time Cost • Subscriber Views • Subscribers • Views Release videos frequently on a recurring schedule. React to trending topics with relevant content. Why It Works: Frequent uploads and other platform engagement keep your channel feed active and retain audience interest. How To Do It: Find the right release schedule for your audience. Maximize the content developed during production shoots.
Regular Schedule & Frequency Once you hook your viewers, give them a reason to keep coming back. New material, regularly scheduled, will do the trick. Feed your channel’s feed! Get the most from your productions How to “feed” your feed • Recycle current content into making-of videos, bloopers, behind-the- scenes, recaps, best of countdowns, trailers, vlogs, comment videos and more. • Upload frequently. Aim to publish a minimum of one video per week. • Keep your feed active.
Regular Schedule & Frequency Set a schedule Stay timely YouTube isn’t TV, but some of the principles that drive television viewership apply to the web. Regular release schedules and timely publishing are both important for online video. • Timing matters. News and politics, sports, commentary, and opinion content can thrive on topicality. • Release videos on a set day of the week, if possible; audiences like structure. • If your channel hosts multiple shows, create a programming schedule.
Regular Schedule & Frequency Examples Maintaining an Active Feed with Uploads and More /MIYA, /RIDEChannel, /MikeRelm 14 Communicate Your Schedule /hplusdigitalseries
Playlists Impact 3 out of 5 Strategy: Time Cost • Views • Watch-time • Annotation CTR Create and manage playlists to organize your videos and provide an extended viewing experience. Why It Works: Playlists make it easy for viewers to lean back and watch multiple videos with minimal effort. Playlists can increase watch-time. How To Do It: Create playlists for different sets of videos. Optimize the playlists’ metadata, and direct viewers to these playlists via annotations and links.
Playlists Playlists should be an essential part of your channel strategy. Not only do they increase watch-time, they create another asset that will appear in search results and in Suggested Videos. You can create playlists using your own videos, other videos, or a combination of both. When should I make a playlist? • To group a set of videos that you want viewers to enjoy in a single session or in a particular order. • To group videos around a theme or a tentpole event.
Playlists Advanced playlist features and strategies Feature: Start and End Time Find it: In Edit Playlist What it does: Sets the “in” and “out” points for any video in a playlist. Allows you to create a seamless curated experience, highlighting and connecting select moments in videos. This feature is especially useful if your videos include repetitive opening titles and credits; you can use it to omit these portions of your videos.
Playlists Examples Channel Post with Playlist Attached /Break Playlists with In and Out Points /SpaceLab 18 ‘Start and End Time’ Interface /Destorm
Tent-pole Programming Impact 4 out of 5 Strategy: Time Cost • • • • Create, release, and/or package content that is themed around tent-pole events. Why It Works: Tent-pole events capitalize on search trends and audience interests. How To Do It: Create and publish content according to a programming calendar. Use playlists and other packaging to position your content for tentpole events.
Tent-pole Programming Why does Discovery Channel have Shark Week every year? Why are scary movies released around Halloween? Why do talk shows have relationship experts on just before Valentine’s Day? The answer: tent-pole programming. Tent-pole events are the cultural milestones that organize our viewing habits throughout the year: major holidays, big sporting events, movie releases and more.
Tent-pole Programming Examples Tent-pole related videos /Break Tent-pole curation in the feed /Revision3 21
YouTube Live Impact 3 out of 5 Strategy: Time Cost • Subscribers • Engagement YouTube Live gives your fans another reason to tune in. Cover timely events, and create new ways for your fans to interact with you. Why It Works: Live broadcasts are a great way to build an engaged, loyal audience through subscriber growth. How To Do It: Test live functionality, market the event on and off-site, integrate Calls to Action, clip out content, and upload clipped content to your channel.
YouTube Live YouTube Live lets you livestream large music, news, and cultural events, and interact with your fans in a way that’s not possible with regular YouTube videos. Let’s dive into the steps to set up, promote, and execute a live event.
YouTube Live Create a trailer or teaser video Optimize the Channel • A trailer lets your subscribers know about the event by appearing in the channel feed. A few key points as you craft your trailer: • Create and feature a playlist or section on your channel that assembles videos related to the livestream. • Include the important stuff - when the live event is happening, and for how long. • If creating a playlist, use the notes field of the playlist to add commentary about the live event.
YouTube Live During the Live Event Though YouTube Live is primarily used to push content to viewers, there is still an opportunity to build Calls to Action into the content to turn viewers into channel subscribers. • Make sure that InVideo Programming is promoting the livestream when the livestream is live. When scheduling the livestream, you can schedule InVideo Programming to do this automatically.
YouTube Live After the Live Event YouTube Live or Hangouts On Air (HOA)? In the days after a live event, consider uploading the best clips from the event. Clipped content help fans relive the most memorable parts, and also drives viewership and watch time. With YouTube Live, and a lot of planning, testing, and promotion, you can produce a broadcast-quality live event.
Programming Checklist Create content that is unique, compelling, and entertaining or informative. Captivate your viewer in the first 15 seconds, and keep them watching throughout the video. Include specific Calls to Action in the video or through annotations. Set a recurring schedule for your uploads, and maximize your production investments. Utilize playlists to create a satisfying long-form experience for your viewers. Create a programming calendar.
Section Two Optimization Ensure your videos will reach the widest audience possible. Your video is creative, insightful, and spot-on for your YouTube audience. Now it’s time to sit back and watch the viewcount rise, right? Not quite. Remember, a ton of great content lives on YouTube. Creating a stellar video is crucial, but it’s only half the battle. To help your videos and channel succeed on the platform, you’ve got to optimize them.
Metadata Impact 5 out of 5 Strategy: Time Cost • • • • Write optimized titles, tags and descriptions for your content. Why It Works: Metadata helps YouTube index your content. This is critical to building views from search and suggested videos. How To Do It: Use optimized keywords and formatting when writing metadata for your videos.
Metadata YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine, and it uses metadata – your video’s title, tags and description – to index your video correctly. To maximize your presence in search, promotion, suggested videos and ad-serving, make sure your metadata is well optimized. Title Make it compelling – this is your video’s headline. Title and thumbnails are often the primary elements driving a viewer’s decision of what they’ll watch next.
Metadata Description A video description may: Only the first few sentences of your description will appear in search results or above the fold on a watch page – so make them count! Follow a template for all of your video descriptions to create consistency. • Link to sites, videos, channels or users referenced in your video. A video description should: • Include links to time-codes in the video for long-form content. • Accurately describe your video in one or two concise sentences.
Metadata Examples Thumbnails and metadata for serial content /Hplusdigitalseries 32 Video Descriptions with links and channel information
Thumbnail Optimization Impact 5 out of 5 Strategy: Time Cost • Search Traffic • Views • Suggested Video Traffic Create high-quality, custom thumbnails for your videos that accurately represent the content. Why It Works: Thumbnails act as miniature marketing posters for your videos – they attract viewers to your content and compel them to click through to watch. How To Do It: Design and upload custom thumbnails for new videos. Update archive video thumbnails.
Thumbnail Optimization Thumbnails show up in different sizes and formats all across the platform, and outside of it. Make sure you’ve got a strong, vibrant image that pops no matter what size it is. Visual Guidelines • Clear, in-focus, hi-resolution (640px x 360px min.
Thumbnail Optimization Metadata and Thumbnails on the ‘Watch Page’ Examples of Watch Page Placements • • • • Suggested Videos – Algorithmically generated by YouTube Video End Screen – Algorithmically generated by YouTube Video Responses – Creator-generated Playlist Runner – When watching in playlist mode, videos appear alongside the video player Metadata and Thumbnails Across the Site & Devices Channel Page Placements Playlists show in the right column and on the videos tab.
Annotations Impact 3 out of 5 Strategy: Time Cost • • • • Use annotations on your videos to increase viewership, engagement, and subscribers. Why It Works: Annotations are unique to YouTube. They can drive viewers to more content, increase community actions on your videos, and attract new subscribers. How To Do It: Add relevant and helpful annotations to all your videos after upload. Use annotations on archive videos to direct traffic to new initiatives or content.
Annotations Annotations are clickable text overlays on YouTube videos. Annotations are used to boost engagement, give more information, and aid in navigation. Be inventive! Producers are consistently finding new, creative uses for annotations. Common Uses • Ask viewers to like, favorite or share a video. • Ask a specific question to enhance viewer engagement. • Make it easy for viewers to subscribe right from your videos. • Link to other videos, playlists, channels or full versions of shorter video clips.
Annotations Best Practices Spotlight Annotations • Avoid annotations in the lower third of the video; the advertisement overlay can obscure them. Most annotation types are self-explanatory. Spotlight annotations stand out because they allow creators to subtly create clickable areas within a video. The text only appears when a viewer hovers over it with the mouse; a light outline shows when the viewer’s not hovering. This is a great way to include unobtrusive but clickable annotations.
Annotations InVideo Programming Annotations Unlike regular annotations, InVideo Programming allows you to promote both your channel or any video on YouTube across all your uploads. How InVideo Programming works: • When promoting videos, pulls in the thumbnail as the annotation. Videos with optimized thumbnails perform better. • Ability to upload a custom, transparent square image to promote your channel.
Channel Page Optimization Impact 3 out of 5 Strategy: Time Cost • • • • Create a cohesive and compelling channel experience that will turn first-time visitors into long-term subscribers. Why It Works: A well-organized channel page and robust channel metadata will make your channel a richer destination for both current and potential subscribers. How To Do It: Optimize channel branding and metadata, create organizational sections and a channel trailer, and broadcast to subscribers through the feed.
Channel Page Optimization Channels appear on YouTube more often and in more varied placements than ever before. Optimize your channel for placement in search, related channels, browse channels and the feed so you’ll engage current and potential subscribers across YouTube. Channel Name playlists. Fast forward, rewind, pause. It’s all here. And remember to visit Adultswim.com for all your full episode needs. We know you wouldn’t forget, but it never hurts to make sure.
Channel Page Optimization YouTube channel pages display videos in two ways: through Browse or the Activity Feed. The Activity Feed broadcasts channel activity to your subscribers. To learn more, see “Maintaining the Channel Feed”. In Browse, subscribed and unsubscribed viewers see different versions of your channel. The unsubscribed view is your first opportunity to convince potential fans to subscribe.
Channel Page Optimization Sections Sections function as the main organizational tool for channels. Sections make your channel page easy to browse and can be created dynamically from playlists or actions such as likes.
Channel Page Optimization Featured Channels Related Channels • Featured Channels are channels you choose to promote on your channel page. • Related Channels are promoted channels populated by YouTube. Recommendations are based on channels that are similar to yours. • If you’re promoting a large number of channels, rotate through the list using the “rotate channels” feature. This ensures all your channels get visibility.
Maintaining the Channel Feed Impact 4 out of 5 Strategy: Time Cost • Engagement • Views • Subscriber Views Maintain an active feed that keeps your audience engaged without overwhelming them. Why It Works: As you convert viewers to subscribers, maintaining an active feed drives viewer to new uploads and helps promote other videos. How To Do It: Utilize other channel activity such as channel posts and ‘liking’ videos to publish your content to the feed and curate videos from other channels.
Maintaining the Channel Feed The channel feed broadcasts your activities to your subscribers. The default feed will share your uploads, liked videos, videos added to playlists, channel posts, comments, channel subscriptions and favorited videos. Your feed should stay current, promote the content that’s important to you, and never overwhelm your subscribers with too much information..
Maintaining the Channel Feed The Feed - Curating Other Content The Feed - Tent-Pole Programming By boosting other people’s videos, your channel can become a tastemaker destination. • Compile playlists for key tent-pole events and post the tent-pole playlists to your feed using the channel posts feature. • Be a picky curator – understand your audience and share work that will appeal to them. • Set a curation schedule. Choose non-upload days to curate content in your channel’s feed.
Reaching All Audiences Impact 2 out of 5 Strategy: Time Cost • Search Traffic • Views Optimize videos and create content to reach the widest possible audience. Caption your videos to ensure they are accessible to any viewer. Why It Works: Captioning makes your videos accessible to more viewers, including foreign language speakers and those with disabilities. How To Do It: Use online tools to create captions for your videos. Create content that can transcend cultural differences.
Reaching All Audiences YouTube is a global platform - your audience can watch from anywhere in the world. Take extra steps to help your videos appeal to broader audiences, including foreign language speakers and viewers who are hard-of-hearing. Create Content with Global Appeal Your content may already have global appeal (Check YouTube Analytics), but consider whether there may be an opportunity to adapt it and expand on interest around the world.
Reaching All Audiences Captions and subtitles make your work accessible to a wider audience – and they act as additional metadata, which helps your video show up in more places on the site. You can provide your own captions and transcripts, or use YouTube’s features to help you create and translate transcriptions of the audio in your content.
YouTube Analytics Impact 2 out of 5 Strategy: Time Cost Effect • • • • Use YouTube Analytics regularly to assess your channel’s performance and investigate changes or trends across key metrics. Engagement Subscribers Views Community Activity Why It Works: Medium: 1+ hours Analytics provide actionable insights for creators to make better videos, implement and measure optimizations, and develop strategic programming. Optimization Type How To Do It: Gain fluency in the YouTube Analytics product.
YouTube Analytics YouTube Analytics (YTA) is your channel’s pulse. It helps uncover key channel insights based on real viewer data and the content they engage with most. It’s never too early or late to start. YTA is for all creators, and should be used regardless of whether you’re just starting out or are a seasoned veteran. You can use YTA not only on your newest videos, but also to analyze performance data from older videos to inform future content, programming, and audience development strategies.
YouTube Analytics 2. Know Where Viewers Are Finding Your Videos Sample Report Uses: Understanding which traffic sources drive the greatest viewership can help you get the most out your audience development efforts. Consider allocating your strategic efforts where your videos are getting the most traction. And remember, it’s not just the quantity, but the quality of views that matter (See “Average View Duration” in the image below to see which sources are responsible for the most engaged viewers).
YouTube Analytics 3. Know What Makes Viewers Come and Go Key Reports: Understanding how audiences interact with your content can help uncover invaluable patterns, and empower you to create more engaging content. Videos with low audience retention rates are far less likely to be surfaced in Search and Suggested placements on YouTube, so create a viewing experience that causes audiences to watch as much of your video as possible.
YouTube Analytics 4. Know How Many Videos Each Viewer Consumes Sample Report Uses: Understanding what causes viewers to enjoy multiple videos per visit can help you work smarter, not harder. Because engaging existing audiences is easier than attracting entirely new ones, it’s important to extend the viewing session for viewers you have.
YouTube Analytics Engagement: How Do I Increase Audience Engagement? 1. Know Why Viewers Subscribe Understanding what causes people to subscribe can help you convert more casual viewers into loyal subscribers. Do you know which videos are causing people to subscribe? Is your programming strategy geared toward those subscribers? Sample Report Uses: • Examine specific dates and/or videos with high gains (or losses) of subscribers to learn which content resonates best with your audience.
YouTube Analytics 2. Know How Effective Your Annotations Are Sample Report Uses: Annotations are a powerful way to engage viewers and direct them to continue watching more of your videos. Viewers have lots of videos to choose from on YouTube, adding and optimizing annotations on your videos can help keep more viewers on your channel and convert them into long-term subscribers.
YouTube Analytics 3. Know How Fans Interact With Your Videos Sample Report Uses: Understanding which videos your audience interacts with most can help you craft more successful content and promotional strategies. Examine Likes, Dislikes, Comments, and Sharing on standout videos to understand what type of content resonates best with your audience. • Determine how many Likes and Comments per View various videos generate to inform what types of content you should consider creating in the future.
Optimization Checklist Upload Write detailed and comprehensive metadata following keyword strategies and formatting. Create and upload an eye-catching, high-resolution thumbnail. Spot-check the live video and published metadata. Publish Annotate the video with community CTAs, a subscribe button and links to related content. Optimize channel branding and metadata, create organizational sections and a channel trailer, and broadcast to subscribers through the feed.
Section Three Community Build a genuine community around your channel and what it stands for. YouTube provides a unique experience for both creators and audience alike, one that is social and interactive. As a creator, you can not only foster authentic engagement around your channel but also interact with these viewers.
Build Your Community Impact 3 out of 5 Strategy: Time Cost • Engagement • Subscribers • Views Interact with your audience, and build a community around your content on YouTube. Why It Works: An engaged community often leads to a dedicated audience, who will come back to your channel again and again. How To Do It: Create viewer-centric content, engage with your audience through social features on the platform, and develop relationships with top contributors.
Build Your Community Online video is social. People are drawn to online video and web series because they can interact with the channel in ways that they can’t with television. The ability for creators to interact with their viewers is key to the medium. So, speak to your audience, and listen to what they say. If you actively engage with your audience through your channel, it will pay off in the long run.
Build Your Community Community building fundamentals • D evelop relationships with top contributors. Think of each viewer as an individual. Respond to frequent commenters, and take a genuine interest in them. • R espond to comments in the first few hours after you publish a video. These first commenters are your loyal community members, so keep them engaged.
Cross-promotion & Collaboration Impact 5 out of 5 Strategy: Time Cost Effect • Channel Views • Subscribers • Views Work with other creators and cross-promote content between channels. Why It Works: Collaborating with and promoting other creators in the community can be one of the most powerful ways to reach new audiences. Other YouTube creators are a critical part of your community on YouTube. How To Do It: Create a strategy to cross-promote your content to relevant audiences.
Cross-promotion & Collaboration Think holistically about your YouTube community. Sure, it includes your most avid fans and followers, but it also includes other YouTube creators. Identify similar or relevant channels and invest in these relationships. Accessing new audiences on YouTube begins with finding the channels where those audiences are already engaged. It’s a good idea to identify similar or relevant channels with whom to work on cross-promotion and collaboration in a mutually beneficial manner.
Cross-promotion & Collaboration In-video Promotion Channel Promotion • G uest Star: Appear or guest star on another channel; it’s a great way to work with other creators. • R ecommendation Activity: Like or comment on other channels. This passive promotion will appear in your Activity feed. • Shout Out: A simple host recommendation can go a long way. Find short, surprising clips or cliff hangers to hook your audience.
Cross-promotion & Collaboration Shared Topics and Playlists Subscriber Box Sharing • I f collaborating, make the viewer aware of all channels involved in the cross-promotion through playlists, annotations, mentions in the video, and links in descriptions. • Use the Other Channels & Friends module to link to channels you manage or want to promote. When users subscribe to your channel, they’ll also be able to subscribe to the channels you’ve listed.
Google+ Impact 4 out of 5 Strategy: Time Cost • Views • Engagement • Comments Leverage Google+ to build viewership and engage with your audience in new ways. Why It Works: Google+ extends the reach of your channel and improves content discoverability across Google’s products and platforms. How To Do It: Connect your channel with a Google+ page or profile, and take advantage of new features with enhanced integration between Google+ and YouTube.
Google+ Creators can set up a Google+ page or profile to engage with fans and other YouTube creators. Google+ allows you to organize people into different “circles” to help tailor your engagement to a circle’s specific interests. Engage your fans directly in Google Hangouts, and broadcast live Hangouts on your YouTube channel via Google+ Hangouts on Air (HOA). Google+ Identity All Creators can use a Google+ identity for their YouTube channels.
Google+ Unlock Features We are constantly adding new features to channels linked to a Google+ profile or page to improve engagement, discoverability, and more flexibility managing your channel. Once you connect your YouTube account with Google+, you have access to these extra features. • Better name: Change your channel name through Google+ or even add spaces and punctuation. Once you’ve linked your channel to Google+, here’s how you can get the most out of Google+ features to highlight your videos.
Google+ Engage • Interact with fans and build relationships. Moderate conversations, and respond to mentions. • Acknowledge followers with +1s and +mentions in posts. • Tap fans to be your focus group. Ask specific questions about the content you post, and seek feedback or ideas for your next video. • Promote other creators or videos you like. • Annotate your YouTube videos to link to your Google+ page to encourage subscribers to follow you.
Google+ Promote HOAs There are a variety of ways to promote HOAs on Google+ or your YouTube channel. • Create a public Google+ Event to remind viewers to tune in. It features a broadcast of the HOA and the social commentary around it. • Promote your upcoming HOA on your channel. Post to your feed or upload a promotional video announcing the event’s date and time. • Direct viewers to your live event URL: youtube.com/ user/{channelname}/live. It features your latest live event.
Blog Outreach Impact 3 out of 5 Strategy: Time Cost • External Traffic • Views Share your content with relevant blogs, sites, and online communities. Why It Works: Blogs and other sites are always looking for great, relevant content to feature. External site traffic can be a significant driver of views to your channel. How To Do It: Create a blog roll and only share relevant content. Target your outreach and build relationships.
Blog Outreach Don’t limit your purview to YouTube. A lot of viewers encounter videos on other sites, and websites and blogs are always looking for great content to feature. Make it easy for them! Reach out with your most brilliant videos. Build Relationships Get the Word Out • Build relationships with blog editors. Thank them when they repost, and only share videos that you honestly think they’d want to share with their audience.
Blog Outreach Examples Embeds on Top Blogs and Sites /ENTV on Deadline.com Embeds on Top Blogs and Sites /AboveAverage on HuffingtonPost.
Promotion on YouTube Impact 4 out of 5 Strategy: Time Cost • Subscribers • Views Create promotional videos and pay to promote these on YouTube using AdWords for video. Why It Works: Promoting your videos allows you to connect with audiences that might not have found your channel otherwise and helps convert existing viewers into subscribers. How To Do It: Create great ads with a clear call-to-action and target these ads to the correct audience.
Promotion on YouTube Paid Promotion on YouTube Note: After you optimize your channel and videos to organically grow your audience, you can pay to promote your channel and videos with ads on YouTube. When used in tandem with other playbook best practices, these ads can help you effectively gain new viewers and subscribers. • All the strategies outlined here require you to pay for your own advertising.
Promotion on YouTube TrueView Ad Formats TrueView InStream InStream ads are like TV commercials – they play before the start of a monetized YouTube video. Viewers see five seconds of your ad and then can keep watching or can skip it. You pay a “cost-per-view” if they choose to watch at least 30 seconds of your ad. For Instream ads, don’t simply repurpose your other video content.
Promotion on YouTube Targeting the Right Audience with your Ads Reaching New Audiences Targeting the right audience with your ads There are many ways that you can target an audience with TrueView ads .
Promotion on YouTube Converting Existing Audiences into Subscribers Are you generating lots of viewership, but not a lot of subscribers? Help turn these one-off audiences into long-term channel fans: Targeting • Create a remarketing list of all users that have viewed a channel video. • Create another list of all users that have subscribed to your channel.
Build Your Community Checklist Create videos specifically designed to engage your audience. Ask questions, feature fans, or address the audience directly. Dedicate time to interact with your audience and develop relationships with top contributors. Respond to comments in the first few hours after you publish a video. Identify channels with similar content and/or similar audiences, and work with them to cross-promote or collaborate.
Resources Still stumped as to what a YouTube Watch Page is? Or, looking for an easy-to-use checklist for the tasks the Creator Playbook recommends? We’ve got you covered with a range of different resources to make life a little bit easier. So, go ahead and browse our Glossary of Terms and Video Upload Checklist. If you’re looking for strategies specific to your content type, check out the Playbook Guides at http://youtube.com/yt/playbook/guides.html.
Video Upload Checklist Each channel’s approach to publishing will vary, but below is a simple checklist that covers some of the most important actions required once you upload a video. Making the video is only half the battle; optimizing and engaging with the community after you upload are equally important. Upload Publish Engage & Outreach Write detailed and comprehensive metadata following the proper formatting. Annotate the video with community CTAs, a subscribe button, and links to related content.
Glossary Annotations - Video Annotations are an uploadercontrolled, dynamic overlay on videos that allows you to overlay text on a video and/or make parts of the video clickable. You can add, edit and delete annotations to your videos, controlling the text, placement, timing and link URLs. URLs can only be directed to YouTube.com. Channel or Channel Page YouTube.com/CHANNELNAME. A channel is the public page for a user account on YouTube.
Glossary (Feed - Share) Feed - A stream of activity either for one channel (via the channel page feed) or for multiple channels (the homepage feed). Feed activities include uploads, updated playlists, video comments, channel comments, new subscriptions, bulletins, likes, favorites and sharing. Users control what feed activities they broadcast and, by subscribing to channels, what feed activities are broadcasted to them in their homepage feed.
Glossary (Suggested Videos – YouTube Analytics) Suggested Videos - Video thumbnails that appear in the right-hand column of watch pages and the homepage, or the tiled thumbnails that appear when a video has finished playing. Subscriber / Subscription - By subscribing to a channel, users will see that channel’s activity in their homepage feed. Subscribers can also opt into email communication from subscribed channels on a per-upload and weekly digest basis. Subscriber Box - See Other Channels Module.
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