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How This Creator Skyrocketed Views With These Key Strategies

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Creators
November 09, 2023

Hi there! YouTube recently announced third-quarter ad sales of $7.95 billion – a 12.5% increase year over year. This came from both brand and direct-response advertising and was better than analysts had expected. What does that mean for you? Strong ad sales are a good sign not only for YouTube but also for creators who monetize on the platform. We’re looking forward to seeing if the upward trajectory continues through the fourth quarter as well! 

—The Spotter Community Team

The Beverly Halls Increase Revenue With New Strategy, Including Longer Videos and Optimized Thumbnails

What happens when a successful creator shifts to longer videos on YouTube and focuses more on production elements such as thumbnails, titles, and intros? For The Beverly Halls, the result was greater reach and revenue on the platform. 

The Beverly Halls had previously been focused on YouTube Shorts, and they had seen tremendous success garnering views and over 7 million subscribers on YouTube. While this allowed them to earn revenue through brand partnerships, they knew deal flow is not always consistent and, as a result, were eager to generate a more predictable income stream for their YouTube videos through AdSense.

After meeting with Spotter at VidCon, they realized how they could benefit by taking advantage of the different resources available to the Spotter Creator Community. They met with their Spotter Creator Success Manager, who connected them with opportunities to gain greater insights and guidance. This led them to join Spotter Circles, a biweekly forum with a small group of fellow creators to share knowledge, discuss challenges, and workshop ideas. In addition, they took advantage of a Spotter Creator Community advising session with YouTube expert Paddy Galloway, who helps creators build and grow their channels.

Equipped with new insights and strategies, The Beverly Halls followed through on the advice they received from their engagement with Spotter. This included increasing production of long-form videos, optimizing video packaging elements, such as thumbnails, titles, and intros, and focusing on their target audience. As a result, they saw a 400% increase in long-form views, which allowed them to achieve their goal of increasing AdSense revenue.

Strategy:

  • Build more emotion and anticipation into the storylines to develop longer content while also optimizing for video retention to generate more revenue on the channel.

    • For example, in the first minute of the intro, remove unnecessary context and focus on the topic from the start – for challenge-style videos, this includes introducing the challenge. As the video builds, include more free-flowing, emotional elements.

  • Optimize video packaging strategy by making thumbnails less distracting and optimizing titles for interest instead of search to maximize video clickthrough.

  • Have a clear target audience and create content to attract and retain them. (In The Beverly Halls’ case, this meant targeting Gen Z and eliminating anything that doesn't fit into their “Specific Challenges” and “Big Updates” buckets). 

Results: 

  • 400% increase in long-form views after implementing the recommendations from monthly meetings and advising sessions.

Learning #1: Long-form videos present greater monetization opportunities when it comes to AdSense revenue on YouTube.

  • Translation: If you want to earn more money on YouTube, longer videos can be worth the effort. If you haven’t already, consult your Spotter Creator Success Manager about how to optimize your ad settings, especially with RPMs on the platform projected to increase.

Learning #2: Making thumbnails less distracting, creating concise intros without unnecessary context, and optimizing titles for interest can drive greater clickthrough for both existing and new viewers.

  • Translation: Pay attention to video packaging elements and consider ways to tweak them to increase video views.

Learning #3: Having a target audience and tailoring your content accordingly can help attract and retain that specific audience, while also helping you make content strategy decisions. 

  • Translation: Stay focused. Know who you’re targeting and eliminate anything that doesn’t fit into your specific content buckets.  

As always: Questions? Reply to reach out to the Community team.

Spotter

Jobs

YouTube

  • Last month, YouTube released “Related Links” to connect Shorts and long-form content. If you remember, YouTube removed clickable links for Shorts in August. Well, they’re bringing it back as a way for you to connect your Shorts to related long-form videos and drive your audience to more content. For more information, read here.

  • YouTube is developing an AI-powered tool that allows users to replicate the voices of famous musicians while recording audio, as reported by Bloomberg. The company is in talks with music labels to secure the rights for training its AI tool with songs from their catalogs.

"Believe in yourself, take on your challenges, dig deep within yourself to conquer fears. Never let anyone bring you down. You got to keep going."

―Chantal Sutherland

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