This guide explains how to grow a YouTube channel. It will reveal the strategies I used to create viral videos and grow to 500,000 subscribers.This first page reveals the viral growth strategy.If you're skeptical about YouTube growth advice, know that I am too. This guide is unique in that I have years of diverse experiences from all the YouTubers I have connected with.Throughout this guide, I'll be including snippets of private calls with bigger channels 👇
This guide applies to channels of every size. I cover both introductory and advanced viral tactics.YouTubers of all sizes will find something new in this guide.
My name's Andrew Kirby. Over the course of 2 years, IÂ grew my channel to 557K subscribers. My channel has nearly 27 million views. I didn't feel like there was a good resource for viral growth out there, so I made this.
Most people over-complicate YouTube.You have to think about things from YouTube's perspective.‍What does YouTube want?What does YouTube lie in bed dreaming about all night?‍YouTube dreams that someone will spend hours watching content on YouTube.YouTube is terrified that people will leave the platform to go to Netflix.‍What is YouTube's goal? **To keep people watching videos.**What has to happen for you to keep watching videos?You have to click a video and then watch it all.‍Here's a metaphor:Imagine there's a guy called YouTube who owns a bar.YouTube invites different entertainers to play at his bar.YouTube makes money by serving drinks to the audience.‍Which entertainer is YouTube going to want to play every night?Johnny 'The Ripper' draws a huge crowd, but everyone leaves because they get bored.Jeremy 'The Sock-Thief' draws a tiny crowd but manages to keep them around the whole night.Or, Jimmy 'The Beast' draws a huge crowd and manages to keep them the whole night.Which of these entertainers does YouTube love?
These are the 2 most important metrics for making successful YouTube videos. YouTube wants people to stay on the platform. Viewers need to click videos and watch them.YouTube uses 2 metrics to measure how good your videos are at this:Click-Through Rate (CTR): The % of people that see your thumbnail and click on it.Average View Duration (AVD): ****How long the average person watches your video.So here's our goal:Maximise the Click-Through Rate.Maximise the Average View Duration.If we can do this, YouTube will send our video to more people, meaning more views.‍MrBeast explains how these metric create viral videos👇
Some people treat the algorithm like it's a witchcraft.When actually, it's simple.Here are some common misconceptions.
A long time ago, it may have been the case that likes, comments and subscribers were a factor in the algorithm. Not anymore.‍If somebody subscribes, it doesn't mean they'll watch more of your videos.Instead, YouTube looks at what viewers actually do.‍If you thought it was a great channel, you'll go and watch more videos by the YouTuber.In short, YouTube doesn't trust that you'll do what you say. So it looks at what you actually do: Your CTR and AVD.
The impact of tags and SEO is often over-blown.You don't need to spend hours thinking about which tags to use.When people search for a video, YouTube will show them the most relevant video with a high CTR & high AVD.Personally, less than 5% of my views come from search.‍
We've seen creators have their first video go viral.Imagine if your first video had the highest CTR & AVD on the planet.YouTube isn't going to hold back from spreading that video because you're new.