How to be a successful brand on YouTube

While there is no magic formula, success on YouTube is all about feeding the algorithm. The platform has more than 2.7 billion monthly active users watching more than a billion hours of content every single day. Every minute, more than 500 hours of new content is uploaded from countries all around the world.

The sheer scale of it demands near-total automation, and to achieve it, Google has developed a series of algorithms. They busily analyse traffic patterns and viewing habits, attempting to understand what each video is about and what each user is interested in, hoping to find ways of keeping people entertained and on the platform – where they can be exposed to adverts – for as long as possible.

A successful video, then, is one that helps YouTube generate views and watch time, encouraging viewers to stick around for more. Here we look at a few examples of how that can be achieved.

Make videos that drive recommendations

People are unlikely to find your videos by chance, unless they’re searching for something very specific. Instead traffic must be directed to them, usually by recommendations. More than 70% of all watch time on YouTube is spent watching videos the algorithm recommends. By extension, that means YouTube is looking for videos that entice users to watch more on the same topic. How many times have you found yourself ‘disappearing down a rabbit hole’ of similar suggested content?

Volvo Trucks is a high-profile example. Their ‘live test’ videos were amusing and different and highly shareable. People reposted them on social media, driving traffic to Volvo’s channel and earning subscribers as viewers craved more. This began feeding the algorithm. YouTube responded by recommending Volvo’s content to a wider audience – even those not interested in trucks – knowing they’d stick around to watch more and therefore spend longer on the platform.

Although Volvo no longer creates ‘live test’ videos, they remain on the channel and are still recommended by the algorithm. As a result, people watching, say, a video about a DAF truck are likely to see a recommendation for something from Volvo. Ergo, the ‘live test’ campaign delivered conquest views across competitors’ content, and continues to do so long after the campaign ended.

Today the Volvo Trucks channel has nearly 530,000 subscribers and more than 320 million views. Their most watched video – The Epic Split, ft. Van Damme – has 121 million views and is still popular 10 years later.

But that doesn’t mean we all need huge production budgets to create viral wonders. Success can come from relatively modest beginnings.

CuriousMarc made a video eight years ago illustrating how an old-fashioned mechanical calculator reacts when faced with a divide-by-zero problem. Its success (now 2.8m views) inspired him to continue with his tinkering and repair videos, most notably the series that saw him and his friends repair an original Apollo Guidance Computer from the moon-landings era.

Eleven years ago, two friends in a small motorsport preparation shop began filming their project to shoe-horn a Toyota Celica GT-Four’s running gear into an Austin Mini. Their format was highly original, inspired by Leslie Nielson’s Police Squad, and although the car still isn’t entirely finished, Project Binky is now one of the most popular automotive series on YouTube.

Neither of these channels have a budget to speak of. Both are filmed on basic equipment and edited simply, proving that high production values are not required for success.

Know your audience

Hagerty spent years creating videos that focused on classic auctions and events such as Pebble Beach. However, the audience for those videos isn’t on YouTube, and the audience that is on YouTube isn’t interested in million-dollar concours events. Those videos achieved only a handful of views as a result.

Then Hagerty took a risk with a stop-motion timelapse format for a Chevy small block V8 rebuild video. It was widely shared, attracting 9.7m views, and established their successful ‘Redline Rebuild’ series. They followed it up with a pilot for Tom Cotter’s Barn Find Hunter series, which soon garnered more than a million views. Both tapped into two key interests for their target audience, one that already existed on YouTube. Now their channel has over three million subscribers and features a number of perennially-popular series that have cemented their brand as one ‘for the enthusiasts.’ Their Revelations series with Jason Cammisa looks set to continue that trend.

These examples all feature a series of videos, rather than a one-hit wonder. That’s because each video in a series is effectively its own sequel, and is a ready-made opportunity for YouTube’s algorithm to suggest a viewer watches another one right after they’re done.

What can you do to get started?

Many brands start out by creating content that is all about them – adverts, effectively – and that’s rarely a route to success. No-one’s going to subscribe to a channel to watch marketing videos. Instead, give your viewers something they’ll want to come back to see.

Recognise also that, in the early days at least, you will have to drive people to your channel from outside YouTube before Google’s algorithms will pay you any attention.

Release videos regularly, and consider a schedule. People get frustrated when they’ve been enticed to subscribe to a channel, only to have to wait weeks or months for another upload. Imagine how you’d feel if you tuned in to watch your favourite soap opera, only to find the production company decided they wouldn’t bother to make a new episode that week.

Any engagement is good, even a thumbs down. Pose a question during your video or ask your viewers to leave their feedback on a related topic. But be genuine about it, and don’t beg. Too many videos begin with a 30-second plea to “like, comment, and subscribe.” Let the viewer be the judge of whether they want to subscribe or not. Demanding people click the notification bell, perhaps even before they’ve had a chance to watch the video, is leading to considerable fatigue among viewers. It also creates a reason for people to abandon your video before they’ve even watched it.

Be original. Don’t try to replicate someone else’s format – they’ve had a head start, and are already doing it much better than you. Instead, find your own style. Don’t compete with anyone but yourself.

Remember your audience. YouTube is a platform mostly for those under 35, although subsequent age groups aren’t necessarily that far behind. It’s male-centric, and often US-driven. Most people watch on mobile. Targeting a demographic that doesn’t use YouTube isn’t going to earn you a following.

Be trendy. During lockdown, people searched for how-to videos to learn new skills, with guitar-playing and bread-making featuring heavily. Gain some insight into what people are watching and see if you can springboard off those ideas.

Give the people what they want. Don’t tease, don’t use clickbait. Be straight and honest. Monitor the comments for insights from your viewers as to what they enjoyed and what they didn’t. YouTube is increasingly looking for ways to measure viewer satisfaction with individual videos, and that’s more likely to drive success than anything else in the future.

The ideal video length has grown, but Shorts are best for discovery. In the past, YouTube’s stats showed that most viewers only watched 3-4 minutes of a video on average. However, for various reasons (advertising being one of them), attention spans have grown and now 10-15 minutes is considered ideal. Short-form content is now best served as a YouTube Short, which enjoy 70 billion views each day, and are an ideal format to help brand or product discovery.

It’s a long haul. Don’t expect success overnight. Be prepared for your first videos to sink without trace. When launching a new channel from scratch, publish a bank of new videos together rather than just one, so that people have something else to watch on your channel after their first.

In time, you’ll settle into a format that works for your viewers and delivers for your brand.

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