In these difficult times, people across the globe are struggling to adjust to the new normal — and many marketers are wondering how they can help and inform consumers.
While some hard-hit brands are taking time to reevaluate their media strategy, organic viewership is trending upwards as consumers stay home. Overwhelmingly, consumers are looking to watch their favorite video content through YouTube and Connected TV platforms.
Google is reporting that watchtime is up by a dramatic 10X from day 1 to day 28 of the crisis worldwide, and Nielsen has found that media streaming increases by 61% when viewers stay at home due to a broadly disruptive event.
With so many viewers flocking to YouTube, it’s a particularly important time to focus on improving brands’ organic experiences on YouTube. Marketers must ensure their brand is putting its best foot forward as organic audiences turn to their video content. By improving their organic footprint on the platform, brand marketers can secure their brand reputation, and more firmly establish connections with audiences through this uncertain time and beyond.
Want to find out what you should be doing right now on YouTube? Here are some tips to help drive organic impact on YouTube:
Know Your Rank
It’s hard to set a goal if you don’t know where you’re starting from. Do some research on how your brand is ranking in YouTube search for your brand name and core keywords — it’s the second-largest search engine worldwide, so ranking high should be a major focus for brands.
Boost Your SEO
Make sure to include relevant keywords on both your channel About page and on all video content. Most brands use around 100 characters in descriptions, on average — but YouTube allows up to 1000 characters. Your brand could stand out and make a broader impact on organic search by going into rich detail, helping users find and engage with your YouTube content.
Keep Viewers Engaged
The YouTube algorithm prioritizes videos that viewers are actively liking, commenting on, and sharing with friends. You can encourage this behavior, keep viewers watching your content, by adding clickable elements to your videos. It can be as easy as adding a button-like End Screen element to have viewers subscribe to your channel, watch more of your videos, or visit your website — all right from the final seconds of your video content. If you’re not doing this, you’re leaving viewers — and potentially revenue — on the table.
Optimize Toward Your Best Videos
If you dig into your channel’s analytics, it’s fairly straightforward to identify your top-performing video content. Make sure to prioritize these videos — optimize for search engine discoverability, add captions and translations, and include clickable elements like End Screens. Look for learnings on what makes these videos the most successful, and see if you can apply those insights toward the rest of your content. Whether its specific, high-volume keywords, or a particularly resonant genre of video, your high-performing content could hold the key to accelerating your organic viewership.
Try Out New Offerings
YouTube is consistently rolling out new features, tools, and offerings. There are many ways to reach people on YouTube, and marketers can maximize their reach by trying out these new opportunities. For example, you can test out YouTube Stories for an easy way to reach new viewers. Alternatively, setting a video as a Premiere can help cultivate a more immersive, communal viewing experience around the launch of your next video.
Want to learn more about optimizing your YouTube channel? Let’s get in touch — we’d love to perform an audit of your brand’s presence on the platform.