10 Best Ways To Get More Views on YouTube (Real Ones)

YouTube is a unique platform. Users don’t just scroll through it quickly; they may spend hours consuming content. In fact, research shows that the world watches about a billion hours of YouTube content every single day. 

These days, YouTube marketing is essential for boosting your digital brand, but getting noticed isn’t always easy. A quick internet search might leave you with articles about paying for views or buying subscribers; these scammy strategies cost money and don’t actually improve the value of your channel. 

But if you implement the right strategies, you can get YouTube views that actually help your brand. Let’s take a look at 10 real strategies for legitimately increasing your YouTube views and improving your overall marketing effectiveness.

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1. Create Exceptional Content

Before you do anything else, the first step to improving your YouTube view count is to create quality content that your target audience wants to see. This means understanding your specific niche and what people in that niche want from their YouTube content. 

Remember that YouTube viewers aren’t going to spend all of their free time watching glorified ads for your products. While some how-to videos on using your products or services can be good, they shouldn’t (typically) be the only content on your channel. The value could be intellectual or amusing, but it must engage viewers while staying on topic for your brand.

YNAB offers a great example of this concept in action. The company produces budgeting software, but YNAB’s video content is rarely about the software. Instead, it provides tips and tricks on budgeting in general, saving money, and getting out of credit card debt. These topics are important to YNAB’s target audience and provide value whether or not viewers ever invest in the company’s software. 

Generating content like this helps you establish trust with members of your audience while proving that you understand their challenges and are a thought leader in the industry. When your viewers decide to take action, your name will come to the front of their minds — because they already trust you. 

2. Optimize Video Titles and Descriptions

Once you’ve filmed a great video and edited it down to size, the next step is to create your video title and description. These matter a lot more than you’d think. YouTube suggests using different SEO techniques to improve your video titles and descriptions. By doing this and incorporating hashtags, you improve the likelihood of YouTube promoting your content to the types of users most likely to benefit from watching it. 

The YouTube algorithm prioritizes titles and descriptions — and so do YouTube users. When creating your title, make sure it does two things in equal measure: captures what the video is actually about and makes the viewer want to learn more. 

For example, consider a video about avoiding internet scams. A title like “How to Avoid Internet Scams” does a good job of explaining what the video is about, but it might not drive a lot of engagement. On the other hand, a title like “Are You Falling for This No. 1 Internet Scam?” might draw clicks, but if your video is just about internet scams in general, that title doesn’t actually describe it. 

The right title for this video might be something more like “4 Internet Scams That Even Savvy Millennials Fall For.” Remember: your goal is to pique users’ interest without falling into the realm of clickbait — this example both covers what users might search for and looks attractive enough to click if a user saw it in the wild. 

3. Design Eye-Catching Thumbnails

Audiences are visual. That’s why social media content with images generates 94% more views than content without images. YouTube thumbnail images are often the first thing users look at when deciding whether or not to watch a specific video. 

Your thumbnail conveys more than just the point of the video. Depending on how you design your video, you can also convey things like tone — whether you’re more professional or laid back, for example — and whether the video is intended to be more informative or entertaining. 

When designing your thumbnail, do some research into photo editing ahead of time so your image looks clean and professional. Keep the following best practices in mind: 

• Create a catchy headline.
• Use easy-to-read fonts.
• Match your brand’s colors and tone.
• Use real images from your video rather than stock photos.

4. Encourage Likes and Shares

It can feel a bit awkward to ask viewers to like your YouTube video, subscribe to your channel, or share your content with others, but calls to action like this really can drive engagement. (It’s why people continue to say, “Be sure to like and subscribe!” long after the words became a meme.)

Remember to ask for engagement after you’ve already provided value to your viewers. This can either be midway through your video production after you’ve delivered half of the value you plan to provide, or at the very end of the video. 

5. Harness Other Social Media Platforms

YouTube is a popular social media platform, but it isn’t the only one. By cross-promoting your video content on Instagram and Facebook, you encourage more audience engagement across multiple platforms. Cross-posting also allows you to post content more frequently, with less effort. This can improve your audience retention rates by demonstrating that your brand is exceptionally active. 

6. Maintain a Consistent Posting Schedule

Many of the most successful YouTube brands post on a regular schedule. For some channels, videos are as frequent as once a day; for other brands, once a week or even once a month works. 

While frequent posting can be a good way to drive engagement, posting consistency is more important than posting frequency. Pick a schedule you can stick to so your viewers always know when you’re going to show up. The YouTube algorithm rewards consistency, possibly because consistency shows that the content maker has an actual strategy and isn’t just creating an odd video here and there. 

Viewers also reward consistency. Audiences feel good about a maker who promises to always show up on a specific day — and then follows through on that promise. 

Additionally, you’ll want to take the best time to post on YouTube into consideration. If your audience doesn’t see your video for a while, you might be missing out on key engagement needed to drive your content to new viewers. 

7. Leverage Video Analytics

Your video analytics are designed to give you insights into your audience, including demographics, amount of time spent watching your videos, and more. 

By paying attention to your analytics, you can determine how to improve your content. For example, if you’re getting a lot of clicks but you notice very few viewers are staying longer than 30 seconds, you know that the beginning of your content needs work. This may mean that your introductions are boring, you take too long to get to the actual content, or the content you’re creating doesn’t match what you’re promising in your thumbnails. 

The more you learn to leverage creative analytics, the more you can learn from previous mistakes and reproduce previous successes.

8. Interact Actively With Your Community

It’s commonly known in the video marketing world that it costs less to retain an existing customer than to acquire a new customer. The same is true of the YouTube community. Acquiring new viewers and subscribers is difficult; keeping the ones you have is much easier. And one of the top ways to retain existing viewers and subscribers is to interact with them regularly. 

This goes beyond replying to comments on your videos. Interacting with your community may also include things like:

• Q&A videos with questions from your viewers
• Giveaways and contests
• Commenting on others’ posts 

Depending on your brand, you may even be able to feature your clients or customers in your videos. By highlighting your followers, you can drive social proof in your brand and connect with other viewers. 

9. Collaborate and Cross-Promote

Collaborating with other makers is a great opportunity to share audiences. For example, if you’re in the travel business, you might want to connect and work with luggage brands. Since you’re likely aiming for overlapping audience segments, you can connect with new and existing followers. 

10. Paid Promotion and Advertising

Paid promotions and advertisements have their place when it comes to gaining more legitimate views on YouTube. This element should also come after you’ve gotten the other aspects of your YouTube channel right. You’ll receive a much higher return on your investment if you’re creating high-quality, engaging content to begin with. 

When you’re ready, make sure you follow the YouTube video ad specs and placement information. This will help ensure your ads appear native to the site and don’t stick out — in a negative way — to viewers. 

Creating YouTube Videos at Scale

Numerous factors influence how many views you get on YouTube, but one of the key ways to boost your YouTube views is to create highly engaging content at a large scale. 

This level of content creation is beyond the capacity of many businesses without outside help. That’s where QuickFrame comes in. We partner with businesses to create customized content at scale, helping brands stick to content schedules without sacrificing content quality in the process. Learn more about partnering with QuickFrame today. 

Get More YouTube Views: Final Thoughts

Getting more YouTube views is possible with the right strategy and video creative. Once you’ve taken your goals and audience into consideration, you can focus on providing valuable content. By giving your audience the content they want to see, you’ll get more views, expand your audience, and grow your business.