If you know even a tiny bit about the ever-popular YouTube platform, you probably know that there are several metrics that you must use to keep track of whether people like what you are producing. Those include:
- Followers
- Comments
- Likes
Followers are a sure indication of how many people have seen fit to subscribe to your channel. They will be the first ones to watch the videos you produce.
Comments are indicative of whether what you’re posting is a conversation starter. If you get a ton of comments, that probably means that the videos you’re making are tapping into the zeitgeist.
As for likes, they mean that the people enjoy what you’re coming out with each week or however often you post new content. More of them mean you’re on the right track. Fewer of them mean you need to rethink your strategy if you want the best results in terms of promotion and popularity.
Today we’re going to talk about views, though. You’d be correct in thinking that they matter, but you might not realize just how much they do.
What Are Views?
Views are what happens when someone intentionally clicks on and interacts with a video that you posted on your channel. However, they must watch for a minimum of 30 seconds before it counts as a legit view on the platform.
You can purchase views if you like. For instance, you might buy 500 YouTube views on the Videosgrow website or whatever other number you feel most comfortable about. This practice is done by:
- Companies that are trying to appear more popular on YT
- Influencers who are attempting to attract sponsorship and get involved in collaborations with other brands
- Actors, athletes, and anyone else who wants to seem important or noteworthy within their niche
It’s never a bad idea to get some views like this, but you also need to focus on creating excellent content so that you start to get some organic views as well. An organic viewership indicates that your channel is really starting to take hold.
How Do You Go About Getting More Views?
To increase your viewership numbers and monetize your channel, there are several proven strategies that should be in your repertoire. You can:
- Use end screens and cards to promote the other relevant videos on your channel
- Ask questions so that people will want to respond in the comment section
- Use your other active social media profiles to promote your content
All of these have been shown to be viable ways to get those crucial viewership numbers up. You may also try to make video content that is “of the moment.” That means talking about current events in a way that connects them to the products you make or services you offer.
You can also try to add a hot take on some current events. Make sure you don’t offend anyone, though, or you will likely see your videos going viral for all of the wrong reasons.
What Are the Key Features of Views that You Need to Know About?
Earlier, we spoke about how you need someone to watch one of your videos for a minimum of 30 seconds for the algorithm to count it. You can regard this as the most vital feature of this particular metric.
There are other ways that the YT algorithm identifies views, though, and those are also worth talking about. No one knows precisely what makes up the YouTube algorithm. It’s a bit of a mystery, but there are certain facts that you can extrapolate based on what you observe. You don’t even have to be a tech genius to notice these things.
A Bot Can’t Watch the Videos
It wouldn’t make sense if someone programmed a lot of bots or dummy accounts to watch videos on YouTube, Instagram, or other social media platforms, and then the platform would send those videos to the very top of the search results for a keyword or phrase. That wouldn’t be fair to anyone trying to get to the top naturally.
This is why you have to be a real human watching a video for it to get counted as a view. The algorithm has a way of knowing that. It mainly has to do with the various activities of the person who’s at the other end of each YT profile.
A bot will definitely act differently than a human will, and the algorithm can detect that. This is why you should never buy views from a company that uses bots instead of real human beings.
The Viewer Must Intentionally Watch the Video
To count as a view, the platform user must intentionally watch the video. What does that mean, exactly? “Intentionally,” in this instance, means that the person who’s using a smartphone, laptop, desktop, TV, or tablet with the YouTube app open must scroll or click the video in such a way that it plays.
In other words, it doesn’t count as a view if the video just starts playing automatically because the device has been left unattended. Someone might leave the room with YT playing, and a playlist might begin of its own accord. The algorithm will not regard that the same way as it would if someone clicked the video to start it.
Do Views Have Any Other Noteworthy Features?
To get counted by the algorithm, an actual human must watch the video for at least thirty seconds after intentionally clicking on it or otherwise engaging with it. That’s all it takes to get counted as a view. However:
- Longer views get given more credit than shorter ones
- Videos that get other high engagement metrics will also be seen as more valuable
If a video is of a longer length, and many people are willing to wait till the end of it, continuing to watch, YouTube rightly assumes that the video is more compelling. If the algorithm also sees that a video gets more comments, likes, and shares, along with views, that video and channel will also quickly rise up the rankings, having a chance of going viral.
If you think about this, you’ll see that while the definition, features, and role of a view are relatively narrow, there’s some more complexity to the formula once you get past the simple number of views that the video has. Yes, you do want to get as many people to watch the short films that you produce as possible, but you also will do better when you produce ones that are of different lengths.
Some people will be willing to watch the shorter ones, while others will be ready to stick around to watch the longer features that your channel is providing. You’re also trying to get as many organic viewers as possible who are ready not just to watch one of your videos but several of them in a row.
It’s challenging to get to that point with any fan of your channel, but that should be your aim. Getting an enthusiastic army of followers is the way you can monetize most easily, and that’s probably why you got started on the YT platform in the first place.