What's more important on YouTube?
Subscribers or views?
And is there's something that you can do to get more of both.
That's what I'm going to share in this episode.
-I'm excited to talk to Nate today about this topic of what's more important on a YouTube
channel.
Subscribers or views?
So, the first question is why do you focus on subscribers, does it really matter?
The reality is the number of subscribers doesn't really matter in a number.
Like the views matter more.
But it's a good indication of the momentum on your channel.
It's a good indication of how much work you've done.
Because it takes a lot of work to get there.
There are channels out there that will pay for subscribers.
And so, they might have a big number and in that case, it obviously means nothing.
But when we're talking about a legitimate channel, really we look at that number and
it doesn't translate to dollars in anyway.
We look at that number and just say "Okay, they're established.
Okay, they've got momentum."
But then we really want to pull back the curtains and look at like views and how many leads
and what's the ad revenue.
-So, if you publish a brand new episode, how many of those subscribers that you have...
Let's say that you have 100,000 subscribers.
I mean you're not going to get 100,000 thousand views, right?
-Yeah.
On my channels, no.
We get a very small percentage.
Sometimes it's like 5% or even lower than that.
On a lot of entertainment type channels or vlogs, they produce less content.
But their goal is to create kind of episodes or episodic content where people want to comeback
every single week and watch every single episode.
And in those types of channels, let's say it's got 100,000 subscribers.
They might get 100,000 views on every single episode as their average.
But on how-to type content where we focus so much first laying that foundation of search
and then getting YouTube to promote you, the search videos get a fraction of the views.
And that first week on 100,000 subscriber channel, we might get 2,000, we might get
10,000 or somewhere in between views just that first week.
And then it's after several months where some of the videos will take off and get way more
views than the number of subscribers you have.
I just thought of a new way of looking at it.
Because I typically don't really worry about how many views or video gets within it's first
week.
That's typically what a lot of YouTubers look at.
But on channels like ours that have evergreen strategy, we know that these videos are going
to get results for years and years to come...
Results means views for years and years to come.
And lead generation for years and years to come.
What I look at is how many views the channel is getting everyday or every 28 days.
YouTube loves a rolling 28-day period.
So, take a channel like Noelle Randall.
We crossed 260,000 subscribers and every day, her channel is getting around 50,000 views
right now.
So, we're talking a really high volume.
But even the ratio there of 260,000 subscribers, 50,000 views every single day.
I love those numbers.
It's not as much as more of entertainment type channel.
But on those channels, the ad revenue is the focus.
And in our channels, we're focused on lead revenue and ad revenue is the icing on the
cake.
So, it's amazing.
-Yeah, I've noticed that a lot of the channels that you produce, they have a really qualified
audience.
And to me, that is more important that just the total number of subscribers.
Mean, the total number of subscribers, I imagine that helps with credibility to an extent.
But how have you been able to achieve such a targeted audience to become subscribers
on your clients channels?
-Yeah.
You're really asking the right question because you can make a viral video.
Let's say it's got a cute cat in it or somebody trips and falls and everyone thinks it's hilarious.
So, millions of people watch it.
But what kind of audience does that build for you?
Right?
It's nothing unless your focus is just views for ad revenue.
But if you've got a solution, right?
You've got courses or programs or some type of product or service that you sell to an
audience, then by building a smaller but more qualified or more quality audience is ideal
for you.
And how you do that is my Leaf Strategy.
Now, I'll give you the answer what the leaf strategy is.
If you want to know more, I'll link to the video right up here about my leaf strategy.
So, to explain my leaf strategy in simple form, we use a tool that finds questions that
people are asking.
And so, if we make a YouTube video that is answering my target audience's question, then
their the ones that are drawn in and see my videos.
So, it has a couple of advantages.
When I put a video on YouTube, not only do some of my subscribers watch these video.
but there is a built in new audience that people have never heard of me before.
It's kind of like I got a built-in marketing machine just because I've taken this first
step.
I use this tool to find the question that people around the world are asking.
And by making that question the title of my video...
I put that video on YouTube, those people go to Google and YouTube, they type in that
question and that video pops up like, "Oh, that's exactly what I was searching for."
So, these questions have to be really specific.
And that's what's my strategy is all about.
And it really works.
Well, those people come to the channel.
They get the answer to their question and they realize, "Wow, I just found the guy I'm
looking for.
I just found the lady that I'm looking for."
Right?
And they subscribe.
And so you build an audience that really is your target audience with the strategy.
-Let's talk about the algorithm.
The wizard of Oz of YouTube.
What does the algorithm want to see?
Do they want to see a big number of subscribers or big number of views?
Like, what's more impressive to the algorithm?
-So, the algorithm has gotten really good at telling what is real.
Right?
So, numbers don't make any difference, right?
And I've got some real examples that I can share with that.
I mean, one real example, John Crestani, originally, he used paid traffic to build his channel
to 65,000 subscribers.
But it was empty.
It had no comments, it had no likes, it had no ad revenue and it was not generating leads.
So, after a year of producing the channel with my strategy, the channel completely turned
around and extremely profitable and had tons of engagement.
It was profitable with both ad sense and it was a lead generator for his business.
So, what the algorithm is really looking for is real people that shows
signs that they really liked the video.
Because YouTube wants to figure out "What will this person like to watch next?"
So, our job is not to tweak the videos to get the right numbers.
Our job is to create videos that people want to watch.
Okay?
And if we do that, we're doing exactly what the algorithm is trying to do.
So, we're working in tandem or in teamwork with the algorithm.
Right?
So, think about it from the search standpoint.
If I make a video that people are searching for and YouTube search engine is trying to
find content that people are searching for, then it's a partnership.
Then it's alignment.
And if I make content, it's trying to find content that people are searching for.
So we work together.
And there's no loopholes that I'm trying to trick to do SEO.
I'm creating content that YouTube wants me to create.
-I'm curious, Nate.
Is it better to have returning viewers or brand new unique viewers?
-That's a really good question.
The more people return, the more loyal fans they are, the more...
Like when I get a client, they say, "Yeah, I went back and I've binged watch so many
episodes on your channel."
And so, those are the type of people that you want to follow you.
But at the same time, you want people you've never heard of you before to watch your videos
and find you new.
So, you want to mix of both.
-And the last question that I have is as far as money goes....
And maybe speaking specifically to ad revenue.
Do you get ad revenue from subscribers or strictly from views?
-Yeah.
That's strictly from views because every view is paired with an ad next to it.
And it's really paired with how many ads do people see.
So, if on one video, you're getting a lot of views but YouTube doesn't put any ads next
to it, they don't find it really relates or relevant then those views don't even matter.
It's how many ad views do you get.
And that's how much ad revenue you're receiving.
So, whether you want to get more views or more subscribers, I really want you to understand
my strategy in details.
So, I'm going to link to a video over here.
It's how to get 1,000 subscribers on YouTube in a day.
And in that episode, you'll learn my strategy in detail.
Go watch.