- You hate the YouTube algorithm, don't you?
You think it's preventing you
from getting views every single day.
But you'd be foolish to think that,
and I'm gonna tell you why in just five minutes.
(electronic gaming music)
A lot of you believe the almighty algorithm
is there to keep big channels on top
and to keep you in your tiny, insignificant place.
And if you do fail
and you give up on your dream, so what?
It's no skin off YouTube's back,
you are such a small channel anyway.
You weren't making any money for them.
Yeah, we'll get back to that myth in a second.
I'm Rob, by the way.
Hello, vidIQ nation.
Pleased to meet you.
I've helped 1000s of creators
turn their passions into thriving YouTube channels.
And I also hate Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild.
I'll just let that one float in the air for a second.
The truth is,
there isn't one YouTube algorithm
that rules them all.
There are literally 1000s of them
all interacting with each other.
And internally, YouTube doesn't even talk of algorithms.
They describe them as search and discovery systems.
And the goal of these systems
is incredibly simple,
to surface the right video
to the right viewer at the right time.
That is why the same viewer on YouTube,
on their mobile phone, in the morning,
will get completely different recommendations
on YouTube when they're watching on TV
an hour before they go to bed.
But all of this raises a question,
how did the YouTube algorithm
and the YouTube search and discovery systems get here?
Time for a quick history lesson.
(electronic gaming music)
At first, things were very simple.
It was all based off of raw view counts and keywords.
And some people still think it works like this
and they would be wrong
because it's too easy to game a system
with tactics such as keyword stuffing.
So YouTube decided that a better metric to use
would be watch time.
When people watch videos for longer
and more videos in a single session,
these are all good viewer signals.
This meant that there was less reliance
on the video itself
and more weight attached to how the viewer
engaged with the video.
Now, this is important, so pay attention.
Viewer signals do not include things
like comments, likes, and shares
because they're too easy to manipulate.
It's all how someone might think an algorithm can be hacked
but that's not how it works
because YouTube's,
let me get this right,
search and discovery systems
are designed for humans and not robots.
So the like button's down there somewhere folks
don't bother smashing it.
I don't care.
You're gonna smash it anyway, aren't you?
Anyway, back to watch time,
there was a problem with that.
Creators just made longer videos
with lots of fluff and not much quality
and that led to a really frustrating viewer experience
and it also marginalized certain creators.
It was a great platform for vloggers
and gaming streamers,
but not so much for animation channels
that take three months to create 90 seconds of content.
And so YouTube systems evolved once again into this,
whatever this is.
Apparently it's machine learning.
What this allowed YouTube to do
was to personalize absolutely everything
for absolutely everyone on the platform,
which brings us back to the simplicity of the system,
the right video to the right person at the right time.
From this point on
no YouTube homepage, suggested video column,
or even search page is the same from one viewer to the next.
And what this led to was a shift in video emphasis.
And you might be familiar with this term,
quality over quantity.
If creators want to learn something
and get good at it fast,
they should go for quantity.
Repeat the process,
do the reps, develop a YouTube muscle memory,
But if a creator wants to build an audience
they should go for quality,
deliver something of value that educates,
entertains and inspires.
And in certain times in your YouTube journey,
you're likely to adopt both approaches
but we're not quite there yet.
Machine learning worked wonders for watch time
but it could send viewers down rabbit holes
like sensationalist content
and conspiracy theories
that would engage the viewer for hours on end,
but leave them feeling miserable,
not return to the YouTube platform for weeks.
And so for the final piece of a puzzle
YouTube implemented viewer satisfaction.
YouTube now measures your satisfaction
through things like surveys,
asking you for a rating
and how you felt at the end of the content.
And when someone taps one of these buttons
they're massive negative signals
about the video for that particular viewer.
Oh, and sorry about the mess.
I'm building some Lego here.
In today's YouTube world
there will always be enough choice for the viewer.
It's now a question of how that viewer feels
from the video choices they make.
This all sounds very complicated, right?
And it's supposed to be.
because the thing it serves,
us, are complicated things.
And it's unlikely today that YouTube themselves
can clearly explain how these search
and discovery systems work.
Because in truth,
it learns and changes every single day.
And YouTube themselves
are constantly tweaking and experimenting.
They conduct around about 300 experiments every year.
So when YouTube reports some weird YouTube glitch on Reddit,
yeah, YouTube probably actually did that on purpose.
So I armed with all of this new information
about the YouTube algorithm,
I've started so I'll finish.
What can you do?
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Well, first up,
not trying to hack the YouTube algorithm is a good start.
It'll lead to endless frustration.
And even when you do win
and find an exploit,
YouTube's gonna fix it very quickly.
And you'll be left arguing with robots
rather than serving your audience.
And if after you've tried all of these exploits
and none of them have worked,
you complain to me about the algorithm being against you,
well I'm afraid you're just a yoob in my book.
So instead of all of that technical nonsense,
learn about humans.
What do the specific humans you want to talk to value?
And how can you share those values through storytelling?
What are their goals, desires, and beliefs?
And how can you trigger all of that
to create an emotional connection within the viewer?
That's how you build an audience
and grow on YouTube.
We all know that YouTube's hard, right?
The struggle is real,
but that's not gonna stop you, is it?
Because you are creatively relentless.
And now back to monetization
and whether or not
that influences the YouTube algorithm
to give you more views,
the answer is right here in this video.