you probably think that twitch's biggest weakness is discovery but you are wrong... twitch has
a much more severe problem that is far more detrimental than discovery will ever be for it
a problem that is so severe it makes twitch almost unusable for streamers and viewers a
problem that if it is not fixed soon it might mean that twitch is no longer the best place
for live streamers to create content so what is twitch's real biggest weakness what can they do
about it but more importantly what can streamers who are currently on twitch do about that weakness
to make sure that it doesn't impact their growth discovery and revenue
let's talk about that right after i tell you about this brand new free tool and the sponsor of
today's video that every streamer should be using join combo tick tock is incredibly annoying to me
i have eight years worth of experience as a video producer and video editor i would spend
hours one hours turning a twitch clip into an amazing 10 second long unique engaging piece of
content for tick tock and it would do absolutely nothing it made no sense and i hated it and then
one day someone said why are you spending hours editing clips when you could just use join combo
and three weeks later i had over three million views on tick tock you just simply log into it
connect it to your twitch account and then ports every single clip instantly from there you just
select the clip you want to convert to a tick tock format then select one of their built-in templates
or make your own template and it just converts it into a perfect tick tock for you of course you can
add subtitles images combine multiple clips and do so much more with their built-in tools the
best part of all of this is combo is free there are no watermarks there's no low resolution caps
like other services and it's entirely in a browser meaning you can do it from a laptop or a computer
with ease i really recommend that any streamer who wants to grow and diversify their audience
increase their discovery and actually start growing a real community check out join combo
with the link in the description so that was an ad if you didn't know what an ad was ads are a little
bit intrusive but on a platform like youtube they're not that bad because they don't play over
the top of your content the content will pause the ad will play and then the content will start again
this means you don't miss anything ads without missing content that truly is the future of
advertising integration except it's not because tv has been using that system for literally years now
not to mention the fact there are also pre-rolls and mid-rolls on youtube that are skippable at the
five-second mark making them even less intrusive to your content now let's compare that to twitch
once you're an affiliate or twitch partner ads are added to your channel every person who comes to
your stream will see a pre-roll ad that is usually 30 seconds max it could be three times 10 second
ads or one large 30-second ad but it is always 30 seconds for the pre-roll there are only three ways
to turn these pre-rolls off one is to have your viewers subscribe to your stream two is to cancel
your affiliate contract or three the streamer can run their own mid-roll ads one mid-roll
ad is 30 seconds long and turns pre-rolls off for 10 minutes 90 seconds of mid-rolls turns them off
for 30 minutes which is the max you can turn a pre-roll off using mid-rolls that is a lot of
unavoidable ads you can't skip them in any way and it's really important to remember that twitch is
live content which means anytime you choose to run an ad you are interrupting the viewer experience
and taking them out of the content this means you have to choose when you're going to interrupt this
viewer's content by either making a viewer watch 30 seconds of ads before seeing your stream which
makes one in three of them leave before making it even into your stream aka hurting your new viewer
discovery or you can choose to run mid-roll ads in order to stop those pre-rolls and this can
sometimes make non-subscribing viewers leave hurting your average viewer and retention rate
because they literally miss the live content they can't see it again right when you're about
to do something exciting in your game you ran a mid-roll to turn pre-rolls off for 30 minutes
this is a choice that every single twitch streamer is forced to make once they reach affiliate
either you hurt your overall new view or discovery or you hurt your current viewer retention rate
pick one but because these ads are so unavoidable and also unskippable we can at least assume that
the money you earn from ads as a twitch streamer is good it is much better than youtube right
no the money earned from youtube ads is far better than twitch ads twitch ads pay a miniscule amount
compared to what i earn here on youtube this is the core problem and the biggest weakness with
twitch as a streaming platform right now ads are far more intrusive and detrimental to the viewer
experience when trying to absorb live content and the way they integrate it is hurting streamers
twitch needs to solve this if they want to be the home of live streaming in the future
the problem with that is is that twitch is never going to lower the overall amount of ads going out
advertisers pay the bills and keep the lights on on the platform so instead we need to shift
our approach rather than just complaining about ads we need to make the way they're integrated
better which is why i've come up with a few solutions solution number one is that twitch
needs to make it so that pre-rolls are delayed if a brand new viewer comes into your stream
they should not be getting a pre-roll instantly we all know that it's one of the quickest ways
to bounce away from something if you aren't invested in the content seeing an ad is not
going to keep you around so instead let someone join get a feel for the content get invested in
the content and then within 5 or 10 minutes give them a pre-roll they will most likely stick around
better if they've had a chance to actually engage and say hello to the streamer and the community
twitch inherently wants viewers to stay on the platform engaging with the content and absorbing
more of it so that is why pre-rolls need to be shifted because they are one of the worst factors
for creating bounce from a stream right now solution number two we need to shift ads so
that they no longer hurt a streamer's growth but instead give incentives for the viewers to help
a streamer to grow add incentives for viewers such as little pop-ups that say hey you're not
following this stream if you follow this stream you're gonna get 45 minutes of ad-free viewing
right now or sick of seeing ads if you follow the stream you get 30 minutes worth of ad free viewing
every single day on this stream or incorporate solution number one into solution number two
if someone follows a stream give them delayed pre-rolls on that stream i don't think this helps
the new of your retention but i still think it's a great incentive so that people don't hate ads as
much or if we're talking about loyal viewers and trying to make their viewing experience better
in individual channels then let's let them use channel points to redeem skips on the next set of
ads that play or a small period of ad-free viewing just once a day is enough you don't need to go
over the top or solution number three which twitch has already started doing and that is increasing
the overall payout that ads give you if you're unaware for a lot of streamers a new ads incentive
program has been rolled out by twitch every single month they will give you three different
tiers of bounty or gold to try and reach each tier sets a number of hours you need to stream
a number of ads per hour you need to run and then a guaranteed payout you'll get if you reach that
the amount is calculated and based on your average viewers from the previous month
and you will be paid that amount on top of what you earned from running ads normally
this means if you would normally earn 100 from running ads and then you also accept
a bounty that offers you 120 for running the same amount of ads then you will earn the full 220 usd
from the bounty and the normal ads income at first the payouts for this ad incentive program caused a
bit of an uproar because they were a bit small but as it's gone on i've seen slow and steady
increase in the amount they're willing to pay out at least in the streamers i work with and
it seems like they're on the right track but the problem with the ads incentive program is
it doesn't actually solve the problem of ads for the viewer it simply means that i as a streamer
get paid a decent amount for running my ads and i might be more willing to run them because of that
which leads us back to our original conversation that ads are intrusive and they need to be changed
if it's going to work with live content this wouldn't be a stream scheme video if we didn't
give you an actionable tip that you can implement right now as well if you are a streamer who is an
affiliate or a partner that means there are ads on your channel you need to know how many pre-rolls
are going off and how many mid-rolls are going off and then you need to choose what you're going to
focus on and how you're going to balance that with your content at the end of the day you don't want
too many mid-rolls and turning off people who like your content but you also don't want pre-rolls
turning away people who might have loved your content be aware of it and balance it the biggest
piece of advice i can give you though is that as a streamer you probably have a starting soon screen
and even if you don't it's most likely okay to run a 60 to 90 seconds worth of ads right at the start
of your stream it usually takes about two minutes for a notification to even go out and for viewers
to start coming in anyone who's already there right at the start of your stream is probably
also subbed and won't even see those ads which means if you do run those 6 to 90 seconds right
at the start nobody actually sees them and you'll still get to turn pre-rolls off for 33 minutes
and then as you go through your normal live stream try and find times where you go to the bathroom or
it's a lull moment where you can say hey i'm gonna manually run 60 to 90 seconds of ads right now
i'm not earning money from those ads i'm simply running them because it turns ads off
for new users who aren't subbed or aren't members of the channel i hope that's okay
and push the add button viewers will be okay with this most of the time that said you also
have to build this expectation up you can't just instantly start running three minutes worth of ads
whenever you want start small work your way up and make sure you're not making them interrupt
your content ads are a far worse problem for every single streamer on twitch in fact ads also impact
your discovery but that isn't to say that twitch discovery doesn't have its own fair share of
issues but here is my hot take which doesn't actually owe you discovery you and i or we
as streamers are responsible for our own growth and we understand that twitch has issues
the moment that we start blaming a system and aggressively repeating the words twitch discovery
is bad that's why i'm not growing it's really the moment that you've given up on growing at all
because at the end of the day if twitch discovery is bad and you know that it is that bad then why
aren't you taking action rather than just going around and complaining about it being bad twitch
has a system in place for how their platform works their platform has a way of the viewers using it
and finding people they want to watch it's not up to them to completely rebuild it it's up to us as
content creators to try and use that system to our best ability to grow in no way am i saying that
twitch's discovery is a godsend or it's good i'm just saying that there are dozens upon dozens of
creators that i know personally who have managed to grow in the past two years from zero to 200
plus average viewers without any external funnels like youtube or twitter or anything like that
and they did it by using that platform and how it works and understanding how you a viewer actually
uses twitch but i i can't name any of those people because they all go to different schools but i
promise they're definitely real and they did grow on the platform i'm not just saying that
folks aside it is absolutely possible to grow on twitch it's just very difficult which is why
often it is easier to go to a more discoverable platform such as youtube and then bring those
people over to your stream it tends to be faster more sustainable and just generally
more powerful for growth but should twitch do more to increase discovery for new creators and
help new streamers to grow well yeah absolutely because it's in their best interest to be the
best place for streamers to start they want to make sure that the next ludwig chooses to make
content on twitch instead of onto youtube because then he grows and makes them money
but does that mean they have to change their entire platform and how discovery works
no but let's talk solutions how can twitch become more discoverable for a new streamer
now the obvious one and the one that comes up every single time this conversation starts is the
idea of creating a clips feed on the front page of twitch similar to tick tock that scrolls through
and shows you new streamers the concept is to take this clip feed and to put it on the home page or
somewhere really obvious on twitch that will then serve twitch clips that have high retention rate
and high clickability or shareability much like any other algorithm does for tick tock or youtube
shorts and in turn by showing these clips to people it'll help new streamers be discovered more
but hear me out i think this is a terrible idea and a massive waste of time which users barely
go to the homepage of twitch and when they do go to the home page of twitch they're usually only
there for a second before going straight to their follower list on the left and clicking on their
favorite streamers who are online it is incredibly rare for a viewer to go to twitch home page or to
twitch in general and peruse around looking for a new streamer and even if i was wrong about that
let's pretend like every single person who goes to twitch goes to that twitch homepage and they
love to peruse around and try and find brand new favorite streamers would twitch add this feature
to their home page i don't think they would and i don't think they should because when you have
a platform such as twitch or youtube that has a main product you don't add a secondary product
and then put it in high traffic real estate like the front page or anywhere else that'll interrupt
or distract or take viewers away from your main product this is the same reason why youtube won't
push live streams or shorts directly to your home page on desktop because by doing that they might
hurt their main product videos and lower their overall user session time on the platform and most
likely if they did add this little clip feed over on twitch you probably wouldn't be able to spend
bits or subscribe to a user just based on that which means they can't monetize it and if they
tried to monetize it small streamers would lose their mind because that's what small streamers on
twitch do they lose their mind because they're incredibly passionate about this platform
i personally don't have a feature suggestion or a solution to deal with twitch discovery and i
actually think it's wild that so many people think they can pose solutions that would solve
all of this i actually think that in order to fix this you would have to completely rebuild twitch
and that would be a huge amount of time energy and testing in order to be able to do that
which would likely hurt their main product and their main audience who already uses it
the actionable tip here is to stop thinking there is some magical button or some magical world where
twitch is going to help you be discovered if you want to be discovered on twitch you have to be at
the top of an active beloved category that people are going to and want to see more content in or
you need to receive raids hosts and collaborations with already established streamers or you need to
diversify to more discoverable platforms such as youtube or tick tock which is so easy now because
you can use a service like join combo to turn around tick tocks in under five minutes that is
it there is no magical solution it is just hard work and finding ways to increase your reach and
discoverability because twitch is what twitch is this has been a lot of doom and gloom so i want to
make sure that i talk about one massive strength that twitch has over other platforms and i also
want to talk about an issue that i think every single streamer needs to be aware of but before
i get into both those things i want to throw it out there if you find this video interesting
or helpful at all then consider checking out my other content and throw me a subscribe a like or
a comment honestly it really helps the channel out and it's totally free you can unsubscribe later if
you don't want to be subscribed twitch's biggest strength and the reason why i love the platform
and why i'm still streaming on the platform is its community culture which you have probably heard
a thousand times but you likely don't actually know what that means what does it mean to have
community culture i want you to think of youtube for a second youtube is kind of like a bunch of
island countries each creator is its own island audiences can split between two or three island
countries and have dual passports but the culture between different islands and different creators
varies greatly depending on where you go twitch though is more like a single unified country with
a lot of different states now culture can vary from state to state but you're never going to be
lost or out of place you can cross state borders into another twitch chat or another state and say
kappa and people will understand exactly what you mean youtube lacks this and honestly i don't know
if youtube will ever actually be able to create a community culture as strong as twitch because it
is so diverse and so large that you're never going to get everyone on the same page but i also don't
actually know whether or not youtube even needs this to be successful as someone who is a youtuber
on this channel and a streamer over on twitch i can confidently say that i have met dozens and
dozens of streamers through using twitch's rating hosting being rated myself and more and i've now
become friends with these streamers and it has absolutely helped me as a creator it's helped me
to grow and to be more confident and i imagine if i had some way of actually meeting other youtubers
who are similar size to me well i'd probably be a much more comfortable youtuber and i'd probably be
growing a lot better on youtube as well but where would i even begin to attempt to do something like
that as a youtuber this is no weakness of twitch this is a strength and they need to double down
harder on the community culture aspects they have they need to do more events they need
more networking tools and they need to add more features to keep viewers active in the specific
communities they like to spend their time such as channel points predictions and everything else the
new artist badge and the new prediction upgrades are a great start but let's go further than that
roll out squad streaming to all affiliates fix auto hosting and give us the option so if we
end our stream and we choose not to rage for our own reason it pops up with different streamers
from our auto host that we recommend this way our audience stays on twitch it stays on the platform
and in our community the actionable tip for this part is that if you are on twitch and you want
to grow as a streamer then your best most powerful tool is the community building tools they give you
vips channel points predictions going into other streamers chats and getting an idea about how
the language is used move around the platform and absorb the content and how people interact
then bring that back to your stream and make it the best place to be
because there's a lot of community culture that a lot of you guys probably don't understand as new
streamers and that's holding you back but here is the final point of this entire video and the
hardest part of this whole video to talk about and that is the fact that there are issues on twitch
with ads and there are issues with discovery there are also solutions that can be built out but none
of those solutions at least none of that i've posed or that i've seen online will keep viewers
and streamers on the platform because youtube solved a lot of these problems they don't have
the issues with ads as much anymore and they don't have the issue with discovery anymore
which means that it's going to take a huge amount of work for twitch to build out a system that
makes it better for creators to spend their time there the thing that will actually keep
streamers and their communities on twitch is that community culture by giving them more tools to
focus on that community and giving them a sense of connection that you just don't get on youtube
that's how you're going to win but the problem there is that in a year from now
five years from now 10 years from now youtube can have built out all of those tools
and they might have been able to grow a culture we don't know and that's the truth that nobody
can truly understand what platform is best for streamers and nobody can predict the future
because streaming is an incredibly unstable and scary place but as mac from always sunny likes
to say i'm playing both sides so that i always come out on top and if you want to play both
sides or understand the big differences between youtube and twitch then click this video right
here it's all about twitch vs youtube and everything you need to know as a brand new
streamer it'll really help you out i'll see you guys next week subscribe to the channel for more