- In this video, we're gonna show you
how truly awesome we are at YouTube.
Spoiler alert, it's got nothing to do with Dan.
(mellow dance music)
All right then.
This video isn't just about us.
We want you to share in this collective awesomeness.
So what have you recently done on YouTube, which is awesome?
Let us know in the comments below.
Now then, this video does require
a little bit of context, which you can learn about
mostly in here, but if you don't want to watch that,
here is the very short version.
Based on audience feedback on the channel,
we made this video around about six months ago
that was very successful.
A few months later, the rules changed around the topic,
so we made a followup video, but that one absolutely tanked,
our worst performing video in a long time.
So of course this video
that absolutely failed on our channel
flies in the face of everything we preach on this channel,
which is creator obsessed YouTube education.
We ourselves failed.
We screwed up.
And so as a result, I decided that
instead of shying away from failure,
I would tackle this head on and make a video
about our failure and sharing what I'd learned about it.
Well, it turns out a video about failure
can be actually quite successful.
All right, this is where I get to show you
a new interesting YouTube tool.
From the analytics screen in the YouTube Studio,
go to advanced mode.
Then over on the right-hand side of the screen,
click Compare and finally click on the First 24 Hours.
In a nutshell, this graph over a period of time
will show you the performance of all of your videos
over the first 24 hours of their life
after they have been published,
highlighting the best five and worst five performing videos.
You can move your mouse over any of these dots
to display the video.
So in this example, a video about Mr. Beast
brought in the most views over its first 24 hours
compared to any other video
published in the same time period on the channel.
In other words, it's a top performing video.
And what did we find at number five?
Yep, our video about failure.
Yeah, let that sink in for a moment.
A case study we made about failure on YouTube
is now one of our best performing videos on the channel.
Below that graph, it will list all of the videos
with key metrics such as click-through rates
and average view duration,
which may help inform you as to why a video was a success,
or indeed why it might have been a failure
because all your worst performing videos are listed as well.
Note to YouTube, though, it might be an idea
to filter out live streams from this graph,
due to the way that video on demand views are counted
but not live stream views.
Anyway, you can also click a chevron
to list all of your videos if you want to
and see everything in the middle of the pack.
Remember that on the YouTube Studio dashboard,
you have this snapshot card
that compares your latest video to the last 10.
Well, this tool is basically that on steroids
for the first 24 hours of a video's life.
So now you know we're awesome,
along with all of you, of course.
You've also learned about a new YouTube tool,
but I think also all of you know is
a little bit better than that.
We've got more to share from what we learned
from this video.
How do you pitch a video about YouTube failure
to an audience?
Conventional search wisdom doesn't work here.
You can't title a video "How to Lose Views on YouTube"
unless it's April the 1st.
So the overt strong hook you look to
is emotional connection.
All of us as creators have experienced this moment,
haven't we?
The graph in a downward spiral,
not going the way we intended it to,
eliciting a, yeah, facepalm response.
And then you have the jeopardy of that title.
"We screwed up."
Now I will admit it's a little ambiguous
and probably added more danger to the video
than what was contained in the video,
which brings up the question of clickbait.
Here's my simple response to that.
If your intended audience responds favorably to the content
as they have done here,
then the content for your target audience was clickworthy.
And if you don't catch the view's attention
with that title and thumbnail,
well unfortunately, some other creator
will grab their attention with their thumbnail and title
that stands out.
As an interesting side note,
to help me with this emotional draw,
I actually made two thumbnails
and posted them to our community tab
so that they could decide which one I would use.
I personally prefer the bottom one,
but the overwhelming majority went with the top thumbnail,
except for this dude who thought it would be smart
to suggest the middle thumbnail.
That there, my friends,
is what you call a bad actor on YouTube.
So in the absence search intent on a video
and with more, I guess, shock value,
how does that impact the analytics of a video?
Well, we can take a look.
Another handy thing YouTube have recently
added to analytics are traffic sources
from the video page, and this immediately shows you
how many more views are coming from recommendations,
subscriptions, notifications, and so on.
That seed of intrigue I planted in the thumbnail and title
was enough to convince people
to find out what happened in the video more than usual.
That's the good news.
The bad news is this video is not getting any search traffic
nor is it getting any suggested video traffic either.
And as you can already see,
while the video did initially perform well,
it doesn't look like it has any longevity at all.
This goes back to the challenge of SEO
for a video like this.
Emotion is a really difficult thing to turn into metadata,
which is why I decided for once
not to use vidIQ's recommended tags
and went for none at all.
The video performed above expectation.
So who knows, they may try and optimize this
for search in the future.
And I would love your thoughts on how I could do this,
because right now I'm stumped.
I think ultimately, this video, like many on YouTube,
was a exercise in trusting an audience.
First of all, me trusting that I know my audience,
and then trusting the audience to engage positively
with a slightly different video approach than usual
as to what they would find on vidIQ.
As I said, in this video, failure is a good thing
if you learn from it.
We did, and we made a successful video.
But do you think this is gonna happen next?
We make a successful video.
Then we make a failed follow-up video
to that success of video.
Then we make a successful video
about a failed follow-up video.
There's only one direction this video's going, right?
Oh, one final thing.
This might be the last video
before we hit 800,000 subscribers.
So I just wanted to say...
And now I need to do something.
(tearing sound)