Introduction Playbook youtube analytics

Creator Playbook
Version 4

youtube.com/playbook

What’s New in this Version
Since we released the first Creator Playbook in July 2011, quite a bit has changed on
YouTube. And, as the platform evolves to reflect our new strategies and recommendations
for audience development, so too does the Creator Playbook.
New and Revamped Sections:
• Live: YouTube Live gives your fans another reason to tune in. Cover timely events and
create new ways for your fans to interact with you.
• Promotion: Paying to promote your videos on YouTube can connect your channel with
new audiences and convert existing viewers into subscribers.
• YouTube Analytics: Uncover key channel insights based on viewers’ data and the
content they engage with most.
• Google+: Leverage Google+ to build viewership and engage with your audience in
new ways.
• Build Your Community: Interact with your audience, and build a community around
your content on YouTube.

a2

Table of Contents
Optimization

Welcome
Introduction
Playbook Structure
Icons & Key Definitions

2
3
4

Programming
Captivate Your Audience
Calls to Action
Regular Schedule and Frequency
Playlists
Tent-pole Programming
YouTube Live
Checklist

6
9
11
15
19
22
27

Appendix
Resources
Video Upload Checklist
Glossary

82
83
84

Metadata
Thumbnails
Annotations
Channel Page
Maintaining the Channel Feed
Reaching All Audiences
YouTube Analytics
Checklist

29
33
36
40
45
48
51
59

Community
Build Your Community
Cross-promotion & Collaboration
Google+
Blog Outreach
Promotion on YouTube
Checklist

61
64
68
73
76
81

Introduction
We’re excited to provide our partners with a great
resource that compiles important tips, best
practices, and strategies to help you build your
audience on YouTube. We hope that you find the
information helpful to your creative process, and we
hope to help you take your channel to the next
level. First, we want to address some questions you
may have about what kind of information is
presented in the Creator Playbook and how you
should use this resource as a tool to achieve your
creative goals.

“The most important part of what you do
on YouTube – the greatest optimization – is
to make something great, and to love
what you’re making.”

There Are No Rules to Making Great Content
The Creator Playbook is not a collection of rules or
guaranteed ‘tricks’ to get more views. Instead, it
presents best practices, optimization tips, and
suggested strategies for building audience and
engagement on YouTube. We’ve tried to frame our
suggestions and tips to encourage a variety of uses
and to encourage creators to innovate and develop
their own approach.

2

Be Creative in Applying The Playbook
to Your Channel
We understand that not every strategy or
optimization will apply to every creator on YouTube.
Each bit of information will apply differently to the
myriad of channels, categories, and talented
creators that make YouTube so great. The Creator
Playbook requires you to be creative in its
application. This resource should be a guide for how
to think strategically about the content you make
and where to focus your optimization efforts. We
hope it consistently inspires creators to try new
things. Use the Creator Playbook alongside your
creativity, passion, and commitment to creating
great content; it will not act as a substitute for any of
these necessary elements of success.
There’s Always More To Know
YouTube learns a lot from its creators, and we’re
constantly finding new tips and trends to share back
with you. As the platform evolves and as new
features are released, there will be updates to the
Creator Playbook with new strategies, tips and
optimizations for you to try. Check back with us
often to get these updates so you can continue to
build audience and utilize new features in
meaningful ways.

Enjoy!

Playbook Structure
The Creator Playbook is structured into three sections: Programming, Optimization, and Community. Each
section presents several optimizations or strategies for building engaged audiences on YouTube. These best
practices are explained in stages to help you understand each point and guide you through taking action.

Overview

Details

Includes:

• Provides context and further detail on why this
specific best practice is important or how to
implement it.

•
•
•

Strategy: Brief description
Why It Works: Reasoning or context
How To Do It: Short explanation of how
to implement

A Visual Key Guide to:

Examples
• Presents examples and/or different methods
or variations.

• Time Cost: Estimates how much time is required.
• Effect: Outlines which metrics are affected
by optimization.
• Impact Rating: Estimates how much effect
an optimization or strategy will have on
outlined metrics.
• Optimization Type: Denotes whether
optimization or strategy is production based,
achieved during publishing, or created through
community involvement.

3

Icons & Key Definitions
Progress Bar

Impact Rating

Progress bar appears at the bottom of the page
showing the progress through each best practice.

Moderate
1 out of 5

Strong
3 out of 5

Major
5 out of 5

Time Cost
Optimization Type

Pre-Production
Minimal
0 – 5 Minutes

Moderate
Less than 1 hour

To implement before going into production

Production
To implement during production process

Publishing
Medium
1+ hours

Major
Full day or more

Effect
List of metrics the optimization can influence:
viewership, subscribers, watch-time, click-through-rate
(CTR), engagement, etc.

4

To implement at the time of video uploading

Post-Publishing
To implement after video has been published

Section One

Programming
Build a cohesive channel strategy and viewing experience.

Gone are the days when YouTube was exclusively a place for one-hit viral videos. If
you’re a creator interested in building a successful channel on YouTube, you’ve got to
consider your channel’s long-term plan. What does this mean, and how do you
execute it? The answer largely lies in developing a viable programming strategy.
“Programming” means creating a cohesive viewing experience across videos on your
channel, where each video fits into the larger channel vision. It encapsulates both
pre-production and production activities; what type of content to produce and how
to publish and share it.

6
Calls to Action
9
Regular Schedule and Frequency
11
Playlists
15
19
YouTube Live 22
Checklist
27
5

Impact
3 out of 5

Strategy:

Time Cost

Effect
• Retention
• Annotation CTR
• Views

Hook viewers from the start of your video to keep
them watching.

Why It Works:
Videos and channels that retain their viewers create
the best viewing experience. YouTube optimizes
search and discovery for videos that increase watch
time on the site.

How To Do It:
Increasing watch-time can be accomplished through
video production techniques that include effective
editing, quality production, and attention to
video structure.

Moderate:
Less than 1 hour

Optimization
Pre-Production
Production
Publishing
Post-Publishing

6

Hook your viewers

Keep them watching

Many viewers decide whether they’ll keep watching a
video within the first few seconds. Hook viewers early,
and keep their attention.

Follow your video’s catchy opening with
awesomeness. The right length for a video is exactly
as long it keeps people glued to the screen. That said,
basic production techniques help!

• Make the first shot fascinating.
• Address the audience immediately.

• Pay attention to lighting, sound quality, and
shot-framing.

• Tell them what they’re watching.

• Make sure the audio is clear and balanced.

• Spark their curiosity.

• Properly light your video.

• Ask a question.

• Include only necessary footage in your videos. Cut,
cut, cut! But...

• Tease the rest of the video.
• Keep branding to less than five seconds, unless
it’s hilarious.

• Avoid sloppy editing. It can be more distracting than
no editing.
• Use varying camera angles, cut-aways and other
visuals to make your videos dynamic. Long, static
shots can make a video drag.
• Add transitions, overlays and graphics to help
convey your story.

Use the YouTubeVideo Editor tool to edit
videos, add effects or enhancements, and correct
minor problems.

7

Optimize for long-form content
• Pique viewer interest for what’s coming up through
graphics, in-video messaging, or other creative
techniques.

If you create narratives that extend across multiple
videos, sweet! But be sure to use these tricks to keep
your viewers happy -- and not disoriented.

• For non-linear narratives, use annotations and
graphics to allow viewers to jump to specific
sections of the video. Time codes that you include
in the video description will automatically link to
the video time code.

• Provide context at the beginning of each video.
New viewers should quickly grasp that they’re
viewing one part of a larger series.

• Create clips that pull out the best short-form
content to act as stand-alone videos, maximizing
your content.

• Drive viewers to the next sequential video, a trailer,
or a playlist using in-video messaging, graphics and
annotations.

• Consider creating promotional clips or teasers to
attract more viewers to the long-form video.
Annotate and link these clips to the full-length
versions.

8

Optimize for serial viewing

• Provide information about the series, its schedule,
release dates and links in the video description.

• Recap previous episodes if possible.

• Include episode or part numbers at the end of your
keyword-driven video title.

Calls to Action
Impact
4 out of 5

Strategy:

Time Cost

•
•
•
•

Direct viewers during the video to take actions that
can help build engagement and audience.

Why It Works:
Online video is an interactive experience. Prompting
your viewers to take action will help them feel more
invested in your work.

How To Do It:
Accomplished through production and/or
annotations.

Effect
Annotation CTR
Subscribers
Views
Comments

Minimal:
0 – 5 Minutes

Optimization Type
Pre-Production
Production
Publishing
Post-Publishing

9

Calls to Action
Watching video online is an interactive and social
experience. Content creators rely on the actions of
their audience to help them succeed - but many
viewers won’t act unless you prompt them. Your
videos should have specific Calls to Action (CTAs).
CTAs should be minimal and simple; too many
prompts can cause confusion. Make it as easy as
possible for viewers to act.

How to include CTAs

Types of Action

• In-video graphics. Eye-catching graphics can
encourage subscribing, commenting or sharing.
Use the spotlight annotation to make these
graphics clickable once the video is published.

• Subscribe. Invite viewers to subscribe to your
channel and give them good reasons to do it!
• Watch more. Direct viewers to the next episode, a
new video or a playlist.
• Likes/share. Ask viewers to like or share a video – it
gets broadcast to the community and will bring
new viewers to your work.
• Comments. Ask for comments! Posing specific
questions will boost participation.

• Direct Host-Mentions. Talk directly to the camera
to get your audience to listen and act.
• Annotations. Annotations – clickable text overlaid
on your video – are one of the most versatile ways
to engage with your viewers.

• End-cards. Create an end-card that directs viewers
to act. Create a template that builds consistency
into the end of your videos.
• Video Descriptions. Put in-depth descriptions
about your videos (and links to your site and social
media) here.
Depending on your message, place CTAs at the
beginning, middle or end of the video.

Specific prompts are a great way to
guide the conversation that will take place in the
comments.

Remember that it is a violation of YouTube Terms of Service and Community
Guidelines to incentivize clicks on video features in any way (i.e. give-aways or
prizes for liking or favoriting a video).

10

Regular Schedule & Frequency
Impact
4 out of 5

Strategy:

Time Cost

• Subscriber Views
• Subscribers
• Views

Release videos frequently on a recurring schedule.
React to trending topics with relevant content.

Why It Works:
Frequent uploads and other platform engagement
keep your channel feed active and retain
audience interest.

How To Do It:
Find the right release schedule for your audience.
Maximize the content developed during
production shoots.

Effect

Medium:
1+ hours

Optimization Type
Pre-Production
Production
Publishing
Post-Publishing

11

Once you hook your viewers, give them a reason to
keep coming back. New material, regularly scheduled,
will do the trick. Feed your channel’s feed!

Get the most from your productions

How to “feed” your feed

• Recycle current content into making-of videos,
bloopers, behind-the- scenes, recaps, best of
countdowns, trailers, vlogs, comment videos
and more.

• Upload frequently. Aim to publish a minimum of
one video per week.
• Keep your feed active. Favorite, like and comment
on other channels’ videos. Manage and update your
playlists.

• Shoot lots of footage, and package it creatively.

• Create shorter versions of long-form content to act
as teasers, trailers or previews.

• Engage during the off-season. If you take a break
from regular programming, stay connected to your
audience during the down-time.

Use annotations, playlists and other
links to get viewers from the preview video to the
actual video.

12

Set a schedule

Stay timely

YouTube isn’t TV, but some of the principles that drive
television viewership apply to the web. Regular
release schedules and timely publishing are both
important for online video.

• Timing matters. News and politics, sports,
commentary, and opinion content can thrive on
topicality.

• Release videos on a set day of the week, if possible;
audiences like structure.
• If your channel hosts multiple shows, create a
programming schedule. Communicate it to your
audience in the video, on your channel, and in
video descriptions. Use YouTube’s scheduled
publishing feature to build your schedule.

• Don’t be too locked into your schedule: respond to
rising search trends, viral videos or breaking news.
• Add reactive and timely supplemental content to
your regular programming; it can help your channel
find new audiences.

Use YouTube’s scheduled publishing
feature to build your schedule.

13

Examples
Maintaining an Active Feed with Uploads and More
/MIYA, /RIDEChannel, /MikeRelm

14

Communicate Your Schedule
/hplusdigitalseries

Playlists
Impact
3 out of 5

Strategy:

Time Cost

• Views
• Watch-time
• Annotation CTR

Create and manage playlists to organize your videos
and provide an extended viewing experience.

Why It Works:
Playlists make it easy for viewers to lean back and
watch multiple videos with minimal effort. Playlists
can increase watch-time.

How To Do It:
Create playlists for different sets of videos. Optimize
the playlists’ metadata, and direct viewers to these
playlists via annotations and links. Publish playlists as
channel posts to your channel feed.

Effect

Moderate:
Less than 1 hour

Optimization Type
Pre-Production
Production
Publishing
Post-Publishing

15

Playlists
Playlists should be an essential part of your channel
strategy. Not only do they increase watch-time, they
create another asset that will appear in search results
and in Suggested Videos. You can create playlists using
your own videos, other videos, or a combination
of both.

When should I make a playlist?
• To group a set of videos that you want viewers to
enjoy in a single session or in a particular order.
• To group videos around a theme or a tentpole event.
• To separate multiple shows into playlists and feature
on your channel.
• To combine your most-viewed videos with
new uploads.
• To create “Best of” playlists lure (and entertain!)
potential subscribers.

Playlist best practices
• Choose a strong thumbnail for your playlist. Make
it pop!
• If a playlist needs context, upload a short, snappy
intro video.

16

• Make your metadata work for you. A strong title, tags
and description will help people find your playlist.
(See Metadata.)

Playlists can be embedded on other
websites and in social media. They’re a great way to
share your work across the web.

Promote your playlists
• Feature your playlists on your channel page.
• Share playlists with the channel post feature.
Add context!
• Add videos to the playlist. Every addition can show
up in your feed.
• Use in-video messaging, annotations, end-cards and
links to send viewers to a playlist.
• Invite comments. Playlist comments automatically
link back to the playlist -- they become organic
promotion.

To link to a video in Autoplay playlist
mode, click the share button and copy and paste that
URL. The video link will launch the whole playlist.

Playlists
Advanced playlist features and strategies
Feature: Start and End Time
Find it: In Edit Playlist
What it does: Sets the “in” and “out” points for any
video in a playlist. Allows you to create a seamless
curated experience, highlighting and connecting
select moments in videos. This feature is especially
useful if your videos include repetitive opening titles
and credits; you can use it to omit these portions of
your videos.
Strategy: Hosted playlist
How it works: Create an intro video and/or interstitial
videos to link videos in a playlist. You can upload your
own interstitials or create them within Edit Playlist.

Playlists function differently across
different devices, so consider you mobile audience when
crafting a playlist strategy.

Feature: Series playlist
Find it: Mark appropriate playlists as a “series” in the
playlist settings page.
What it does: Helps viewers watch more of your videos.
When you group videos in a series playlist, YouTube will
help your viewers find more episodes in the series and a
link to the whole playlist.
• Use series playlists for groups of videos that are
related to one another or should be watched in
order, such as episodes in a recurring series.
• Pay special attention to your playlist title since it
will appear next to your videos.

17

Playlists
Examples
Channel Post with Playlist Attached
/Break

Playlists with In and Out Points
/SpaceLab

18

‘Start and End Time’ Interface
/Destorm

Impact
4 out of 5

Strategy:

Time Cost

•
•
•
•

Create, release, and/or package content that is
themed around tent-pole events.

Why It Works:
Tent-pole events capitalize on search trends and
audience interests.

How To Do It:
Create and publish content according to a
programming calendar. Use playlists and other
packaging to position your content for tentpole events.

Effect
Promotion
Views
Discovery
External Site Traffic

Moderate:
Less than 1 hour

Optimization Type
Pre-Production
Production
Publishing
Post-Publishing

19

Why does Discovery Channel have Shark Week every
year? Why are scary movies released around
Halloween? Why do talk shows have relationship
experts on just before Valentine’s Day? The answer:
tent-pole programming.
Tent-pole events are the cultural milestones that
organize our viewing habits throughout the year:
major holidays, big sporting events, movie releases
and more. Any channel can participate in tent-pole
events; they’re a great way to tap into the larger
cultural conversation – and the promotional and
audience development opportunities don’t
hurt, either!

Getting Started
• Identify tent-pole events that are relevant to
your audience.
• Develop a programming calendar covering all
the videos you are going to create or curate for
the event.
• Create original videos for the tent-pole using
appropriate thumbnails and metadata to capitalize
on search trends.
• Repackage old videos in new ways.
• Use playlists to organize your videos or curate other
content relevant to the event.

Get Ahead of the Buzz

Pre-Buzz

The Event

Post-Buzz

• Use the “Explore” tool at Google.com/trends to
gauge how much early and sustained interest there
is around an event.
• Release tent-pole related videos several days before
an event. The “pre-buzz” leading up to an event is
just as important as (or more important than) the
actual event.
• Reach out to blogs early with your tent-pole related
content.

Movies, Holidays, Culture & Sports

20

Titles and tags can help rebrand a video
for tent-pole events. When possible, make use of
your archives.

Examples
Tent-pole related videos
/Break

Tent-pole curation in the feed
/Revision3

21

YouTube Live
Impact
3 out of 5

Strategy:

Time Cost

• Subscribers
• Engagement

YouTube Live gives your fans another reason to tune
in. Cover timely events, and create new ways for your
fans to interact with you.

Why It Works:
Live broadcasts are a great way to build an engaged,
loyal audience through subscriber growth.

How To Do It:
Test live functionality, market the event on and
off-site, integrate Calls to Action, clip out content,
and upload clipped content to your channel.

Effect

Major:
Full Day or More

Optimization Type
Pre-Production
Production
Publishing
Post-Publishing

22

YouTube Live
YouTube Live lets you livestream large music, news,
and cultural events, and interact with your fans in a
way that’s not possible with regular YouTube videos.
Let’s dive into the steps to set up, promote, and
execute a live event.

Schedule the livestream

Think about your YouTube Live event in stages:

• Custom thumbnails and titles are especially
important for live events due to their placement on
your channel, in channel sections, in an email to
your subscribers when the event is live, and on
youtube.com/live.

• Before the event
• During the event

• The metadata of your scheduled live event is
important. Add a great title, thumbnail, and an
optimized description.

• After the event

Before a Live Event
Live events appeal to your most engaged fans.
Remember, a livestream is only viewable for a limited
time period, so make sure your audience knows when
to tune in!
Test, test, test (and test some more)
• Get familiar with the technical setup of a livestream
before scheduling an event.

• Promote the Live event on G+ by creating an event
and making that event available “on air”. By
showing additional fields you can reveal a YouTube
URL to your G+ followers.

• Test everything well in advance of your event; you
don’t want to let down your audience by having
technical difficulties.
• Your channel must be in good standing to publish a
live event.

23

YouTube Live
Create a trailer or teaser video

Optimize the Channel

• A trailer lets your subscribers know about the event
by appearing in the channel feed. A few key points
as you craft your trailer:

• Create and feature a playlist or section on your
channel that assembles videos related to the
livestream.

• Include the important stuff - when the live event
is happening, and for how long.

• If creating a playlist, use the notes field of the
playlist to add commentary about the live event.

• Feature the host/talent from the livestream.

• Highlight the livestream trailer video in the
Welcome Trailer module on your channel.

• Link to the scheduled event in the trailer’s
description. Once the event is live, swap in the
livestream video URL.

Use the trailer you create to promote the
livestream through paid promotion.

24

• In the days leading up to the livestream, use
InVideo programming to promote the trailer.

When your live event is published, your
subscribers receive an email with your thumbnail and
title. Make these look and sound awesome!

YouTube Live
During the Live Event
Though YouTube Live is primarily used to push
content to viewers, there is still an opportunity to
build Calls to Action into the content to turn viewers
into channel subscribers.
• Make sure that InVideo Programming is promoting
the livestream when the livestream is live. When
scheduling the livestream, you can schedule
InVideo Programming to do this automatically. In
order for this feature to work, the live event must
be set to public (unlisted or private live events will
not be promoted through InVideo Programming).
• Calls to Action need to be edited into the actual
production of the event, as Live does not currently
support annotations. These Calls to Action could be
scripted, or if you have the editing capability, edited
into the top or bottom third of the broadcast.

• Live events can be a powerful driver of new
subscriptions. Ask for subscribers and tease your
channel’s content during the event.
• Let viewers know when the footage from the live
event will be uploaded to the channel. You can do
this in the video itself, in the video description, and
in the comments of the video.
• Make sure that you have staff to keep the event on
schedule, read and respond to social media, and
serve as a connection between online reaction and
the host.

Plan for dead-air during a live event.
What stunts or audience questions can you address
during lulls in the action or performance?

• Pay attention to the live comments! Give the
people what they want, whether it’s a certain
camera angle, a song, a question to be answered,
or for more/less of some topic.

25

YouTube Live
After the Live Event

YouTube Live or Hangouts On Air (HOA)?

In the days after a live event, consider uploading the
best clips from the event. Clipped content help fans
relive the most memorable parts, and also drives
viewership and watch time.

With YouTube Live, and a lot of planning, testing, and
promotion, you can produce a broadcast-quality live
event. Don’t have enough time to pull off a live
event? HOA builds fan engagement by creating a
highly interactive, more casual fan experience, and
they don’t require as much setup time. Learn more in
Google+.

• Secure necessary content rights to rebroadcast
clipped and edited versions of the live event.
• Edit the live event into separate videos that each
touch on a unique theme or topic. Your video title
should pique the interest of potential viewers;
“Celebrity Says Something” is much more engaging
than “Part 2 of Live Event.”
• Upload the archived content from music
performances soon after the live event. Include the
event venue, date, band and song info in the title.
• Set an upload schedule to publish the archived
footage if the amount of live content might be
overwhelming as one upload.

26

Note: Live is enabled for all creators who have at least
1000 subscribers; more information can be found on
our blog.

Programming
Checklist
Create content that is unique, compelling, and entertaining or informative.
Captivate your viewer in the first 15 seconds, and keep them watching throughout
the video.
Include specific Calls to Action in the video or through annotations.
Set a recurring schedule for your uploads, and maximize your
production investments.
Utilize playlists to create a satisfying long-form experience for your viewers.
Create a programming calendar. Create content around tent-pole events that are
important to your audience.
Create a channel experience that guides viewers across multiple videos and
communicates everything your channel has to offer.
Use YouTube Live to cover timely events. Remember to test the live functionality,
market the event on and off-site, integrate Calls to Action and clip out content, and
upload clipped content to your channel.

27

Section Two

Optimization
Ensure your videos will reach the widest audience possible.

Your video is creative, insightful, and spot-on for your YouTube audience. Now it’s
time to sit back and watch the viewcount rise, right? Not quite. Remember, a ton of
great content lives on YouTube. Creating a stellar video is crucial, but it’s only half
the battle.
To help your videos and channel succeed on the platform, you’ve got to optimize
them. This means developing an intimate understanding of how audiences discover
and engage with your videos, and using all available tools to take advantage of
these insights. You’ll also need to monitor performance on both a channel and video
level and adjust your strategy as necessary.

Metadata
Thumbnail Optimization
Annotations
Channel Page
YouTube Analytics
Checklist
28

29
33
36
40
45
48
57
59

Metadata
Impact
5 out of 5

Strategy:

Time Cost

•
•
•
•

Write optimized titles, tags and descriptions for
your content.

Why It Works:
Metadata helps YouTube index your content. This
is critical to building views from search and
suggested videos.

How To Do It:
Use optimized keywords and formatting when
writing metadata for your videos.

Effect
Search Traffic
Views
Suggested Video Traffic
Subscribers

Minimal:
0 – 5 Minutes

Optimization Type
Pre-Production
Production
Publishing
Post-Publishing

29

Metadata
YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine,
and it uses metadata – your video’s title, tags and
description – to index your video correctly. To
maximize your presence in search, promotion,
suggested videos and ad-serving, make sure your
metadata is well optimized.

Title
Make it compelling – this is your video’s headline. Title
and thumbnails are often the primary elements
driving a viewer’s decision of what they’ll watch next.
If your video’s title showed up in a search, would you
click on it?
• Always represent your content accurately.

Tags
Tags are descriptive keywords that will help people
find your videos. Create a set of standard tags for your
channel that can be applied to any video you publish.
(E.g. filmmaking, animation, comedy, “Funny Videos,”
“Pet Videos,” etc.)
• Include a mix of both general and specific tags.
• Use enough tags to thoroughly and accurately
describe the video.
• Update catalogue videos’ tags when new search
trends emerge.

• Offer keywords first, branding at the end.

• Properly format tags to ensure proper indexing of
your video.

• For serial content, add the episode number to the
end of the title.

• Include keywords from your title in your
video’s tags.

• Create a title that reinforces the thumbnail - make
sure that together they tell a cohesive story.
• Update video titles so they continue to grab views.

Avoid titles that trick viewers into
clicking the video. This will cause drop-offs in the first
few seconds of your video and will negatively impact
your video’s watch-time.

30

Update the metadata on older videos if
title, tags or descriptions are not optimized. This can
increase views even if the video’s been public for a
long time.

Metadata
Description

A video description may:

Only the first few sentences of your description will
appear in search results or above the fold on a watch
page – so make them count! Follow a template for all
of your video descriptions to create consistency.

• Link to sites, videos, channels or users referenced in
your video.

A video description should:

• Include links to time-codes in the video for
long-form content.

• Accurately describe your video in one or two
concise sentences.
• Describe your channel and link to your
channel page.
• Drive viewers to subscribe (and include a
subscribe link).
• Link to other episodes or related videos
and playlists.
• Include links to your site and social media presence.

• Include your channel’s release schedule.

• Include a recurring keyword tagline. The keyword
tagline is a group of sentences that describe your
channel. They should include several search-driven
keywords. Repeating this tagline in episode
descriptions will inform first-time viewers about
your channel.

YouTube’s new ‘metadata defaults’
feature when you upload allows you to create templates
for your metadata and ensure important text or links are
always included.

Remember that it is a violation of YouTube Terms of Service to use misleading metadata on your videos.

31

Metadata
Examples
Thumbnails and metadata for serial content
/Hplusdigitalseries

32

Video Descriptions with links and channel
information

Impact
5 out of 5

Strategy:

Time Cost

• Search Traffic
• Views
• Suggested Video Traffic

Create high-quality, custom thumbnails for your
videos that accurately represent the content.

Why It Works:
Thumbnails act as miniature marketing posters for
your videos – they attract viewers to your content and
compel them to click through to watch.

How To Do It:
Design and upload custom thumbnails for new
videos. Update archive video thumbnails.

Effect

Moderate:
Less than 1 hour

Optimization Type
Pre-Production
Production
Publishing
Post-Publishing

33

Thumbnails show up in different sizes and formats all
across the platform, and outside of it. Make sure
you’ve got a strong, vibrant image that pops no
matter what size it is.

Visual Guidelines
•

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Clear, in-focus, hi-resolution (640px x 360px min.,
16:9 aspect ratio)
Bright, high-contrast
Close-ups of faces
Visually compelling imagery
Well-framed, good composition
Foreground stands out from background
Looks great at both small and large sizes
Accurately represents the content

General Guidelines
• When shooting a video, take shots that will make
great thumbnails
• Always upload custom thumbnails with the
video file
• Make sure the thumbnail is not overly sexually
provocative
• Design thumbnails that reinforce your videos’ titles
- make sure that together they tell a cohesive story.

34

Upload high-resolution thumbnails so
they appear crisp and clear wherever viewers happen
to see them.

Metadata and Thumbnails on the ‘Watch Page’
Examples of Watch Page Placements
•
•
•
•

Suggested Videos – Algorithmically generated by YouTube
Video End Screen – Algorithmically generated by YouTube
Video Responses – Creator-generated
Playlist Runner – When watching in playlist mode, videos appear
alongside the video player

Metadata and Thumbnails Across the Site & Devices
Channel Page Placements
Playlists show in the right column and on the videos tab. Featured Tab
thumbnails are much larger than elsewhere on site.
Suggested Video Placement
Thumbnails appear in the right column that recommends additional
videos for viewers to enjoy.
The Guide and Channel Feed
Channel icon appears prominently in the Guide. Thumbnails appear in
subscriber feeds whenever new videos are uploaded or playlists are
created.
Search
Video thumbnail, the first 60 characters of their titles, and ~140 characters
of their descriptions appear in search results.
Mobile
Primarily thumbnail-driven given the limited real estate.

35

Annotations
Impact
3 out of 5

Strategy:

Time Cost

•
•
•
•

Use annotations on your videos to increase
viewership, engagement, and subscribers.

Why It Works:
Annotations are unique to YouTube. They can drive
viewers to more content, increase community actions
on your videos, and attract new subscribers.

How To Do It:
Add relevant and helpful annotations to all your
videos after upload. Use annotations on archive
videos to direct traffic to new initiatives or content.

Effect
Annotation CTR
Engagement
Subscribers
Views

Moderate:
Less than 1 hour

Optimization Type
Pre-Production
Production
Publishing
Post-Publishing

36

Annotations
Annotations are clickable text overlays on YouTube
videos. Annotations are used to boost engagement,
give more information, and aid in navigation. Be
inventive! Producers are consistently finding new,
creative uses for annotations.

Common Uses
• Ask viewers to like, favorite or share a video.
• Ask a specific question to enhance viewer
engagement.
• Make it easy for viewers to subscribe right from
your videos.

• Link to other videos, playlists, channels or full versions
of shorter video clips.
• Make areas of your video clickable and interactive.
• Highlight your dot com or merchandise store.
• Link to your social media presence.
• Direct viewers of older videos to newly uploaded
content.
• Place hidden “Easter eggs” or interactive games in
your videos.
• Add text clarification to a specific part of the video.

• Create a table of contents for long-form videos.
• Link to related videos or content you reference in
the video.
• Link to other videos in the series.

Controlling the text, placement, timing
and link URLs are all in your hands. Get creative and
optimize for the highest engagement!

37

Annotations
Best Practices

Spotlight Annotations

• Avoid annotations in the lower third of the video; the
advertisement overlay can obscure them.

Most annotation types are self-explanatory. Spotlight
annotations stand out because they allow creators to
subtly create clickable areas within a video. The text
only appears when a viewer hovers over it with the
mouse; a light outline shows when the viewer’s not
hovering. This is a great way to include unobtrusive
but clickable annotations.

• Also avoid annotations along the very top of
the frame. Embedded players may obscure placement
of these annotations.
• Don’t obstruct the actual content. Make sure
annotations add value and do not get in the way of
the viewing experience.
• Don’t bombard the viewer. This can feel “spammy” and
may have an adverse effect.
• When appropriate, set annotations to open a new
window when clicked. Be careful! Don’t take viewers
away from a video too soon.
• Repeat “subscribe” solicitations and other CTAs at the
end of the episode.
• Annotations at the end of a video should open in the
same window.
• Use your best judgment (and Analytics) to determine
the timing, placement, style and number of
annotations included in your videos.
Be creative! The annotation is a flexible feature that’s
unique to YouTube – and there are still many uses yet
to be discovered.

38

When linking to a video that you want to
play within its playlist add “&list=playlist ID HERE” to the
end of the url.

Annotations
InVideo Programming Annotations
Unlike regular annotations, InVideo Programming
allows you to promote both your channel or any
video on YouTube across all your uploads. How
InVideo Programming works:
• When promoting videos, pulls in the thumbnail as
the annotation. Videos with optimized thumbnails
perform better.
• Ability to upload a custom, transparent square
image to promote your channel. Unsubscribed
viewers who hover over the channel image have
the ability to subscribe to your channel without
interrupting the video.

• You can set InVideo Programming to appear at the
beginning or end of every video.
• Only available to channels that are in
good standing.
• InVideo Programming annotations are viewable on
mobile devices.
For more information on where to edit InVideo
Programming visit the YouTube Help Center.
Example Uses:
• Promote your most recent upload
• Promote a tentpole event or collaboration video
• Promote the first episode in a series
• Promote your channel with a custom image

39

Channel Page Optimization
Impact
3 out of 5

Strategy:

Time Cost

•
•
•
•

Create a cohesive and compelling channel experience
that will turn first-time visitors into long-term
subscribers.

Why It Works:
A well-organized channel page and robust channel
metadata will make your channel a richer destination
for both current and potential subscribers.

How To Do It:
Optimize channel branding and metadata, create
organizational sections and a channel trailer, and
broadcast to subscribers through the feed.

Effect
Channel Views
Channel Discovery
Subscribers
Views

Moderate:
Less than 1 hour

Optimization Type
Pre-Production
Production
Publishing
Post-Publishing

40

Channels appear on YouTube more often and in more
varied placements than ever before. Optimize your
channel for placement in search, related channels,
browse channels and the feed so you’ll engage current
and potential subscribers across YouTube.

Channel Name

playlists. Fast forward, rewind, pause. It’s all here. And
remember to visit Adultswim.com for all your full
episode needs. We know you wouldn’t forget, but it
never hurts to make sure.”

Channel Icon

• Your channel name will appear across the site
in search, suggested channel and channel
browser placements.

• Upload a square, high-resolution (800px x 800px)
image that is recognizable at smaller resolutions.
This image will be your channel’s icon throughout
the site.

• Your channel name is distinct from your channel
URL; the name can be edited from the channel page.

• Use text sparingly; it can be illegible at smaller
resolutions.

• Pick a channel name that is short, memorable and
gives your audience an idea of what your channel
is about.

Channel Art

Channel Description
• The first few words of your channel description
appear most frequently across the site so highlight
your most important content upfront.
• Accurately describe your channel.
• Use relevant keywords in the description.
• Include your upload schedule, especially if you host
multiple content types or series.
Example of a great description
Adult Swim: “Adult Swim is your late-night home for
animation and live-action comedy. Enjoy some of your
favorite shows, including Robot Chicken, Venture Bros,
Tim and Eric, Aqua teen, Childrens Hospital, Delocated,
Metalocalypse, Squidbillies, and more. Watch some

• Create customized, visually-compelling channel art.
Use the channel page and use the channel art tool to
choose how the image appears on desktop, mobile,
and TV.
• Channel art should reflect your channel’s personality.
Make the audience feel like they’re connecting with
a person or character and not just a brand.
• Add website and social media links to the About tab.
These links can be overlaid on desktop channel art.
• Check how your channel looks in search, related
channels and the channel browser. Do your channel
icon, channel name and channel art do a good job of
describing your channel to potential fans?

Associate your official website with your
YouTube channel.

41

YouTube channel pages display videos in two ways:
through Browse or the Activity Feed. The Activity
Feed broadcasts channel activity to your subscribers.
To learn more, see “Maintaining the Channel Feed”.
In Browse, subscribed and unsubscribed viewers see
different versions of your channel. The unsubscribed
view is your first opportunity to convince potential
fans to subscribe.

Subscribed View
• Subscribed viewers see personalized
recommendations of “What to Watch Next,”
based on their viewing history. In the default
view, subscribers will see videos they haven’t
previously viewed.
• Your most recent feed posts will appear on your
channel page.
• Promoting a video with InVideo Programming will
push that video more frequently to “What to Watch
Next.” see “Programming”
• Channels listed in the Other Channels module will
be listed as “Suggested” when a user subscribes to
your channel.

42

Unsubscribed View
• Unsubscribed viewers will see your channel trailer
first. Enable the channel trailer view and upload a
channel trailer.
• Keep your trailer short. You should be able to pitch
your channel to a new viewer quickly.
• Show, don’t tell. If you’re a comedy channel, make a
funny promotional video. If you’re an extreme
sports channel, incorporate a trick into your video.
Your channel trailer is your elevator pitch to
potential subscribers: How can you convince
first-time viewers to subscribe?
• Ask viewers to subscribe. Any CTAs should leave
time for the viewer to take action before the
video finishes.

If the channel trailer view is not enabled,
unsubscribed viewers will just see your sections.

Sections

Playlists

Sections function as the main organizational tool for
channels. Sections make your channel page easy to
browse and can be created dynamically from playlists
or actions such as likes.

- Viewable in search and suggested placement
- Organize content that is meant to be viewed
in order
- Can be annotated to from a video

Any section either created from a single
playlist OR that only consists of individual videos now
has a play button on it to create an uninterrupted, lean
back experience.
Sections

- Can curate other channels’ content
- Can’t organize playlists, only videos
• Use sections to organize your best content or
curate other channels’ content.

- Can curate other channels’ content

• For channels that upload multiple shows and
assemble them into playlists, you can put all show
playlists in one section.

- Organize content into different groups

• Sections can curate other channels’ content.

- Can be annotated to from a video

- Can organize videos (e.g. popular uploads),
playlists (My Albums) or Channels (more from
my network).

To annotate to a section from a video,
use the click-through link for the section from your
channel page and input that URL as an annotation.

43

Featured Channels

Related Channels

• Featured Channels are channels you choose to
promote on your channel page.

• Related Channels are promoted channels
populated by YouTube. Recommendations are
based on channels that are similar to yours.

• If you’re promoting a large number of channels,
rotate through the list using the “rotate channels”
feature. This ensures all your channels get visibility.

• Disabling the Related Channels feature pulls your
channel from being promoted in the Related
Channels placement on other channels.

Examples
Great channel designs
/epicmealtime

44

Great channel designs
/GoProCamera

Impact
4 out of 5

Strategy:

Time Cost

• Engagement
• Views
• Subscriber Views

Maintain an active feed that keeps your audience
engaged without overwhelming them.

Why It Works:
As you convert viewers to subscribers, maintaining an
active feed drives viewer to new uploads and helps
promote other videos.

How To Do It:
Utilize other channel activity such as channel posts
and ‘liking’ videos to publish your content to the feed
and curate videos from other channels.

Effect

Moderate:
Less than 1 hour

Optimization Type
Pre-Production
Production
Publishing
Post-Publishing

45

The channel feed broadcasts your activities to your subscribers. The default feed will share your uploads, liked
videos, videos added to playlists, channel posts, comments, channel subscriptions and favorited videos. Your
feed should stay current, promote the content that’s important to you, and never overwhelm your subscribers
with too much information..

The Feed - Curating Your Own Content
• Adjust your sharing options in channel settings
based on what you want to share, and be aware
that if you’re very active on the site, you may
overwhelm your subscribers.
• For creators who don’t upload every week, the feed
allows you to appear more active by broadcasting
other activities.
• Set a schedule for your channel activity. If you
upload once a week, offer curation and channel
posts in between new videos.
• Does resurfacing great videos help drive new
viewership? Try it using channel posts. But be sure
to tell your users why you’re highlighting it now!
• Multiple actions can get aggregated into a single
post for your subscribers. Space out your
interactions so that uploading, commenting,
adding to playlists, liking and channel posts don’t
happen consecutively.

46

The Feed - Curating Other Content

The Feed - Tent-Pole Programming

By boosting other people’s videos, your channel can
become a tastemaker destination.

• Compile playlists for key tent-pole events and post
the tent-pole playlists to your feed using the
channel posts feature.

• Be a picky curator – understand your audience and
share work that will appeal to them.
• Set a curation schedule. Choose non-upload days
to curate content in your channel’s feed. Treat these
curated videos like you would a weekly show.
• Set the context. When you comment on your own
video and someone else’s, make sure the comments
add to the experience.

• The feed can be used to resurface videos and
Playlists that are relevant to trending topics or
upcoming tent-pole events.
• Only when a video is switched to “live” for the first
time does it appear in your feed. Upload videos as
unlisted to adjust metadata and annotations before
publishing to subscribers.

Great thumbnails and titles are
especially important to attract attention for your videos
in your subscribers’ homepage feeds. (see Metadata)

47

Impact
2 out of 5

Strategy:

Time Cost

• Search Traffic
• Views

Optimize videos and create content to reach the
widest possible audience. Caption your videos to
ensure they are accessible to any viewer.

Why It Works:
Captioning makes your videos accessible to more
viewers, including foreign language speakers and
those with disabilities.

How To Do It:
Use online tools to create captions for your videos.
Create content that can transcend cultural
differences.

Effect

Medium:
1+ hours

Optimization Type
Pre-Production
Production
Publishing
Post-Publishing

48

YouTube is a global platform - your audience can watch from anywhere in the world. Take extra steps to help
your videos appeal to broader audiences, including foreign language speakers and viewers who are
hard-of-hearing.

Create Content with Global Appeal
Your content may already have global appeal (Check
YouTube Analytics), but consider whether there may
be an opportunity to adapt it and expand on interest
around the world.
• Use Analytics to find out where your channel might
already be attracting an audience. Focus
internationalization efforts on those languages.
• Appeal to new audiences. Animation, dance,
animals or strong visuals without dialogue have
cross-cultural appeal.
• Identify and program for local and regional trends
as well as tent-pole events. Make your metadata
multilingual and add subtitles during these events.
• Consider launching your content on a separate
channel targeting new regions or language groups.
• Invite speakers of other languages to create
voice-overs or audio for your content.
• Find other channels around the world that are
similar to yours, and collaborate or cross-promote
with them, if your content will translate.

49

Captions and subtitles make your work accessible to a wider audience – and they act as additional metadata,
which helps your video show up in more places on the site. You can provide your own captions and transcripts,
or use YouTube’s features to help you create and translate transcriptions of the audio in your content.
Creating Captions
• If you upload a caption track on your video,
YouTube can then enable Auto-Translate, which will
automatically translate it into 58 languages
(variable accuracy).
• To create captions for a video, write out the text of
all the audio and upload it. YouTube will auto-sync
the timing to match speech in the video (currently
English, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean only).
• Edit and improve automatically-generated captions
in the Edit Video interface using the Translator
Toolkit.
• Use multiple languages for titles, tags, and
descriptions. This helps improve discoverability
through search terms.
• A transcript’s content and keywords are searchable.
If your video is captioned for multiple languages, it
will be searchable in all those languages.

50

By using the Translator Toolkit you can
invite your fans to help create and edit
captions in languages they speak!

YouTube Analytics
Impact
2 out of 5

Strategy:

Time Cost

Effect
•
•
•
•

Use YouTube Analytics regularly to assess your
channel’s performance and investigate changes or
trends across key metrics.

Engagement
Subscribers
Views
Community Activity

Why It Works:

Medium:
1+ hours

Analytics provide actionable insights for creators to
make better videos, implement and measure
optimizations, and develop strategic programming.

Optimization Type

How To Do It:
Gain fluency in the YouTube Analytics product.
Routinely assess your channel’s performance and
make changes to content and audience strategies
based on your findings.

Pre-Production
Production
Publishing
Post-Publishing

51

YouTube Analytics
YouTube Analytics (YTA) is your channel’s pulse. It
helps uncover key channel insights based on real
viewer data and the content they engage with most.
It’s never too early or late to start. YTA is for all
creators, and should be used regardless of whether
you’re just starting out or are a seasoned veteran. You
can use YTA not only on your newest videos, but also
to analyze performance data from older videos to
inform future content, programming, and audience
development strategies.

Viewership:
How Do I Build a Large and Loyal Audience?

Key Reports:
• Subscriber Demographics - Filters report to display
subscriber only data.
• Demographics - Provides directional insights into
audience age and gender.
• Geography - Shows which countries your viewers
are from.

1. Know Who Your Viewers Are

Sample Report Uses:

Understanding your repeat viewers enables you to
more confidently create content they’ll love and
come back for time and time again. Does the current
age, gender, and location of your viewers match up
with your ideal target audience? If not, you may
consider recrafting your content and promotion
strategies to attract the audiences you want most.

• Tailor your channel design, content style,
thumbnails, etc to appeal to your core audience
demos.
• If your content is performing well in a foreign
country, consider transcribing and enabling
captions.
• Track changes to your channel’s audience
demographics over time so you can continue
providing viewers with the most relevant and
engaging content possible.
• Be mindful of potential nuances like children
logging on using their parents’ accounts, because
such user behavior can affect demographics data.

52

YouTube Analytics
2. Know Where Viewers Are Finding Your Videos

Sample Report Uses:

Understanding which traffic sources drive the
greatest viewership can help you get the most out
your audience development efforts. Consider
allocating your strategic efforts where your videos are
getting the most traction. And remember, it’s not just
the quantity, but the quality of views that matter
(See “Average View Duration” in the image below to
see which sources are responsible for the most
engaged viewers).

• Increase viewership from YouTube Search and
YouTube Suggested modules by creating effective
titles and descriptions, captivating thumbnails, and
engaging content.
• Increase viewership from Homepage Feeds &
Subscriptions by frequently and consistently
uploading content that your audiences crave most.
• Examine the Embedded Player and External
Websites reports to learn which sites are promoting
your content and consider reaching out to them for
cross-promotions and/or collaborations.
• Select the “Show Subscribers Only” checkbox on
the Traffic Sources report to see viewership trends
from your channel subscribers.

Key Reports:
• Playback Locations - Shows YouTube pages and
embedding sites where viewers watch your videos.

• Check the “Average View Duration” column on all
traffic reports to determine which sources are
driving viewership with the highest view duration
(a great indicator of viewership quality).

• Traffic Sources - Shows external sites and YouTube
features linking viewers to your videos.

53

YouTube Analytics
3. Know What Makes Viewers Come and Go

Key Reports:

Understanding how audiences interact with your
content can help uncover invaluable patterns, and
empower you to create more engaging content.
Videos with low audience retention rates are far less
likely to be surfaced in Search and Suggested
placements on YouTube, so create a viewing
experience that causes audiences to watch as much
of your video as possible. Do you know why
audiences watch certain videos to the end, while
abandoning others within the first few seconds?

• Absolute Retention - Shows which parts of your
video people are watching and/or abandoning.
• Relative Retention - Shows audience engagement
compared to other videos of similar length.
Sample Report Uses:
• A rise in the Absolute Retention graph means
viewers are re-watching that part of the video; a dip
signifies that viewers are skipping forward or
abandoning the video altogether.
• Significant dips in Absolute Retention within the
first 5-10 seconds can indicate unmet audience
expectations. Make sure your thumbnails and titles
accurately represent the actual content.
• Use audience retention patterns to inform possible
changes to future content topics, styles, pace,
length, and/or packaging.
• Assess “Average View Through” and “Average
Viewing Time” for specific videos to identify which
content types are most likely to drive high
watchtime.

54

YouTube Analytics
4. Know How Many Videos Each Viewer Consumes

Sample Report Uses:

Understanding what causes viewers to enjoy multiple
videos per visit can help you work smarter, not harder.
Because engaging existing audiences is easier than
attracting entirely new ones, it’s important to extend
the viewing session for viewers you have. Do you
know which days viewers are most likely to visit
your channel, and which videos they enjoy
watching most?

• Identify days that your audience is most active;
repeated weekly viewership peaks may suggest the
best days to upload new videos to your channel.
• Consider focusing or putting creative spins on
themes and topics that have performed
exceedingly well in the past.
• Increase Views per Unique Cookie by suggesting
additional videos your viewers might like via
engaging playlists, end cards, and call-to-actions.
• If your Views graph is spiky and erratic, check the
Homepage Feeds and Subscriptions traffic sources
to determine if your upload schedule might be
responsible.

Key Reports:

• If overall Views are growing and/or a certain video
has gone viral, consider adding subscribe
annotations to convert those viewers into a loyal
community.

• Views - Shows overall viewership trends and which
videos are driving those views.
• Views vs. Unique Cookies - Shows how many
average views are consumed per visitor.

55

YouTube Analytics
Engagement:
How Do I Increase Audience Engagement?
1. Know Why Viewers Subscribe
Understanding what causes people to subscribe can
help you convert more casual viewers into loyal
subscribers. Do you know which videos are causing
people to subscribe? Is your programming strategy
geared toward those subscribers?

Sample Report Uses:
• Examine specific dates and/or videos with high
gains (or losses) of subscribers to learn which
content resonates best with your audience.
• Consider using your most subscribed videos to
inform future content and programming.
• Gain more subscribers by adding subscribe
annotations, calls-to-action, links in the description,
and InVideo Programming to your most
popular videos.
• Compare viewership and net subscribers to assess
how effectively you are converting viewers into
subscribers.

Key Reports:
• Subscribers - Shows which videos people are
subscribing and unsubscribing from most.
• Views vs. Subscribers - Shows how effectively you
are converting subscribers from each view.

56

YouTube Analytics
2. Know How Effective Your Annotations Are

Sample Report Uses:

Annotations are a powerful way to engage viewers
and direct them to continue watching more of your
videos. Viewers have lots of videos to choose from on
YouTube, adding and optimizing annotations on your
videos can help keep more viewers on your channel
and convert them into long-term subscribers.

• Optimize annotation placement and duration to
achieve the highest Click Through Rates (CTR)
possible while simultaneously reducing
Close Rates.
• High CTRs mean viewers are clicking on your
annotations.
• High Close Rates mean viewers don’t find the
annotations useful, so consider modifying or
removing low performing annotations to improve
the viewing experience.
• Monitor annotated end-cards that promote other
videos and compare CTRs of the given choices to
learn which videos and/or thumbnails attract the
most clicks.

Key Reports:
• Annotations - Shows click-through (CTR) and close
rates for all of your annotations.

57

YouTube Analytics
3. Know How Fans Interact With Your Videos

Sample Report Uses:

Understanding which videos your audience interacts
with most can help you craft more successful content
and promotional strategies. Examine Likes, Dislikes,
Comments, and Sharing on standout videos to
understand what type of content resonates best with
your audience.

• Determine how many Likes and Comments per
View various videos generate to inform what types
of content you should consider creating in
the future.
• Read your community’s thoughts on highly
Commented videos and consider addressing,
incorporating, or otherwise referencing them in
future videos.
• Determine which videos your audience is most
likely to share and increase the number of Shares
via in-video calls-to-action.

Key Reports:
• Likes & Dislikes - Shows how many viewers give
your videos a thumbs up or down.
• Comments - Shows how many comments are left
on your videos.
• Sharing - Shows how many times viewers share
your videos and where.

58

Optimization
Checklist
Upload
Write detailed and comprehensive metadata following keyword strategies and
formatting.
Create and upload an eye-catching, high-resolution thumbnail.
Spot-check the live video and published metadata.
Publish
Annotate the video with community CTAs, a subscribe button and links to
related content.
Optimize channel branding and metadata, create organizational sections and a
channel trailer, and broadcast to subscribers through the feed.
Utilize channel posts and ‘liking’ videos to publish your content to the feed and
curate videos from other channels.
Use online tools to create captions for your videos. Create content that can
transcend cultural differences.
Use Analytics to better understand your audience, improve your content, and help
you develop effective optimization strategies.
Engage with your viewers! (See Community.)

59

Section Three

Community

Build a genuine community around your channel and what it stands for.

YouTube provides a unique experience for both creators and audience alike, one that
is social and interactive. As a creator, you can not only foster authentic engagement
around your channel but also interact with these viewers.
Building a community - whether it’s with other creators or your audience - on YouTube
means transforming your fans into an engaged and loyal audience, who can then, in
turn, serve as a social army to promote your content.

Cross-promotion and Collaboration
Google+
Blog Outreach
Checklist
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64
68
73
76
81

Impact
3 out of 5

Strategy:

Time Cost

• Engagement
• Subscribers
• Views

Interact with your audience, and build a community
around your content on YouTube.

Why It Works:
An engaged community often leads to a dedicated
audience, who will come back to your channel again
and again.

How To Do It:
Create viewer-centric content, engage with your
audience through social features on the platform,
and develop relationships with top contributors.

Effect

Medium:
1+ hours

Optimization Type
Pre-Production
Production
Publishing
Post-Publishing

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Online video is social. People are drawn to online
video and web series because they can interact with
the channel in ways that they can’t with television.
The ability for creators to interact with their viewers is
key to the medium. So, speak to your audience, and
listen to what they say. If you actively engage with
your audience through your channel, it will pay off in
the long run. Your fans will become your social
advocates – empower them to grow awareness about
your brand and spread the word.

Importance and impact of communities
• Communities are critical to building an audience

on YouTube. After all, YouTube is a social
platform. Liking, sharing, and commenting are key
social features.
• hink about your YouTube channel’s community as
T
a social army of promoters: they’ll share your
content with their social networks and help grow
awareness about your channel.
• nd, in addition to spreading the word about your
A
channel, they’ll function as a content barometer
and focus group. They’re not afraid to tell you
what’s working, what’s not, and offer up some ideas
for future content decisions. Ask what they think,
and more importantly, listen to them.
• emember, communities will happen with or
R
without you on YouTube. You want to make sure
you’re the one leading the discussion in a fruitful
direction.

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How to build a community from the ground up
• hink of the communities you’re involved in
T
- maybe it is a book club, a sports team, or your
college alumni group. What qualities of these
communities make you want to be a member? Can
you recreate some of those same qualities in your
YouTube community?
• ive viewers a reason to support your cause.
G
Why? Well, there are a lot of other things your
viewers could be doing instead of watching your
videos. What value does your channel and the
content you create provide?
• nce someone has visited your channel once, why
O
should they come back for more?
• efine a creed for your community. Think of this
D
as your channel’s mission statement.
• ake sure your community has a leader. It can
M
be a literal host, a group with a consistent voice, or
just a figurative brand / authority.

Community building fundamentals
• Develop relationships with top contributors.

Think of each viewer as an individual. Respond to
frequent commenters, and take a genuine interest
in them.
• Respond to comments in the first few hours after

you publish a video. These first commenters are
your loyal community members, so keep
them engaged.
• Your own comments on your uploaded videos

get pinned to show up at the top of the
comments section, prominently featuring your
engagement with the fans.

• Spur conversation. Create relevant content that
generates conversation among your community.
Ask for their opinions and feedback. Remember,
good debates are a part of a healthy community;
only remove / flag hateful comments targeted at an
individual or group.
• Use off-platform social tools to engage with
your community. Do some research and figure out
which social platforms your community is actively
involved in. Jump into the conversation on those
social networks.
• There are many social networks that YouTubers

use as part of their social strategy. Some popular
platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
Pinterest, Reddit, and Google+.

• Recognize the contributions of individuals in the
community. People love to be recognized;
responding to first-time contributors is a way to
encourage ongoing engagement. Consider
recognizing your community through in-video
shout outs, or by offering other rewards like fan
merchandise or exclusive content shared through
unlisted videos.
• Create content about your community.
Whenever possible, include your community in the
video content itself. Shout them out by name,
acknowledge that you’re reading their comments,
or even let viewers choose the direction of a special
feature. Many creators find ways to work-in their
fans, letting the whole community know how much
they appreciate their viewership.

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Cross-promotion Collaboration
Impact
5 out of 5

Strategy:

Time Cost

Effect
• Channel Views
• Subscribers
• Views

Work with other creators and cross-promote content
between channels.

Why It Works:
Collaborating with and promoting other creators in
the community can be one of the most powerful
ways to reach new audiences. Other YouTube creators
are a critical part of your community on YouTube.

How To Do It:
Create a strategy to cross-promote your content to
relevant audiences. Find and reach out to channels
with similar audiences for collaborations.

Major:
Full Day or More

Optimization Type
Pre-Production
Production
Publishing
Post-Publishing

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Think holistically about your YouTube community.
Sure, it includes your most avid fans and followers, but
it also includes other YouTube creators. Identify similar
or relevant channels and invest in these relationships.
Accessing new audiences on YouTube begins with
finding the channels where those audiences are
already engaged.
It’s a good idea to identify similar or relevant channels
with whom to work on cross-promotion and
collaboration in a mutually beneficial manner. Though,
first you must do the work to build your content, your
channel, and your audience into something that other
channels will want to support or partner with.

General Best Practices
• ollaborate with channels that attract similar
C
demographics.
• ppear, guest-star or contribute to other channels
A
and vice-versa. Leverage each other’s audience to
find new viewers.
• ecord video chats, hold Hangouts on Air, or
R
incorporate video from a collaboration partner on
your channel.
• se annotations, playlists, links in description and
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clear direction within the video to help the viewer
watch more.
• e active on your channel during any crossB
promotion period. Interact with new viewers.
• eature your best videos or playlists when you
F
expect a lot of new channel visitors.
• ake sure to have an effective programming
M
schedule after cross-promotions. The content you
publish in the weeks after gaining new subscribers
will determine if these new viewers remain
subscribed and active with your channel.

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In-video Promotion

Channel Promotion

• Guest Star: Appear or guest star on another

channel; it’s a great way to work with other
creators.

• Recommendation Activity: Like or comment on

other channels. This passive promotion will appear
in your Activity feed.

• Shout Out: A simple host recommendation can go
a long way. Find short, surprising clips or cliff
hangers to hook your audience.

• Social Media: Use other social media channels to

spread the word about other channels you like.
Leverage your Google+, Facebook, or Twitter
followers!
• rack the effectiveness of cross-promotions by
T
examining viewership graphs and subscriber
changes in Analytics. Measure subscribers gained
from the additional views, and assess the stickiness
of your content/channel. How many new viewers
were retained weeks after the promotion?

Use Vidstatsx.com to identify successful
channels and compare subscriber growth.

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Shared Topics and Playlists

Subscriber Box Sharing

• f collaborating, make the viewer aware of all
I
channels involved in the cross-promotion through
playlists, annotations, mentions in the video, and
links in descriptions.

• se the Other Channels Friends module to link to
U
channels you manage or want to promote. When
users subscribe to your channel, they’ll also be able
to subscribe to the channels you’ve listed.

• Link multiple videos in a chain: Producer A links to
Producer B’s video, Producer B links to Producer C,
and so on back to A. No matter where a viewer
begins, all videos in the loop are in a position to
gain new viewers and potential subscribers.

• et the channels know that you’re featuring them
L
and ask if they’ll return the favor.

• Compile playlists or create hosted playlists
featuring videos from channels that you
cross-promote.

Examples
Guest Star Collaboration and Cross-Promotion
/ZeFrank1 and /SoulPancake

Guest Star Collaboration and Cross-Promotion
/lindseystomp with several other channels

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Google+
Impact
4 out of 5

Strategy:

Time Cost

• Views
• Engagement
• Comments

Leverage Google+ to build viewership and engage
with your audience in new ways.

Why It Works:
Google+ extends the reach of your channel and
improves content discoverability across Google’s
products and platforms.

How To Do It:
Connect your channel with a Google+ page or profile,
and take advantage of new features with enhanced
integration between Google+ and YouTube.

Effect

Moderate:
Less than 1 hour

Optimization Type
Pre-Production
Production
Publishing
Post-Publishing

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Google+
Creators can set up a Google+ page or profile to
engage with fans and other YouTube creators.
Google+ allows you to organize people into different
“circles” to help tailor your engagement to a circle’s
specific interests. Engage your fans directly in Google
Hangouts, and broadcast live Hangouts on your
YouTube channel via Google+ Hangouts on Air (HOA).

Google+ Identity
All Creators can use a Google+ identity
for their YouTube channels. This allows
Creators the ability to modify their
YouTube “usernames” by linking their
channels to Google+. All public channel
activity – uploaded videos, created playlists,
comments, likes, favorites, and subscriptions – will be
attributed to your Google+ account.

+Page or Profile?
We encourage YouTube Creators to link a Google+
page to their channel to access the features listed
below. However, if your channel represents you as an
individual, and you personally manage the channel
and plan to manage your Google+ presence on the
same account, then a G+ profile is the way to go.
Pages
• Multiple channel
managers (up to 50)
• Single log-in for
multiple channels
• Page defaults to
public privacy setting
• Access to +1 button

Profiles
• Single admin

The profile aligned with your channel
should be created on the same Google account.
For +pages, the channel’s account admin should be
the manager.

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Google+
Unlock Features
We are constantly adding new features to channels
linked to a Google+ profile or page to improve
engagement, discoverability, and more flexibility
managing your channel. Once you connect your
YouTube account with Google+, you have access to
these extra features.
• etter name: Change your channel name through
B
Google+ or even add spaces and punctuation.

Once you’ve linked your channel to Google+, here’s
how you can get the most out of Google+ features to
highlight your videos.

Manage Circles
• reate and organize different circles to correspond
C
with the various audiences you want to reach.
• Offer fans exclusive access to videos by sharing
private or unlisted videos to your circles.

• oogle+ Badge: Add a badge to your website to
G
connect it to your Google+ page. It makes your
page and relevant posts eligible to appear in
Google search results.
• ouTube Tab: Feature nine of your most recent
Y
public videos in a tab on your Google+ profile.
The videos play on YouTube, and the tab links to
your channel.

Post and Share
• ost new videos to your Google+ stream, and
P
target updates to specific circles.

Be sure to link your Google + page with
your official website to enable discovery
of your channel and videos in Google search.

• ost a video directly to a linked Google+ page
P
when uploading from YouTube, and customize the
message for each post.
• hare archive videos from your channel to your
S
Google+ community to spur new viewership.

Post at least once daily: the best times to
post are from 10am - 1pm.

• ost supplemental content on your Google+ page
P
such as behind-the-scenes photos, or provide a
sneak preview of videos.
• ncourage followers to +1 and share your post if
E
they like what they see.

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Google+
Engage
• I
nteract with fans and build relationships. Moderate
conversations, and respond to mentions.
• A
cknowledge followers with +1s and +mentions
in posts.
• T
ap fans to be your focus group. Ask specific
questions about the content you post, and seek
feedback or ideas for your next video.
• P
romote other creators or videos you like.
• A
nnotate your YouTube videos to link to your
Google+ page to encourage subscribers to
follow you.

G+ Hangouts!
Hangouts allow you to chat face-to-face with up to
ten people.
• se Hangouts to interact with a small group of your
U
fans or other creators.
• eek input from your fans and reward your
S
super-fans with personal, direct access to you.
• heck out apps you can use within a Hangout. For
C
example, you can host viewing parties by watching
YouTube videos in your Hangouts.

Remember to follow all community
guidelines and Terms of Service if uploading the video
file of a Google+ Hangout to YouTube.

G+ Hangouts On Air (HOA)
Hangouts on Air allow you to broadcast your
Hangouts live, directly from your YouTube channel,
Google+ stream or website. After the live session, a
video of the public Hangout is uploaded to your
YouTube channel and to your original Google+ post.
•
Be prepared! Test your connection, cameras, mics,
and other equipment well in advance.
•
Hangouts are interactive, so make sure the format
allows you to engage with other participants
and viewers.
•
Designate a community manager to interact with
fans on Google+, YouTube, and social media during
the event.
•
Set audience expectations before and during the
Hangout. Remind viewers what’s coming up next in
the live HOA using your Google+ stream and other
social media.
•
Include Calls to Action during the Hangout. Remind
viewers to leave comments, send questions, and
subscribe to your channel.
•
Share the full Hangout video or just the best
moments.

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Google+
Promote HOAs
There are a variety of ways to promote HOAs on
Google+ or your YouTube channel.
•
Create a public Google+ Event to remind viewers to
tune in. It features a broadcast of the HOA and the
social commentary around it.
•
Promote your upcoming HOA on your channel. Post
to your feed or upload a promotional video
announcing the event’s date and time.
•
Direct viewers to your live event URL: youtube.com/
user/{channelname}/live. It features your latest
live event.
•
Refer to the YouTube Live section for more ways to
promote HOAs on your channel.

Google+ Communities
Communities allow you to supercharge your
relationship with your fans and bring them together
around shared interests. You can increase awareness
of your channel by participating in relevant
communities and keeping up with discussions.
•
Participate and share your content in relevant
fan communities.
•
Designate a trustworthy fan to moderate your
own community.
•
Contribute posts to foster discussion and ideas
rather than broadcast information. Add categories
to guide discussions.

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• Limit membership to reward superfans with
exclusive access to videos, Hangouts, and other
bonus content. Note: communities can be public
or private.

Measure
•
Use Google+ Ripples to track how your posts are
spreading across Google+ over time. This is a great
way to spot your biggest influencers and superfans. Jump into the conversation when it makes
sense, and use Google+ Ripples to identify and
follow interesting people.
•
Track the analytics on your Hangouts on Air to
understand what length and format works best for
your viewers. Note: Views in YouTube Analytics
represent total live and recorded playbacks.
•
Access social reports from Google Analytics to see
how Google+ influences your conversion rates and
the impact of referrals from your social network.

Blog Outreach
Impact
3 out of 5

Strategy:

Time Cost

• External Traffic
• Views

Share your content with relevant blogs, sites, and
online communities.

Why It Works:
Blogs and other sites are always looking for great,
relevant content to feature. External site traffic can be
a significant driver of views to your channel.

How To Do It:
Create a blog roll and only share relevant content.
Target your outreach and build relationships.

Effect

Medium:
1+ hours

Optimization Type
Pre-Production
Production
Publishing
Post-Publishing

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Blog Outreach
Don’t limit your purview to YouTube. A lot of viewers
encounter videos on other sites, and websites and
blogs are always looking for great content to feature.
Make it easy for them! Reach out with your most
brilliant videos.

Build Relationships

Get the Word Out

• Build relationships with blog editors. Thank them
when they repost, and only share videos that you
honestly think they’d want to share with their
audience.

• Create a blog roll: a comprehensive list of sites,
blogs, online influencers and niche online
communities that are relevant to your content.
• Pitch new videos to your blog roll. Be strategic:
Topical content is typically most attractive to
these sites.
• If you’ve created a video playlist for a tent-pole
event, share it with blogs, who often want groups
of videos about trending topics.

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• Keep track of which sites are driving views. Share
new videos with those places first, and let them
know they’re getting the inside scoop.

Track Your Brand
• Know where people are talking about you. Set
Google Alerts for your channel name, show names,
character names and any other keywords specific
to your channel.

Blog Outreach
Examples
Embeds on Top Blogs and Sites
/ENTV on Deadline.com

Embeds on Top Blogs and Sites
/AboveAverage on HuffingtonPost.com

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Impact
4 out of 5

Strategy:

Time Cost

• Subscribers
• Views

Create promotional videos and pay to promote these
on YouTube using AdWords for video.

Why It Works:
Promoting your videos allows you to connect with
audiences that might not have found your channel
otherwise and helps convert existing viewers
into subscribers.

How To Do It:
Create great ads with a clear call-to-action and target
these ads to the correct audience.

Effect

Major:
Full Day or More

Optimization Type
Pre-Production
Production
Publishing
Post-Publishing

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Paid Promotion on YouTube

Note:

After you optimize your channel and videos to
organically grow your audience, you can pay to
promote your channel and videos with ads on
YouTube. When used in tandem with other playbook
best practices, these ads can help you effectively gain
new viewers and subscribers.

• All the strategies outlined here require you to pay
for your own advertising.

A tool called AdWords for Video allows you to promote
your videos and your channel with the TrueView family
of ad formats. Get started by creating an AdWords
account at adwords.google.com, create a new “online
video campaign,” set a budget, and use the strategies
below to create an ad and target an audience.
In this section we’ll cover: TrueView ad formats,
audience targeting strategies, and how to combine
formats and targeting to reach new audiences,
capture subscribers, and cross promote with other
similar channels.

• You can start with as little or as much of an
investment as you’d like.
• Campaign budgets, ads, and targeting strategies
are all flexible and can be started, changed or
stopped at any time.
• Beyond the guidance below there are several
resources to help you get started with paid
promotion including the AdWords help center,
adwords.google.com and support line,
1-866-2-Google.

Link your YouTube and AdWords
accounts to unlock key campaign success metrics,
such as the number of subscriptions or video views after
an ad-view.

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TrueView Ad Formats
TrueView InStream
InStream ads are like TV commercials – they play
before the start of a monetized YouTube video. Viewers
see five seconds of your ad and then can keep
watching or can skip it. You pay a “cost-per-view” if they
choose to watch at least 30 seconds of your ad.
For Instream ads, don’t simply repurpose your other
video content. Create a compelling ad by staying
creative and following these strategies:
• Keep it short – shoot for 30-60s
• Show viewers what you’re all about – include
clips of your content and make the ad is in the
same style as the content on your channel.
• Make the first 5 seconds count – after this the
user can skip your ad. Convince them to stay!
• Use Calls to Action (CTA) – tell users exactly what
you want them to do after watching your ad.
• Give users time to take that action – the last 10
seconds or more of your video should give users
time to click. Create a static call to action, like an
end-card for your ad.

To drive subscriptions with your
Instream ad, use this page as your destination url: www.
youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=[insert
your channel here]

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• Give it a real title – ad titles are visible to the user
so don’t call it an “ad.” Use this space to doubledown on your CTA and name it something like
“subscribe to my channel”
• Upload to the channel you’re promoting
– upload the ad as unlisted or public to the channel
you’re trying to promote.
TrueView InDisplay
InDisplay ads appear as a thumbnail and text on
YouTube watch pages in the right-hand pane of
suggested and recommended videos. You pay a
“cost-per-view” when a user clicks-through your ad and
begins watching your video on a watch page.
InDisplay ads are a great place to promote your
existing videos, but before you do, make sure they are
well-optimized:
• Annotate to more content – drive viewers to more
of your videos by annotating to playlists and
other videos.
• Upload a compelling thumbnail – use clear,
interesting, and creative thumbnail to entice users
to click your video ad.
• Use CTAs – make sure the video you’re promoting
includes calls to subscribe, engage, or watch
more content.
Get even more mileage out of your new
TrueView Instream ad – upload it as your channel’s
welcome video.

Targeting the Right Audience with your Ads

Reaching New Audiences

Targeting the right audience with your ads There are
many ways that you can target an audience with
TrueView ads .These are three targeting types that
have helped YouTube Partners drive audiences for their
channels:

Are you having trouble organically finding an audience
on YouTube? Are you trying to get your content in front
of a new audience you don’t currently have? You can
use paid promotion to attract new viewers to your
videos and your channel by:

Video Remarketing

Targeting

With video remarketing you can serve an ad to users
that have performed an action on your channel, such
as viewing, liking, or commenting. Using an AdWords
feature called “custom combinations” you’re also able
to combine these groups, to target, for example,
audiences that have viewed your video but who are
not yet subscribers.

• Identify channels that have an audience you’d like
to attract and add these channel as “placement
targets”

Placement Targeting

Ads

Are there other YouTube channels that have an
audience you think would appreciate your videos?
Placement targeting allows you to show your ad
(InStream or InDisplay) on these specific channels.

• Create a channel trailer that tells the user why they
should watch your channel and use this as a
TrueView Instream ad

Interest Category Targeting

• Identify subjects your new audience would be
interested in and add these as “Interest Category”
targeting

• Create TrueView InDisplay ads using your most
popular and well-optimized channel videos

Interest Category targeting allows you to show your ad
only to users that have a particular interest. If, for
example, you create cooking tutorials, you can target
YouTube users that are interested in food, or “foodies”.
Like remarketing, you can use the “custom
combinations” features to combine interests together
to reach a more niche audience, such as users that are
both “foodies” and “DIY enthusiasts.”

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Converting Existing Audiences into Subscribers
Are you generating lots of viewership, but not a lot of
subscribers? Help turn these one-off audiences into
long-term channel fans:
Targeting
• Create a remarketing list of all users that have
viewed a channel video.
• Create another list of all users that have subscribed
to your channel.
• Combine these lists in a “custom combination” that
targets all viewers who have not yet subscribed
Ads
• Create a channel trailer with a very clear call to
action to subscribe
• Use this as an InStream ad

Need help setting up your campaign?
Search for the “Mastering AdWords for Video” playlist
on YouTube.

Cross Promote with another channel to reach a
new audience
Is there another channel that you work closely with
whose subscribers would be a good audience for your
channel? Target another channel’s existing audience
with remarketing. NOTE, in order to leverage this
strategy you’ll need to have your collaborating channel
link their YouTube account to your AdWords account.
Targeting
• Create a remarketing list of all the viewers or
subscribers of your collaborating channel
• Create a list of your current subscribers.
• Then, create a custom combination of all viewers/
subscribers to your collaborating channel that are
not yet a subscriber to your channel.
Ads
• Create an InStream ad channel trailer featuring
both your channel and the collaborating channel
• Clearly explain why their audience would be
interested in your content, *Call the user to
subscribe to your channel
Use the traffic sources report to identify
how much of your viewership is coming from “YouTube
Advertising”

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Checklist
Create videos specifically designed to engage your audience. Ask questions, feature
fans, or address the audience directly.
Dedicate time to interact with your audience and develop relationships with top
contributors. Respond to comments in the first few hours after you publish a video.
Identify channels with similar content and/or similar audiences, and work with them
to cross-promote or collaborate.
Set up a Google+ profile page to engage with fans and other YouTube creators.
Engage your fans directly in Google Hangouts and broadcast live via Hangouts
on Air.
Create and maintain a blog roll for your channel. Include niche sites or targeted sites
for tent-pole related content.
Track engagement on social media sites, and measure the incoming traffic from
those communities to your YouTube content.

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Resources
Still stumped as to what a YouTube Watch Page is? Or, looking for an easy-to-use
checklist for the tasks the Creator Playbook recommends?
We’ve got you covered with a range of different resources to make life a little bit easier.
So, go ahead and browse our Glossary of Terms and Video Upload Checklist. If you’re
looking for strategies specific to your content type, check out the Playbook Guides at
http://youtube.com/yt/playbook/guides.html.

Glossary
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Each channel’s approach to publishing will vary, but below is a simple checklist that covers some of the most
important actions required once you upload a video. Making the video is only half the battle; optimizing and
engaging with the community after you upload are equally important.

Upload

Publish

Engage Outreach

Write detailed and
comprehensive metadata
following the proper
formatting.

Annotate the video with
community CTAs, a
subscribe button, and links
to related content.

Post on Google+.

Create and upload an
eye-catching, high
resolution thumbnail.

Add the video to a playlist.

Reach out to relevant blogs,
websites, and online
communities.

Consider promoting the
video using InVideo
Programming.

Engage with the audience
in the comments section
within the first few hours
after publishing.
Like and favorite the video
on your channel after
posting (e.g. 24 hrs later) to
reappear in your
subscribers’ feeds.

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Glossary
Annotations - Video Annotations are an uploadercontrolled, dynamic overlay on videos that allows you
to overlay text on a video and/or make parts of the
video clickable. You can add, edit and delete
annotations to your videos, controlling the text,
placement, timing and link URLs. URLs can only be
directed to YouTube.com.

Channel or Channel Page YouTube.com/CHANNELNAME. A channel is the
public page for a user account on YouTube. It contains
uploaded videos, playlists, liked videos, favorited
videos, channel comments and general activity. Some
creators manage or create content across multiple
channels.

Audience Retention - The Audience Retention report
(formerly known as Hot Spots in Insight) measures
your video’s ability to retain its audience. It shows
when viewers fast-forward, rewind or leave
your video.

Comments - These are written comments on videos,
channels, playlists or in response to other comments.
Comments may be posted either on the watch page
or on a channel page.

Avatar - The square image on your channel page that
represents your channel across the site.

Community Actions - Any actions taken by a viewer
on or around your channel and content. Includes
likes, favorites, subscriptions and comments.

Blog Outreach - A strategy of sharing your videos
with a targeted list of blogs, sites and/or online
communities and influencers. This includes sending
your video link and/or embed code to blog editors
and others in the hopes that they embed or share the
video with their audiences.

End-Card or End-Slate - A graphic that creators include
at the end of their videos. End-cards typically include
specific Calls to Action to subscribe, watch more
content, or visit a channel page. They may also contain
credits for the video. Generally, end-cards prominently
feature annotations.

Blog Roll - A list of blogs, sites, online communities
and influencers relevant to a particular category or
type of content. Used for blog outreach.

Engagement - Interaction between the creator and
the audience, the viewer and the video, or the creator
and the site. Can be measured by the number of
interactions (comments, favorites, likes, or new
subscriptions) per view.

Bulletin - A message that channel owners can send to
their subscribers. Bulletins show up in subscribers’
feeds. Channel owners can attach videos to a bulletin.
Call to Action (CTAs) - These prompt the viewer to
take an action.

84

Favorite(s) - A user action that adds a video to their
channel’s Favorites playlist. This action can also be
broadcast to subscribers

Glossary (Feed - Share)
Feed - A stream of activity either for one channel (via
the channel page feed) or for multiple channels (the
homepage feed). Feed activities include uploads,
updated playlists, video comments, channel
comments, new subscriptions, bulletins, likes,
favorites and sharing. Users control what feed
activities they broadcast and, by subscribing to
channels, what feed activities are broadcasted to
them in their homepage feed.

Other Channels Module - An optional module that
allows the channel owner to feature other channels
on their channel page.

Hangouts on Air - Google+ Hangouts are a live video
chatting feature, and they can be broadcast on your
YouTube channel.

Playlist - A playlist is a collection of videos that can be
viewed, shared and embedded like an individual
video. You can create playlists using any videos on
YouTube. Videos can be in multiple playlists.
Uploaded videos and favorited videos are default
playlists on your channel.

Hook - Content that is meant to keep viewers
interested in what happens next. Ideally, a video’s
hook happens within the first 15 seconds.
Hosted Playlist - A collection of videos linked by
additional hosted videos. Hosted videos can act as
intros, outros and/or interstitials. Hosted videos can
contain an actual host (person) or creative branding
that acts as a host.
Like(s) - A user action that shows appreciation for a
video. This action can be broadcast to subscribers in
the feed.
Metadata - The textual information that describes a
video, channel or playlist. Video metadata includes
title, tags and description. Playlist metadata includes
title and description. Channel metadata includes a
description.
Optimization - An action that increases the
potential success of a video, channel, playlist or
content strategy.

Packaging - Graphics and/or content that adds
context to a video. Packaging can build your brand,
connect your host with the audience, add relevant
context to archived content, or add scripted/
annotated Calls to Action.

Pre-Buzz - Audience interest in a tent-pole event
occurring in the days and weeks leading up to it.
Programming - The practice and strategy of
organizing videos, shows or channel content and
activity into a daily, weekly or season-long schedule.
Recommendation Activity - A strategy in which a
channel likes, favorites or comments on a video in
order to promote that video to their subscribers
through the feed.
Series Playlist - A playlist that locks the videos into
one specific playlist. Meant for serial or episodic
content that follows a narrative story arc, videos
included in a series playlist cannot be added to other
playlists on the channel.
Share - Ability to distribute videos via social media,
email or direct links. This action can be broadcast to
subscribers.

85

Glossary (Suggested Videos – YouTube Analytics)
Suggested Videos - Video thumbnails that appear in
the right-hand column of watch pages and the
homepage, or the tiled thumbnails that appear when
a video has finished playing.
Subscriber / Subscription - By subscribing to a
channel, users will see that channel’s activity in their
homepage feed. Subscribers can also opt into email
communication from subscribed channels on a
per-upload and weekly digest basis.
Subscriber Box - See Other Channels Module.
Tags - Words or phrases used to describe the content
of your videos. Added to videos at time of upload (see
Metadata).
Teaser - A short video that acts as a preview or trailer
for longer content. Can be used to promote larger
content initiatives or announcements.
Templates - Different pre-set channel designs
that can be used to highlight videos, playlists and
other channels.
Tent-pole Programming and Publishing Content creation and publishing strategy that is
meant to draft off of the popularity of large cultural
events. Programming and publishing tent-pole
content is meant to maximize audience.
Thumbnails - The images selected to represent your
videos or playlists on the site.

86

Traffic Source - The referral source of a video view.
The page, module or site that drove a viewer to
a video.
Vlog - A video-blog. A casual, conversational video
format or genre featuring a person talking directly
to camera.
Watch Page - The page where the majority of video
viewing happens. URLs with the format youtube.com/
watch?v=[video ID Here] are watch pages.
Watch-time - The amount of time in aggregate that
your viewers are watching your videos. Watch-time is
estimated in Analytics.
YouTube Analytics - A tool that provides information
across various metrics for videos, channels and
audience. Available in your user account.

Introduction Playbook youtube analytics

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