How to Promote a Video on YouTube?

Be visible on YouTube! We will show you what to do to make your video gain popularity on the world's largest video platform. It's well-known that the internet is a visual medium. While valuable articles are always well-received, it's video content that truly makes a splash online. However, with the flood of videos, it's easy to miss out on the genuinely interesting and valuable ones. You might be lucky enough to have someone stumble upon your content and share it on popular platforms, but it's obvious that luck can use a little help, right?

Before You Start Promoting Your Video on YouTube

You need to realize that the times of low-quality "shaky cam" videos are over since YouTube introduced support for HD 1080p content. While a brilliant script with viral potential remains essential, without excellent visuals and sound, the chances of successful promotion on YouTube decrease drastically. Sorry, that's just how it is, but there's no point in complaining.

Buzz Marketing for Video Content

You can encourage people to watch your video on YouTube in two ways: on the platform itself or outside of it. Let's start with the latter. Here, buzz marketing comes to the rescue. It involves spreading content on websites and forums where users might be interested in watching your video. You need to remember a few rules:

• Publish organically - there's no point in sharing a link to a video about new car tires on a website with recipes for a tart. And if you feel like you have to do it, make sure to moderate the discussion so that your post is entirely justified.

• Engage in discussions - "I'll post the link and forget about it" - sorry, but that won't work. To avoid being banned or having your post removed, you must stay engaged in the discussion, responding to other users' comments.

• Be prepared for "hate" - the internet is full of trolls who like to provoke and insult. Don't let it get to you! Adjust the content to the rules of the platform or forum and don't be discouraged by negative opinions.

To sensibly choose the places to publish your link, start with monitoring the internet (e.g., using Brand24). It will help you create a list of websites where it's worth promoting your video on YouTube.

Paid Ads on YouTube

How to promote your channel on YT? You can use the second option, which is paid promotion on YouTube, using Google Ads. You might be wondering how much YouTube advertising costs. Of course, you need to be prepared to incur some financial expenses, but a few pence per view (which is the average Cost Per View or CPV) is a price worth paying. Especially since Google charges fees using the TrueView system, meaning you pay for real video views. Ads on YT that are up to 30 seconds must be watched in their entirety, and for longer ads, at least 30 seconds. Google Ads offers the following video promotion formats:

• Non-skippable in-stream ads
• Bumper ads
• Video discovery ads
• Masthead banner ads
• Flexible display ads

In both cases, you can precisely define your target audience, specifying gender, age, location, and interests. The "In-Stream" option is primarily suitable for campaigns where the main goal is to get people to watch the video without additional interaction. "In-Display," on the other hand, is recommended when the advertiser wants YouTube users to subscribe to their channel or visit a dedicated product page.

Read also: https://green-fields.pl/en/blog/how-to-create-a-google-business-profile-from-scratch/

How to Create a YouTube Channel

To create a YT channel, you first need to have a YouTube account. If you already have a Google account used for various Google services like Gmail or Google Sheets, you don't need to do anything else. If you don't have a Google account, you can create one using this link: https://www.google.com/intl/en/account/about/

There are two types of YouTube channels you can create:

        a) Personal YouTube channel

        b) Brand YouTube channel (associated with a brand account)

For a Private YouTube Channel:

After logging into your YouTube account, click on the avatar in the upper right corner and choose "Create a channel." If you see "Your channel" instead of "Create a channel," it means you have already created your YT channel on this account. Follow the simple wizard that will guide you step by step to create your channel. Some options will be optional and can be filled in later, like the channel description or YouTube cover photo.

Creating a YouTube channel (private)

For a Brand YouTube Channel:

Log in to your YT account. Go to https://www.youtube.com/channel_switcher, where you'll see a list of all channels available. If you haven't created any channels before, you should see only one default owner account without a linked YouTube channel. Click on "Create a new channel" to create your brand channel. Choose the brand channel name carefully, as it won't be possible to change it later.

Creating a Google brand account

The most important feature to remember when creating a channel is to verify your YouTube channel. Channel verification is done through a phone number by going to the channel's advanced settings and clicking on Channel -> Feature Access.

YouTube Channel Verification

A non-verified YouTube channel allows you to:

- Upload videos

- Create playlists

- Add collaborators to playlists

- Add new videos to an existing playlist. 

A verified YouTube channel additionally allows, among other things

- Videos longer than 15 minutes

- Custom thumbnails

- Live streaming

- Appeal Content ID claims

Now that your YT channel is set up, it's time to upload your first video to YouTube.

How to Upload Your First Video to YouTube

The answer to "How to upload a video to YouTube?" is relatively simple. After logging into your YouTube channel, there are several different ways to do it. The most intuitive one is to click on the upload icon in the upper right corner. There's a significant difference between uploading and publishing videos. When you upload a video, the video file is imported to YouTube, but it won't be available to everyone until you click Publish.

How to add a video to YouTube?

Good YouTube videos should have a compelling title, so it's essential to fill in the Title field while adding your video. The title should clearly convey what the user will see shortly, as it will be reflected in the qualitative statistics of YouTube. Both titles and video descriptions can be edited later, but for SEO purposes, it's best to do it right from the start.

YouTube SEO - Video Positioning on YouTube

Adding a video with a title isn't enough to achieve a high number of video views. The content part is equally important when it comes to YouTube positioning. The video description should also meet several requirements. If it contains any links related to the content shown in the video, they should be included. Another crucial aspect is tags for videos, as well as tags for the YouTube channel - filling them meticulously and thematically, preferably based on previous keyword analysis, will yield satisfying results later. 

If you're wondering whether and how to enable comments on YT, the answer is yes - it's worth doing by going into the individual settings of each video and allowing comments on YouTube. They add value to the content, and the ability to leave opinions, ask questions, or simply express opinions about the video significantly stimulates the community and improves the quality indicators of the video.

 YouTube video positioning is not a one-time action. Apart from adding and optimizing, followed by further reoptimisation, other SEO actions for videos are essential. It's worth mentioning creating playlists or links to other related videos on your channel. Additionally, videos you care about should be embedded on external platforms as iframes. 

If you want to learn more about video and channel positioning on YouTube, read our YouTube SEO guide.

We'll Help You!

Setting up such a campaign requires some practice and experience with the YouTube and Ads panels. That's why we encourage you to use the services of experienced agencies. At Greenfields, we're happy to help you with your YouTube campaign. Check out our offer for video positioning on YouTube. Let yourself be seen!