The EPIC Storm

2019

The EPIC Storm created a YouTube channel for fans of the archetype to enjoy video gameplay. We would upload non-edited videos while doing minimal work on the YouTube back-end. This is what people do, right? Wrong.

2021

The channel passed the 1,000 subscriber benchmark for monetization and other perks but YouTube still wasn’t a primary focus for The EPIC Storm. After a fortunate hot streak for the deck, the Google Ad Sense dollars started to roll in.

Initially, it was a dollar here or there but how could we capitalize on this?

Using the tactics and best practices listed below, at the end of the year, The EPIC Storm YouTube Channel had more than quadrupled in growth and saw a dramatic increase in brand revenue across the board.

2022

We’re looking to expand our growth based on this newfound knowledge. The first step is to broaden the viewer base by increasing the types of videos that we offer, doing more collaborative work with other creators, and leveraging the membership platform that YouTube offers.

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Search Engine Optimization

Search Results

Something that many people overlook is that after Google, YouTube search is the most used search engine in the world — they’re owned by the same company and are integrated. What does this mean? When you search for a topic, the top results are often videos even before articles with great search engine optimization (SEO). These videos are ranked primarily by their hidden YouTube SEO score among other secondary items.

A few additional benefits of being at the top of search results aside from the additional video views is that you appear as an authority or thought-leader on whatever topic was covered. There’s also some long-term brand recognition that rewards you in the future as these users are more likely to be returning watchers.

Writing for SEO

The key to getting these SEO scores higher is integrating your video title, description, tags, and video data together using keywords. What exactly does this mean?

Having consistent language is key. For example, if your video was titled, “How to make the world’s best burrito!” (I would watch that) in your description you would then have the words “world’s best” and “burrito” incorporated in a human-readable way. Both YouTube and Google know if a video, website, or landing page is keyword stuffing for SEO purposes. Which can be harmful to what anyone is trying to do.

The objective is to achieve this naturally. Write a paragraph or two about what the video is about as if you were talking to someone. Once this is complete, take those keywords and head to your tags section. This is the best place to “keyword stuff” common search terms for your video in a non-harmful way. In order to achieve a perfect SEO score, you’ll need to reach at least 400 characters in the tags section.

That’s it? For the most part, YouTube is meant to be for the average user. If you would like to check your effectiveness there are third-party plugins available that reveal this “hidden SEO score”. The EPIC Storm uses TubeBuddy, but use whatever is best for you.

Tactics

Headlines

The most important thing is something that everyone hates — marketing clickbait titles. Buzzfeed-style headlines work for a reason, they get conversions. This is exactly what we’re looking for when it comes to YouTube videos. This isn’t much different than creating an email subject line to stand out in an inbox.

While you do want something to get the user’s attention, there’s a delicate balance between fitting in your keywords, finding the right tone, sculpting your message, and then something plenty of brands forget in the 100 character limit — let them know who you are! Not enough companies put their name into the title, which is a major downside for brand recognition.

It’s worth noting that humor and emojis show an increase in click-through rate.

Cover Photos / Thumbnails

Often overlooked, the cover photo or thumbnail when viewing on mobile is even more important than the title since the titles are often truncated. This means putting a few keywords or crucial items into the thumbnail can be very effective, use this to your advantage.

YouTube thumbnails are no different than other design collateral, they need to adhere to web standards. This means that legibility, as well as accessibility, need to be taken into consideration. You can check your color contrast ratios with many web tools, this will provide a better user experience for users.

Thumbnails have something in common with logo design in the sense that they need to be able to scale. YouTube’s most popular viewing experience isn’t in a web browser but on a mobile device. Your thumbnails need to be readable when at small sizes (much like a logo) which means increasing that font size.

Tracking Success

Something everyone wants to know how to do is to prove the effectiveness these strategies will be at converting into key performance indicators (KPIs). Here are some thoughts on how to do that:

• YouTube Analytics
• Subscribe or Membership conversions
• Checkout Codes (placed at the end of the video)
• Campaign URLs (links in the description/pinned comments)
• Vanity URLs

You would need access to Google Analytics for Campaign URLs or Vanity URLs but these are just additional methods for viewing conversions.

Algorithm

Consistency

The YouTube Algorithm isn’t an exact science, what is shared below is just personal experience. Something that is known is there are actually three algorithms: Standard Videos, Shorts (videos under 60 seconds with the hashtag #shorts included — similar to Instagram or TikTok), and then live streaming.

Why are there three? It’s a fair question, but not all video content is the same and if one thing is for sure it’s that the YouTube algorithm rewards consistency. If a user was to upload a video that is three minutes long after a series of thirty-minute videos, YouTube is likely to not project that video to as many non-subscribers as it would the typical content.

A major consistency aspect that YouTube rewards is how often a channel is publishing video content. If you have daily uploads, the algorithm will prioritize your videos over a channel that may have one upload every month. While this may not seem fair, it wants to showcase individuals who use their services and best practices.

Time of Day

Let’s get back to focusing on the consistency aspect, this isn’t only video length or how often you publish videos, but also a key factor is the time of day. This is so important that YouTube Analytics provides an optimized time for when you should publish your video content. At least for someone on the east coast of the United States, noon has seemed to be the ideal time. You’re hitting a large portion of the audience on a high-watch time period of their day — lunch. There’s also something to be said for grabbing the west coast for breakfast or dinner for a significant part of Europe. Finding these downtimes when people are casually browsing is key. But why is that?

Initial Impressions

It cannot be emphasized enough at how crucial the performance of the video’s first hour is. After that the second hour and then there’s a major drop-off in how YouTube views the video. If the video is an immediate success, the video will be raised in the algorithm to be shared with non-subscribers who may share an interest. While a slow performance initially isn’t a nail in the coffin, it certainly doesn’t help the long-term performance of the video. Think of it as a snowball effect, the more initial traction the faster it will grow.

From a user perspective, liking the video, leaving a comment, and sharing a video on social media will also give a slight bump in the algorithm. It may not seem obvious, but YouTube does track how often it’s shared across various platforms. Something you can do here to increase performance slightly is responding to feedback.

Best Practices

We’ve covered the key best practices such as having a good title, thumbnail, tags, and description. These things are all checked for by the YouTube Algorithm on how it places your video within itself. There are other settings you can set to help influence this decision such as pop-out cards, a custom end screen, chapters/time stamps, hashtags, and the category (for example on YouTube the “Gaming” category visually shows on videos — but not all categories do). Basically, if you’re looking to maximize your success you want to check all of the boxes that you can.