Because there’s a big window of opportunity for monetizing videos.

YouTube’s audience is massive. Viewers are logging in daily on the platform, watching hours upon hours of content each week.

Not to mention YouTube’s ad revenue is predicted to reach a staggering $30.4 billion in 2023.

Thing is, translating views into cash doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not just about uploading videos or promoting your YouTube channel. You need a strategy.

That’s why we wrote this breakdown of how to make money on YouTube and what to expect along the way. Along with the classic monetization techniques, we’ve included fresh, innovative ways to earn money on the platform in 2023.

10 ways to make money on YouTube (that actually work)

Recent YouTube stats show the platform is a goldmine for creators. But monetizing content on YouTube can be tricky.

Creators shouldn’t sacrifice entertainment value or authenticity for dollars and cents.

The good news? There is no “right” or “single” way to monetize your videos. You have multiple options based on your content, audience and promotional strategy.

Let’s dive into 10 opportunities to make money on YouTube and how they work.

1. Join the YouTube Partner Program

No surprises here! The YouTube Partner Program allows creators to earn revenue with ads run on their videos.

Let’s look at a quick snapshot of YouTube’s Partner criteria. Assuming you’re in line with the platform’s monetization policies, you need:

• 4,000+ authentic public watch hours within the past year or 10 million valid public Shorts views within the past 90 days
• 1,000+ subscribers
• An active and linked Google AdSense account

Chances are you’ve seen your fair share of YouTube ads. From in-video to pre-roll, ads are a relatively hands-off way to make money on YouTube.

In terms of how much money you can make from ads, there are too many variables for a straight answer. These variables include:

• Your viewers’ demographics such as location and age
• Whether there are relevant advertisers for your videos
• Your content and industry

According to YouTube themselves, there are “no guarantees” for payouts or revenue share. Most information floating around is totally anecdotal.

While “$1 per 1,000 views” used to be the norm, times have changed. As the YouTube algorithm has evolved, so have the Partner Program and ad policies.  For example, the platform has explicit restrictions for advertising on YouTube Kids. Many major ad categories and targeting features are removed from videos intended for children.

You’re essentially looking at a numbers game regardless. You need to be earning thousands (or millions) of views per video to see any meaningful revenue.

Not sure about running ads on your channel? Totally understandable. Again, monetizing videos shouldn’t hold back your channel’s growth.

Stuffing your videos with unskippable ads makes them borderline unwatchable. That said, a few ads here and there is totally fair game.

2. Earn support from subscribers with a channel membership

YouTube’s channel memberships are specifically designed to support creators looking to make money.

Think of memberships like a Patreon or Twitch subscription. Subscribers pay a monthly fee in exchange for channel-specific perks. This might include exclusive content, chat badges and more. These benefits vary based on your membership tier.

This feature is most relevant to creators that primarily post content to YouTube rather than treat it as a secondary channel. If you’re doing regular live streams or posting daily, memberships make perfect sense. Currently, the eligibility for channel memberships is almost identical to the Partner Program.

3. Put promotional links in your video descriptions

Promo links are a low-hanging way to make money on YouTube without running ads.

Your video descriptions are valuable real estate and YouTube gives you 5,000 characters to work with. Funneling your YouTube viewers to relevant links is a no-brainer. For example, a creator might link to:

• A lead magnet (such as a free course or downloadable resource)
• Their website
• Their merchandise or ecommerce shop

Below is an example of how creators can promote their own products in a video description. If nothing else, links can turn YouTube traffic into on-site traffic.

4. Feature sponsors in your videos

Sponsored YouTube videos are popular among big and up-and-coming creators alike.

Through sponsored content, you’re specifically promoting a brand within your video. These call-outs are typically done at the beginning and end of a video. Since these forms of ads are literally part of your content, they can’t be skipped.

In the example above, Binging with Babish’s Andrew Rea bookends his sponsorship from Cash App at his video’s beginning and end. He also highlights the sponsorship in the video description.

Audiences are sometimes critical of sponsored videos when the sponsorship is totally irrelevant to the creator, their content or viewership. The best sponsored videos represent some sort of creative tie-in that doesn’t distract from the creator’s style. This sponsored video from Beauty Within featuring skincare brand Whind is a good example.

These sorts of promotions are a win-win for creators and advertisers alike.

5. Publish product-focused promotional videos

Branded videos are created with the specific intent to promote a product or service. These videos can fall into a few categories where:

• A brand compensates the creator in exchange for their content or a review
• The brand has provided talking points and instructions to the creator (think: influencer or brand ambassador content)
• The creator is making a video to highlight a brand and earn affiliate revenue

These types of videos are common among beauty and skincare brands where creators unbox PR packages on camera.

Below is another example from a creator going into detail about Liquid IV and how it works.

In the video’s description, the creator’s promotional link is front-and-center.

These types of videos aren’t as common because they can feel a bit direct when it comes to promotion. That said, they’re relevant to industries like beauty, health and fitness where audiences like to hunt for products via YouTube.

6. Leverage affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is all about leveraging your influence to drive sales for other brands. As a creator, you can partner with brands to promote their products or services within your content.

The idea here is simple. You discuss products in your videos and then provide a direct way for viewers to check them out.

Every time a viewer clicks on your link and makes a purchase, you earn a commission. It’s a win-win: brands get more visibility and sales, and you get a cut of the profits.

This tactic is extremely popular among review channels and creators making “how-to” content. For example, this video from MyLifeOutDoors breaks down tips for getting better sleep while camping…

…and provides affiliate links to the products mentioned in the video.

See how that works? The key here is that the products themselves are not the sole subject of the video. Some creators call out their affiliate links within their content and others don’t. The choice is yours!

Note: Affiliate links are totally allowed and don’t violate YouTube’s TOS. However, the platform does have an explicit policy for external links. Make sure to review YouTube’s guidelines before dropping links in your videos.

7. Take advantage of crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is a great way to build community while funding your content creation. It’s like having your fans chip in to support your next big project.

Platforms like Patreon allow your supporters to contribute a monthly amount in exchange for exclusive content and perks, like BTS footage, shoutouts or early access to new videos.

For example, the cooking channel Made With Lau offers three membership tiers on Patreon:

They also make sure to promote their Patreon link in the descriptions of all their videos.

You could also look into other crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo to fund your creative projects.

Just make sure to share a link with your viewers and always deliver on your promise.

8. Sell merchandise and custom products

Selling branded items on YouTube is a smart way to earn money, boost visibility and build a closer relationship with your followers.

But this type of social shopping works best if you already have a loyal fan base willing to spend money on your merch.

Depending on your niche, you could sell custom t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, caps or art. Got an inside joke? A catchphrase? A logo? Use it to create unique designs for your supporters.

There are plenty of tools you can use to design and ship merch without storing any inventory yourself. Here are a few merch sites popular with YouTubers:

• Printify
• Teespring
• Bonfire

You can also hire freelance designers on Fiverr or use Canva to create your own creative designs to hand over to suppliers.

9. Enable YouTube Super Chat & Super Stickers

A cool thing about YouTube is you can engage with your audience directly and get paid for it—thanks to Super Chat & Stickers.

Here’s how it works.

During a live stream, viewers can pay to have their messages highlighted in the chat. They can also send Super Stickers—paid animated images that float up in a live chat.

If you host regular live sessions, Super Chats and Stickers are a fantastic way to boost YouTube engagement, earn extra revenue and make your audience feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Turn on Super Chat by heading over to your monetization settings. Make sure you thank and appreciate viewers who support your channel and pay to get your attention.

10. License your content to external media companies

If you happen to create a viral video—or something unique or newsworthy—other platforms or media outlets might want a piece of it.

Licensing allows them to use your content, but for a fee.

It’s a way to earn from content you’ve already created and can amplify your content’s reach beyond your channel.

Proactively reach out to media agencies or wait for them to approach you. Or, list your content on Junkin Media where TV channels and news sites can find and buy it.

Making money on YouTube: Fast facts and FAQ

To wrap things up, let’s look at some common questions we get from people trying to figure out how to make money on YouTube.

How many views do you need to make money on YouTube?

There is no set amount of views you need to make money on YouTube.

Again, there are a lot of variables involved and dollar figures are anecdotal.

Data from Influencer Marketing Hub notes that the average YouTuber makes $18 per 1,000 views, which translates to $0.018 per view.

Creator Shelby Church shared an in-depth breakdown of a video that earned 2.2 million views and $743 from ads. This equates to about 33 cents per 1,000 views. She notes that factors like presentation, age and demographics of viewership impacted the payout.

In short, more YouTube views don’t always equal more money in your pocket.

How many subscribers do you need to make money on YouTube

There is no exact number of subscribers you need to make money on YouTube.

Creators that make careers out of YouTube are the ones uploading consistently and fostering communities.

Piggybacking on the point above, a higher subscriber count doesn’t automatically result in bigger payouts.

The inner workings of YouTube’s ad platform mean there is no “right” answer here. We can use YouTube tools like SocialBlade to give us a ballpark figure but the range of estimated earnings is massive. For example, the monthly earnings estimation for a creator with 90,000 subscribers is anywhere between $200 and $3,400.

Our advice? Don’t look at your subscribers as dollar signs. Focus on fostering a community before worrying too much about monetization.

How to make money on YouTube without posting videos

While it’s technically possible to make money on YouTube without posting videos, it’s definitely not the ideal way to approach YouTube.

Think about it. Brands don’t grow on Instagram by only posting on TikTok and vice versa. Every platform has different content types, styles and expectations. YouTube is the same way.

Sure, there are some steps you can take such as repurposing or cross-posting content to YouTube. This includes:

• Republishing Reels or TikToks as YouTube Shorts
• Taking webinars, presentations or slideshows and turning them into videos
• Taking streams from Twitch or Instagram Live and uploading them as long-form content.

Grow your presence to make money on YouTube

Making any level of income from YouTube requires conscious effort and consistency.

That said, countless creators are making it happen with their content. Whether through ads, sponsorships or crowdfunding, there are plenty of opportunities to monetize your videos. Hopefully, these tips can help you find a way that makes sense for you!

And if you haven’t already, check out our in-depth guide to YouTube marketing to take your channel to the next level.

The post How to make money on YouTube in 2024 (and what creators should expect) appeared first on Sprout Social.

Why “now,” though?

For starters, YouTube is the second most-visited site on the web, and when we’re spending up to six hours per day consuming video, the writing is on the wall. If you want to stand out on YouTube, you need to take advantage of as many promotional tactics as possible.

We’ll go into detail on each of these tactics for how to grow your YouTube channel and maximize your viewership. Whether you’re just getting started or want to see your numbers tick further upward, these tips are all fair game.

• What counts as a view on YouTube?
• Why are views important on YouTube?
• How to get more views on YouTube: 17 tips and tricks
• 4 resources for growing your YouTube channel
• How do you promote your YouTube channel?

What counts as a view on YouTube?

Views refer to the total number of times your video or channel has been watched. Each time a viewer plays a video and watches it for at least 30 seconds, YouTube counts it as a view. If someone watches your video several times, each time is counted as a new view. This applies across all devices whether a person watches via smartphone or desktop. This also applies to embeds and videos shared on social media like Facebook.

When someone visits your channel page, you receive a view. If you use YouTube Analytics, you can go to the Overview tab to see how many views your YouTube channel received over the last 28 days.

Why are views important on YouTube?

Views are important because they influence the YouTube algorithm. If you get more views, the algorithm will push your video out to more people. Views are also part of how you can make money on YouTube, which we all want to see a return on investment and increased revenue.

Views are also vital on YouTube because it’s a way to boost awareness and build brand affinity. It may take some time to achieve your target viewership, but you’ll need to connect with top-of-funnel prospects to help reach your goals in the long run.

How to get more views on YouTube: 17 tips and tricks

This article covers 17 tips to attract more viewers to your videos and channel. In the video below, Jamia walks through 10 ways to promote your YouTube channel for more views and subscribers.

1. Write engaging, must-see titles

YouTube marketing is all about presentation.

Titles are make-or-break when it comes to your video’s performance. Ask yourself: are you presenting your content as “must-see” or “meh?”

The key to crafting killer titles is grabbing your audience’s attention without resorting to clickbait headlines. People crave content that’s entertaining, and they likewise want to know what your video is about from the word “go.”

For example, you can take a page out of the playbooks of YouTube giants like BuzzFeed and WhatCulture. Such videos often rely on listicles, question-based titles or hyperbole (“insane,” “…of all time”) to rack up the views.

Athlean X’s fitness-based videos are another good example. The channel’s content manages to sneak in relevant keywords in its titles while also coming across as conversational.

“Best-of” lists and “how-to” titles are always a safe bet, too. Food channel Tasty uses click-worthy titles like this:

The takeaway here is that you should definitely spend time mulling over engaging titles rather than sticking with the first idea that pops into your head.

In terms of specifics, many have observed that the optimal YouTube video title length should be around 70 characters. Meanwhile, tools such as CoSchedule’s headline analyzer recommends 55 characters for an engaging headline. CoSchedule’s tool isn’t specifically meant for video titles but is awesome for brainstorming YouTube-friendly titles to help promote your YouTube channel.

Publish on YouTube with Sprout Social

The opportunities are virtually endless on YouTube, and you can now publish to YouTube directly from Sprout.

Host long-form video on your channel, extend reach through YouTube’s extensive search capabilities, and track how your performance stacks up to other social networks.

Start a free trial to give our YouTube publishing features a try.

2. Optimize your videos for visibility

Here’s some food for thought: YouTube videos show up in 70% of the top 100 Google search results.

Heck, see for yourself. Any given product or “how-to” query on Google will return something from YouTube.

In fact, YouTube results sometimes even pop up before traditional blog posts or websites. Listen: YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world in and of itself. Just like people search for products and need problems solved via Google, the same rings true on YouTube.

Think of your YouTube videos like any other piece of content that needs to be optimized in terms of keywords, tags and so on.

In order to increase your chances of showing up, you’ll want to follow some of the best practices for YouTube SEO:

• Titles and description: Include target keywords in your titles and descriptions. You can use a tool like Keywordtool.io to help you find keyword ideas.
• Mention keywords in your video: According to Brian Dean of Backlinko, saying your target keywords in your video can help YouTube better understand what your video is about.
• Engagement: YouTube uses engagement (likes, comments, views) to help determine where videos rank in its search results.
• Categories: Use categories to help YouTube get a better understanding of who to show your videos to.
• Tags: In addition to categories, you can also add tags to your videos to give YouTube more context about your content. You can use quite a few tags, so add as many as you can think of.

Just like with SEO for your website, don’t keyword stuff. Use keywords when it makes sense, not just for the sake of having them.

3. Figure out what your audience wants

With any type of content you produce, you want to make sure it’s aligned with what your audience wants. Whether you’re writing a blog post or creating a video, start by getting to know your audience and what type of content they want to see from you.

If you’re just starting to promote your YouTube channel, take a look at your competitors or other video creators in your industry. Look at which of their videos get the most views and engagement. This will give you an idea of what topics your audience wants to learn about and what style of videos they prefer.

Another solution is to look at your YouTube Analytics if you’ve already uploaded videos. YouTube gives you detailed information on audience demographics, location, engagement and other helpful stats. You can also take your strategy a step further with YouTube reporting in Sprout Social and see how your content stacks up to other social videos you’ve produced.

Want to better understand your YouTube metrics? Download our video metrics cheat sheet to learn the most important metrics to track and get ideas for video content tailored to your marketing goals.

Download our Social Media Video Metrics Cheat Sheet

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4. Engage with the YouTube community

Although you might not think of YouTube as a social network per se, the platform does represent a thriving community where users are engaging via content, profiles, “likes” and comments.

Sounds pretty “social” if you ask us.

As noted earlier, any sort of interaction with your viewers is seen as a positive signal to YouTube. If nothing else, engaging with your subscribers can help you foster a stronger connection with your audience. “Liking” comments only takes a few seconds, as does pinning a top comment as a sort of personal note to your subscribers.

For example, music channel Artists Of Morality regularly likes and responds to comments on its recent uploads. The channel’s creator regularly engages with subscribers to show appreciation and answer questions, too. She even posts a call to action or challenges in her pinned comments like in the one below:

Just as you’d respond to comments and engage with your followers on any other social network, YouTube is no different.

5. Customize your thumbnails

One of the simplest yet effective tactics to promote your YouTube channel is creating custom thumbnails. Think of your title and thumbnail as a sort of one-two punch to grab a viewer’s attention.

By default, YouTube snags a screenshot from any given video and uses it for the thumbnail. Unfortunately, sometimes the image it grabs will be a blurry shot of you adjusting the camera or a transition.

Not a good look, right?

Creating thumbnails yourself not only makes your videos look more appealing at a glance but also signals a certain sense of professionalism.

Thumbnails don’t have to be rocket science, either. You can even create a template with a particular font and style to make it more consistent and on-brand. This is made especially easy with the help of image creation tools such as Canva. Here’s a good example from Binging with Babish:

If you’re looking for simple social media templates to get started with Creator Studio, check out our free YouTube banners that you can download today!

6. Cross-promote your own videos on YouTube

Chances are you’re covering similar topics on YouTube that overlap with each other. To squeeze more out of your older content, make a point to cross-promote your videos when it makes sense.

For example, you can drop links in the description of a video and encourage viewers to check them out as a sort of call-to-action. Although some might be disappointed by the removal of YouTube’s annotation system, linking in your description encourages viewers to watch your videos all the way through without clicking away.

7. Target Google search results

As noted, YouTube is totally killing it when it comes to SEO.

And while you shouldn’t totally create content for search engines versus people, you should promote your YouTube channel with SEO in mind.

Specifically, product reviews, how-to’s and long-form (10+ minutes) videos covering keyword-specific topics tend to rank well in search engine results pages (SERPs). If you’re strapped for content ideas or want to capitalize on a trending buzzword in your industry, consider how you can do so through your YouTube channel marketing.

8. Run a contest or giveaway

If there’s one thing YouTube users love, it’s a giveaway. Host a YouTube contest or giveaway to encourage people to subscribe to your channel and engage.

To keep your contests simple, have people like your video, leave a comment and subscribe to your channel to enter.

Follow some of our best practices for running any social media contest:

• Make sure you’re following YouTube’s policies.
• Give away a gift that’s related to your brand: you want to attract more than just freebie-seekers.
• Get creative by incorporating user-generated content and other non-traditional entry requirements.

Be careful with hosting frequent YouTube contests, though. You want to make sure you’re getting results from your efforts: otherwise, you’ll end up wasting time, money and resources. After doing one contest, wait a while and look at your subscriber drop-off rate and engagement numbers. If you aren’t bringing in engaged subscribers, you could just be attracting people who want free prizes.

9. Encourage viewers to follow your series

A smart way to promote your YouTube channel is by creating a specific video series that covers a recurring theme or topic. For example, Sprout Social’s YouTube channel has a variety of different series that make up our YouTube presence, like our “Always On” videos.

Series are a win-win for creators and viewers alike. For creators, you hold yourself accountable for creating fresh YouTube content and don’t have to rack your brain for ideas. For your audience, they have something to look forward to and likewise a reason to keep returning to your channel.

10. Embed your YouTube videos

Some of the best places to promote your YouTube channel are beyond YouTube itself.

Case in point, video content is proven to improve conversion rates and lower bounce rate on-site. If you want visitors to stick around a product page or blog post longer, embed a video (like we did below).

Remember: any opportunity you have to funnel your on site (or social!) traffic to YouTube is a plus.

11. Create playlists to organize your YouTube content

The more videos you create, the more difficult it becomes for people to navigate through your channel.

That’s why playlists are so important. Not only do playlists allow you to group your videos into categories to organize your channel, but also appeal to your viewers’ desire to binge.

For example, Beardbrand’s grooming channel has amassed hundreds of videos covering tons of topics. The channel’s various playlists help guide subscribers to relevant content without having to dig for it.

12. Increase engagement with calls to action

Sometimes simply asking for engagement is the best way to get your videos noticed, especially when you consider the immediacy and connection that video content can create.

Not everyone who enjoys one of your videos is going to remember to drop a like or become your subscriber, so it’s common to put these reminders in the description or in the video itself.

Especially if you’re an up-and-coming channel, there’s no shame in asking for some love directly. In fact, asking visitors a question to answer in the comments suggestion or to check out another video are perfect ways to keep the engagement rolling. You can likewise link to other videos or drop an external link to your site to serve as a sort of CTA.

13. Give live streaming a try

Live video is one of the biggest social media trends and it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. With apps like Facebook, Periscope and Instagram making it easier than ever to stream live video, more and more brands are getting on board.

YouTube has been offering live videos for years but has only recently started picking up steam. You can take a look at some popular YouTube Live videos to get a sense of how other brands are using the platform.

Some examples of how you can use YouTube Live are:

• Webinars
• Live tutorials
• Q&A sessions
• Product demonstrations

Don’t worry if your streams don’t go as smoothly as you’d like. Part of the fun (and risk) of live video is you never know what’s going to happen. The unpolished, organic nature of live video is exactly what makes it compelling. For more tips on how to get started with YouTube Live, check out Google’s introduction to live streaming.

14. Collaborate with other creators and brands

A tactic some of the biggest YouTube stars used to grow their following is collaborating with other users. Each collaboration gives you exposure to a new audience. And the best part is those new viewers are more likely to subscribe to your channel since you’re working with a content creator they already know, like and trust.

The key to a successful YouTube collaboration is finding the right partner. You want to collaborate with content creators that share similar passions with your brand so your video comes off as authentic. This now-classic collaboration between BuzzFeed and Purina is a prime example of a thoughtful collaboration that doesn’t feel overly promotional.

15. Run a paid YouTube ad campaign

With marketing in general becoming more pay-to-play, you always have the option to get more visibility through paid YouTube ads. YouTube offers a variety of ad formats to choose from:

• Display ads: These ads show up on the right-hand sidebar of videos, and are only available on desktop.
• Overlay ads: These are semi-transparent ads that are displayed on the bottom part of a video. They’re only available on desktop.
• Skippable and non-skippable video ads: These ads show up before, during or after a video. Skippable ads can be skipped after five seconds, but non-skippable ads have to be watched all the way through before the viewer can watch their video.
• Bumper ads: These are non-skippable ads that have to be watched before the viewer can watch their video. They can be a maximum of six seconds.
• Sponsored cards: These are cards that get displayed within relevant videos. You can use them to promote your products or other content.

For your ad creatives, you can either use an existing video or create something new for a specific campaign. The advantage of using an existing video is you can choose a clip you know has been effective in the past. If a video has already gotten a lot of views and engagement organically, running paid ads can amplify your results.

On the flip side, creating a new video for your ads will allow you to create a more targeted piece of content that you have more control over. For instance, you can create an ad with a specific call-to-action at the end to direct viewers to a landing page or another video. You can learn more about YouTube’s video ad formats here.

16. Regularly publish your YouTube content to social media

It’s no secret that video content crushes it on social media in terms of engagement and performance.

As a result, you should regularly promote your YouTube channel to your social followers to encourage them to become subscribers. As soon as a video goes live, make a point to let your followers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn know about it. You can likewise create snippets or previews for each social platform that also link to your latest production.

With the help of Sprout Social, you can schedule your content and cross-promote it without having to jump from platform to platform. Features such as ViralPost® can also help ensure that your content goes live based on when your social audiences are engaged.

17. Incorporate pre-production best practices

Put your producer hat on and incorporate some pre-production best practices. There’s a lot that goes into creating video before the camera records, but using these methods will streamline your content production.

• Create a contingency plan. What will you do if there’s an issue with your shooting location? What if your talent becomes sick? Proactively plan so you’ll be prepared for the worst.
• Plan the video concept from start to finish. Use a storyboard to outline each part of the video. Use this outline to mark visual jokes, animations, call to actions, etc.
• Create a shot list. A shot list will help you consider important details like lighting, location and camera angles. Once your script and storyboard is complete, make a list of every scene and note the action and dialogue required for each. Mark the type of setup you want (e.g. wide angle vs. a close up).

Streamlining your content production means you’ll likely be able to produce more video because your process is a well-oiled machine versus one that is always in need of repair. Having a set process will also help ensure each video is striking the right cord because you’ve taken the time to think through important visual details and logistics that will add value to viewers. Since you’ll be able to create more relevant videos, you’ll get more views over time.

4 resources for growing your YouTube channel

In addition to the 17 tips above, make sure you’re up on all things YouTube. Maximize your efforts with these guides:

• How to create a YouTube channel for business – Simplify setting up and perfecting your business channel.
• 11 Tips for writing YouTube descriptions – Differentiate your videos and ensure they’re super findable with optimized descriptions.
• YouTube SEO: How to boost your videos’ rankings – YouTube has become one of the world’s biggest search engines. Follow these tips to make sure you’re meeting audience needs.
• YouTube hashtags: How to use hashtags to increase video views – Demystify how hashtags work on YouTube and get more eyes on your videos.

And with that, we wrap up our guide to how to get more views on YouTube!

How do you promote your YouTube channel?

Growing a YouTube audience doesn’t happen by accident. And yes, it can certainly feel like a grind if your space is crowded with competition.

That’s exactly why it pays to have a variety of promotional tactics in your back pocket. Although some of the tips above require more effort than others, each one can help you get more eyes on your channel and more subscribers as a result.

If you’re ready to ramp up your YouTube presence and start seeing real business results, Sprout Social’s YouTube integration has features to help you seamlessly schedule and publish content. Plus, with our integration, you can dive even deeper into analytics to improve your video strategy.

The post How to get more views on YouTube: 17 ways to promote your channel appeared first on Sprout Social.

We gathered 30 statistics to help you understand YouTube’s place in your video marketing strategy. Whether you’re looking for user insights, YouTube search trends or historical facts and figures, we’ve got you covered.

• YouTube data and channel statistics
• YouTube users
• Advertising on YouTube
• YouTube organic search statistics
• YouTube usage statistics
• YouTube growth
• YouTube marketing statistics

YouTube data and channel statistics

Before getting into general YouTube stats, let’s get personal. If you currently manage a presence on the platform, you can check your channel statistics using YouTube analytics. (Also, if you don’t have a brand account on YouTube, now’s a great time to create a channel.)

Access the YouTube analytics tool by going to studio.youtube.com or by clicking your profile icon and selecting “YouTube Studio.”

Once you’re in YouTube Studio, you can click on “Analytics” in the left hand panel to access your YouTube performance analytics. There are several reports available but if you’re just looking for a general overview of channel performance, check out the Channel Overview Report.

The Channel Overview Report will provide you with a graph measuring how your views, watch time and subscriber count are trending over time. On social media, consistency is key. If you’re updating your channel at a regular cadence, you should see gains in channel growth over time.

If you’re noticing a dip, check out these creative approaches to promoting your YouTube channel.

YouTube users

When launching a video marketing strategy, you need to know if the platform’s demographics match your target audience. Let’s cover some of YouTube’s main demographics.

1. YouTube has over 2 billion monthly active users

YouTube is visited by nearly a quarter of the world’s population, boasting two billion monthly active users. It’s fair to assume that YouTube has a diverse user base and your business can likely connect to your target audiences.

2. India has the largest YouTube audience, followed by the United States and Brazil

There are approximately 467 million active YouTube users in India, making it the network’s largest audience by country.

High-speed internet became widely available in India in 2016, and internet usage has flourished there ever since. This speedy adoption has contributed to the rise of Indian YouTube stars like T-Series, who is one of the most subscribed YouTubers on the platform.

3. English and Spanish are amongst the most popular languages used on YouTube

More than half (66%) of the content from YouTube’s top 250 channels is produced in English, followed by Spanish (15%) and Portuguese (7%).

4. The largest age group using YouTube is between ages 15-35

About 77% of internet users between ages 15-35 are on YouTube, along with 73% of users aged 36-45, 70% of users aged 46-55 and 67% of users aged 56+.

YouTube’s popularity with Gen Z makes sense; they came of age alongside the network and its top creators, like Emma Chamberlain and David Dobrik.  Aside from entertainment, research shows that Gen Z also turns to YouTube as an educational tool.

5. YouTube users skew male

Roughly 53.9% of YouTube users are men and 46.1% are women. (There’s no data on other genders available at this time.)

6. YouTube users are more likely to have a college education

A Google-commissioned Nielsen study found that YouTube users are more likely to be college educated compared to the general population.

Advertising on YouTube

YouTube ad campaigns pack a visual punch that generate responses from consumers of all ages. If you’re wondering whether they’re worth the investment, let’s dig into some YouTube ad stats.

7. YouTube generated $7.9 billion in ad revenue in Q4 2021

YouTube is a promising advertising platform for brands, generating over $7.9 billion in advertising revenue in the fourth quarter of 2022 alone.

8. Consumers find YouTube ads to be more relevant than linear TV advertising

YouTube ad targeting capabilities create a highly tailored experience for the end user. According to a 2022 study, 59% of respondents agree that YouTube ads are more relevant than ads on linear TV or other streaming apps.

9. Vertical video can increase conversions per dollar

Vertical video—meaning video filmed and viewed in portrait mode, rather than landscape—has exploded in popularity on the platform since the launch of YouTube Shorts. People have been watching YouTube on a variety of screen sizes for quite some time. Now, marketers have the tools they need to optimize for mobile viewing.

Tailoring YouTube ads to adhere to content consumption preferences can drive a noticeable lift in ROI. Vertical creative assets delivered 10% to 20% more conversions per dollar on YouTube Shorts when compared to landscape assets.

10. The most viewed ad of 2022 is a promotion for Amazon’s Alexa home speaker

The minute-long Big Game ad features SNL star Colin Jost and actress Scarlett Johansson.

YouTube organic search statistics

YouTube has its own algorithm and search engine optimization rules to get your content seen. Let’s get into a few stats related to YouTube search.

11. YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world

Alphabet, Inc. has cornered the market on search. YouTube follows Google as the second-largest search engine in the world, generating more search queries than Bing, Yahoo, AOL and Ask combined.

This shows how important YouTube SEO is because the platform is also a video and information search tool.

12. 35% of the top global YouTube searches in 2022 are TV related

Turkish television hit Duy Beni nabbed the third highest spot on a 2022 list of top global YouTube searches, making it the most searched for TV show of the year on the platform.

13. The top 5 global searches on YouTube

The top five global YouTube searches of all time are “minecraft”, “TikTok”, “comedy”, “tik tok” and “ASMR.” Two out of these five searches are related to the short-form video giant, TikTok.

14. Gen Z turns to YouTube to dive deeper into their favorite TV shows

According to an Ipsos survey, 60% of Gen Z viewers use YouTube to find content related to TV shows and movies they recently watched.

YouTube usage statistics

Understanding how the platform is being used will inform incorporating YouTube into your marketing strategy.

15. YouTube Shorts earn more than 30 billion daily views

Since its launch in 2021, YouTube Shorts has become a vertical video staple. It’s home to 1.5 billion monthly active users, earning more than 30 billion daily views.

16. TV is YouTube’s fastest-growing screen size

Thanks to connected smart home devices, viewers are enjoying YouTube content beyond the confines of a laptop. Viewers watch more than 700 million hours of YouTube content on TV daily, making it the fastest-growing screen size for content consumption.

17. People watch over 1 billion hours of YouTube video content each day

Not only does YouTube have a large user base, but they also have a highly engaged one with over 1 billion hours of video content being viewed each day.

With the right video content strategy and optimizations like YouTube descriptions, any brand can find an audience for their videos.

18. The most popular YouTube channel has over 200 million subscribers

The most popular YouTube channel is T-Series, with over 230 million subscribers. The next most popular YouTube channels are YouTube Movies, Cocomelon – Nursery Rhymes, SET India and Music.

19. The most viewed YouTube video of all time is “Baby Shark Dance”

Parents, this one is probably more than familiar. The viral hit took off in 2016 and shot to the top of the list of most viewed YouTube videos of all time. The video has more than 12 billion views, as of February 2023.

YouTube growth

YouTube has grown quickly since its inception in 2005. Considering the video platform was initially meant to be a niche dating site, its wide appeal use as a video juggernaut is nothing short of remarkable. Let’s look at a few stats to see just how much growth it’s achieved over the past 17 years.

19. The first YouTube video was uploaded on April 23, 2005

YouTube founder Jawed Karim uploaded the very first video to the platform. It was called “Me at the zoo,” and was a 19-second video that has now generated over 221 million views.

20. In 2006, Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion

Just a year and a half after the youtube.com domain was bought, Google acquired the video-sharing platform for $1.65 billion. At the time, Google believed they overpaid to acquire the platform. But considering YouTube ad revenue was $8.6 billion in just the last quarter, we know now that Google got a steal.

21. YouTube rolled out video ads in August 2007

YouTube ads have been around almost the entire lifespan of the company. Ads rolled out in August 2007, just 10 months after Google’s acquisition.

22. YouTube is the second most visited website in the world

YouTube is the second most visited website in the world, behind only Google. This means that audiences are frequently referencing YouTube for everything from entertainment to how-to videos.

23. YouTube is available in over 100 countries and 80 languages

Another great statistic showcasing the wide range of users is that YouTube’s video platform is available in over 100 countries and is localized into 80 different languages.

You can reach a wide variety of demographics and even publish video content in various languages to bolster an international marketing strategy.

24. Over 500 hours of video content are uploaded to YouTube every minute

Don’t get lost in the noise. Over 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, so you need a strategy to ensure your video gets seen.

Plan a focus keyword, strategically craft your video title and description and don’t forget about search optimization. You can even incorporate hashtags into your YouTube video content to signal what topics your video is related to.

25. There are more than 51 million YouTube channels

Over 51 million YouTube channels have been created, growing 36% in the last year.

Out of those 51 million+ channels, 306,000 YouTube channels have more than 100,000 subscribers, 29,000 YouTube channels have more than 1 million subscribers and 700 YouTube channels have more than 10 million subscribers.

YouTube marketing statistics

Let’s take a look at how marketers view YouTube. Knowing how other companies are positioning their strategies can help decide your team’s next steps.

26. There’s a prioritization disconnect between marketers and consumers

According to The Sprout Social Index™ 2022, half of consumers (51%) plan on spending more time on YouTube over the next 12 months. In terms of popularity, it’s second only to Facebook.

On the other hand, only 35% of marketers anticipate leveraging the platform over the next year. This disconnect creates a clear opportunity for savvy brands looking to gain a competitive advantage.

27. 22% of marketers are using YouTube Stories

YouTube Stories, the platform’s answer to ephemeral content, came out in November 2017. As of now, 22% of marketers have incorporated YouTube Stories into their strategy.

Unlike Instagram or Facebook Stories, YouTube Stories expire after seven days, as opposed to 24 hours. If you want to test out the feature, we recommend using them as a promotional tool for recently added content. Give your followers a peek at what to expect from your latest video so they can decide whether they’d like to see more.

28. Influencer follower count impacts engagement rate

YouTube influencers with between 100,000 and 1,000,000 followers had the highest engagement rates, amounting to just over 4%. YouTubers with between 1,000 and 5,000 followers had the lowest engagement rate on average, at 2.05%.

These averages are good to keep in mind, but they shouldn’t be the end all and be all of your YouTube influencer marketing strategy. Remember: Micro-influencers can speak more effectively to a niche target audience than some of the biggest names on the platform.

29. YouTube is the first stop in the social shopping journey

YouTube has some serious sway when it comes to social commerce. According to research from Google and Ipsos, 80% of shoppers who watched a video related to a planned purchase said they watched it at the beginning of their shopping process.

YouTube is home to several content formats that allow consumers to research interests alongside their favorite creators. Whether it’s a haul video, a “shop with me” vlog or something else entirely, these videos provide consumers with a more authentic look at the value they can get from a purchase.

30. There are penalties for over-tagging

According to Google’s Help Center, if a YouTube video or playlist has more than 60 tags, all of the hashtags on that content will be ignored.

A little bit goes a long way when it comes to YouTube hashtags. We recommend using one to two hashtags in your video title and three to five hashtags in your description. Anything more can appear spammy, turning away potential viewers.

Want to know more?

Discover the latest social media marketing statistics for 2023.

Ramp up your YouTube marketing strategy

Demographic data and usage trends are the foundation of any network-specific social media marketing strategy. Combine these YouTube stats with your channel-specific metrics to create a blueprint for success in 2023.

Keep building on your strategy with our complete guide to YouTube marketing. It’ll give you all the strategic tips you need to take full advantage of this social media powerhouse.

The post 30 YouTube statistics to power your marketing strategy in 2023 appeared first on Sprout Social.

Part discovery machine, part social platform, YouTube touts over 2 billion monthly active users. And as the world’s second-largest search engine, it’s a key platform to use to connect with new audiences, grow brand awareness and more.

If you’ve been wondering how to start a YouTube channel but haven’t jumped in yet, this is your sign to get started. Use this step-by-step guide so you can get started in minutes.

How to create a YouTube channel in 5 steps

Whether you need the 101-level breakdown, or just a refresher, feel free to go straight to whichever section you need most.

With that, here’s all you need to learn how to make a YouTube channel:

• Sign into Google
• Create a new YouTube channel
• Customize your channel’s layout
• Customize your channel’s branding
• Customize your channel’s basic info
• How to make a YouTube channel that’s discoverable

1. Sign into a Google account

Before you start a YouTube channel, you need to sign into Google.

If you have a Google account that you already want to use for your channel, you’ll be prompted to sign in.

I recommend creating a new, dedicated account specifically for your YouTube channel. This way, you can share it with multiple people. This also limits any security issues tied to your personal account.

Once you create a Google account, head to YouTube and click Sign in. 

2. Create a new YouTube channel

Head over to YouTube’s homepage. Click on the avatar icon in the top right corner of the screen. Then, select Create a channel from the drop-down.

You’ll then be prompted by the following screen, which asks you to create a channel name.

Now, you can stop here. Or, you can create two channels: one for your Google account and a separate one for your brand. To do this, go to your Settings > Create a new channel > you’ll be prompted by this window.

Unless you’re a creator, dedicating your YouTube channel to a brand account makes the most sense and allows you to add multiple managers.

Pro tip: Make your account extra secure by setting up two-step verification. Head to your Google Account > click Security in the navigation panel > click 2-Step Verification > click Get Started under the “Signing in to Google” section and follow the steps.

Voila—your account is created, and secure! Now, you’re ready for the fun part.

3. Customize your channel’s layout

To get started, click the “customize my channel” button at the top of the screen.

From here, you’ll be taken to the YouTube studio where you’ll see options for customizing your channel, including Layout, Branding and Basic Info.

Let’s start simple with your Layout. This enables you to organize what content people see first. Let’s go through each of these elements:

Video spotlights

This is the first piece of content that appears on your channel. There are two types you can add. A channel trailer plays for people who haven’t subscribed to your channel.

A featured video plays for your subscribers, but only for those who haven’t seen it yet.

Featured sections

Choose up to 12 featured sections that will appear on your channel. These organize the content your visitors see first.

This defaults to a Short videos section and a Videos section. But click the + ADD SECTION button to choose from more.

The playlists and sections you choose will depend on how you use your channel. If you go Live often, the “Live Now,” “Past Livestreams” and “Upcoming Livestreams” sections would be winners.

For example, Monterey Bay Aquarium features a playlist full of relaxing livestreams that their channel is known for.

Once you’ve customized your layout, hit the Publish button in the upper right. Or, continue on to the next step: Branding.

Pro tip: If you don’t plan on uploading frequently, choosing the Feature channels section can make your channel look more active. This also positions you as an industry leader, and shows fellow YouTube creators some love.

4. Customize your channel’s branding

There are three areas you can adjust your channel’s branding:

• Picture (aka profile pic) appears on your channel, next to your videos and on comments you write.
• Banner image is the large graphic at the top of your YouTube channel.
• Video watermark appears in the bottom right corner of your videos. You can choose when and for how long it appears.

These visual elements should match your branding. For example, notice how Headspace’s visual elements all share cohesive designs, colors and shapes.

Resources like Canva will help you craft correctly-sized images in a matter of minutes with templates tailor-made for YouTube. Before you create images, confirm the dimensions for YouTube images:

• Profile picture: 800 x 800 px
• Channel banner: At least 2048 x 1152 px, but the safe area for mobile and web without cropping is 1546 x 423 px

YouTube will show you a preview so you can see if anything is getting cropped out on various views.

There’s no one right way to approach YouTube images—just pick visuals that reflect your brand.

5. Customize your channel’s basic info

Customizing this info will help you make a stronger impression with your channel. It’s also your ticket to funneling channel visitors to your website, other social profiles and more.

Let’s go through each piece of basic channel information you can adjust:

• Name: This should represent your channel, brand or you.
• Handle: A short and simple, yet memorable and searchable version of your name. This will also appear in your public URL.
• Description: With up to 1,000 characters, add a little personality to your channel description. You can also add versions of your description in multiple languages. Include popular search keywords relevant to your channel and content.
• Channel URL: Your channel’s web address as it displays with your user ID.
• Links: Include links to funnel visitors to your website and social channels.
• Links on banner: Choose up to five links to appear in the lower right corner of your banner. Just be careful that these links aren’t covering important information or text in your cover image graphic.

• Contact info: Include a public-facing email where people can contact you for business or press inquiries.

Once you hit publish, congratulations—your channel is officially set up, and you’re ready to add videos.

How to make your YouTube channel discoverable

Now that you know how to create a YouTube channel, it’s time to make yourself discoverable. This is an ongoing process of optimizing your channel and content.

Let’s get into some tips to attract new viewers and traffic to your channel. And if you want to dive deeper, check out these resources once you’ve finished this article:

• YouTube SEO
• YouTube hashtags
• 16 ways to promote your YouTube channel for more views
• YouTube analytics
• YouTube descriptions

Post videos regularly

An active channel means more chances to keep your audience engaged and growing.

If you’re not ready to create new videos for YouTube, start with what you have.  For example, when I managed social for Shedd Aquarium, we repurposed a video from a viral Tweet on YouTube, where it also racked up impressive views.

Then, we built an entire playlist based on the successful, viral videos.

Start building your library with videos that have performed well on other channels. Successful Reels and TikTok videos, for example, can be uploaded as YouTube Shorts.

Optimize your videos

Remember: YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine.

Keywords really are key when it comes to YouTube discoverability. Use them in your video titles, descriptions and chapter titles. Explore common search terms with YouTube’s built-in keyword and search tool. Find it in YouTube Studio > Analytics > Research to explore.

Also use the right tags. YouTube tags—not to be confused with YouTube hashtags—help YouTube’s algorithm determine what your video is about, and therefore how to rank it in search and who to show it to.

Create eye-catching thumbnails

Video thumbnails create interest and help you stand out in search results—90% of the best-performing videos have custom thumbnails.

Using bold thumbnails that include text (Think: your videos’ titles or themes) and feature a person all help grab attention. Unbounce uses all of these tricks, plus indicates which videos are in a different language.

Use playlists to categorize your videos

Playlists organize your content and make it easier for visitors to find the content that interests them and binge it—just remember to update them.

This also helps you extend the life of older videos by pairing them with more updated content.

If you’re not sure how to do this, check out our article on how to make a YouTube playlist.

Cross-promote your YouTube content on other channels

You have an existing audience on your other channels. Share your YouTube content across your social channels, and on channels outside of social—like on your website, blog and in email newsletters.

Doing so helps drive your existing audience to your budding YouTube channel.

Keep an eye on your analytics

From average view duration to followers gained, YouTube analytics give you a deeper understanding of what videos work, and which fall flat.

The analytics tab in YouTube Studio is a goldmine of analytics. But a tool, like Sprout Social’s YouTube Report, provides a more customized look at how your content performs.

Start your free Sprout trial

Put your knowledge of how to create a YouTube channel to the test

Learning how to make a YouTube channel is just step one. Mastering YouTube takes time.

By sticking to the tips outlined in this guide, your channel will be up and running in no time.

Once you create a YouTube channel and have your videos up and running, your next step is to get the word out there. After you build your channel, read our article all about how to promote your YouTube channel to get the word out, and the views up.

The post How to create a YouTube channel for your brand in 5 steps appeared first on Sprout Social.

We get it. Getting your channel off the ground is a struggle.

By learning about YouTube marketing and SEO, you can make your videos more searchable and expand your channels’ reach.

Recent YouTube statistics tell us the platform is currently the second-largest search engine in the world. Meanwhile, video consumption is at an all-time high.

And despite popular belief, learning YouTube SEO doesn’t require a bunch of technical know-how or spammy tactics.

In this article, you’ll learn what YouTube SEO is and how it works. We’ll also introduce you to top YouTube SEO strategies and tools to help you succeed on the platform.

Table of contents

• What is YouTube SEO?
• How does YouTube SEO work?
• YouTube SEO strategies
• Essential YouTube SEO tools

What is YouTube SEO?

YouTube SEO is the process of optimizing your videos and channel to rank higher in YouTube’s search results. It involves using a variety of strategies and techniques to attract more organic traffic and put your content in front of your target audience.

How does YouTube SEO work?

SEO for YouTube works a bit differently from regular SEO.

While search engines can’t exactly watch video content, they can crawl the text components of those videos. These include closed captions, transcripts, titles, descriptions and tags.

Incorporating relevant keywords and phrases into these text components is an essential part of any YouTube SEO strategy.

Additionally, optimizing these elements on top of creating high-quality, engaging content helps you improve viewer experience, which directly contributes to your video’s popularity.

If your content is a hit with your audience, YouTube’s algorithm is more likely to bring it to the top of search results.

YouTube SEO strategies

In this section, we’ll look at several SEO strategies for YouTube to help you get your videos to the top of search results.

1. Perform keyword research

First things first: digging into video topics that people are looking for.

By default, YouTube does a pretty solid job of cluing creators into what viewers want. Simply type a keyword or term into YouTube’s search bar and you’ll see a slew of keywords from actual viewers.

The purpose of keyword research isn’t necessarily to copycat the keywords that are already out there. Instead, you can use these terms to explore new potential topics and see what other keyword opportunities are out there.

For example, let’s say you’re a fashion YouTuber interested in making a video about distressed jeans. Simply by looking at the top results, we can see that peripheral terms like “DIY” and “denim” pop up alongside our primary keyword.

Digging into other related terms, you can narrow down the niche of your video and find a unique angle beyond just “distressed jeans.”

For example, you might talk about a specific tool or technique (“scissors,” “knife,” “sandpaper”) or perhaps a certain style of distressed jeans (“big holes”). Niching down your videos means that you’re targeting a more defined audience and are less likely to try to compete against more established videos and channels.

Another place to conduct video SEO research is through Google. That’s because YouTube videos rank in Google results, meaning that videos that pop up in a search are more than likely already optimized for SEO. Take note of what these sorts of videos do in terms of their titles and thumbnails (but more on that later).

Finally, you can also conduct keyword research via Google’s Keyword Planner tool. Although not related to video SEO per se, the added bonus of using Google is that you can uncover real-world search terms that people are actually using.

The purpose of keyword research is both to brainstorm ideas and figure out what viewers want. Including keywords and related terms throughout your content is a low-hanging way to boost your rankings versus videos that totally ignore YouTube SEO.

2. Add hashtags to your videos

Hashtags are a great way to get your videos more exposure. You can add relevant hashtags to your video titles and/or descriptions. Just like on other social media platforms, users can click on or search for hashtags on YouTube to view content related to specific topics.

Be careful with the number of hashtags you use. Don’t use too many or your content may come across as spammy. Stick to 2-3 of the most relevant terms, such as your company name, brand name, and main topic or keyword.

3. Create a playlist

Playlists help keep viewers on your channel for longer, which can improve your overall watch time and potentially lead to a higher ranking in search results.

Organizing your content into playlists on YouTube also makes it easier for viewers to find and watch related videos.

Finally, playlists help YouTube understand the theme and content of your channel, which can help improve your search visibility on the platform.

To optimize your playlists for SEO, you can use descriptive titles that include relevant keywords, add appropriate tags and make regular updates.

4. Optimize your video titles and descriptions

An enticing title and description can make or break your video. They are also great spots to highlight your keyword.

How to optimize YouTube video titles

Conventional wisdom says that ~75 characters is the sweet spot for titles, so you need to choose your words wisely.

Below are some examples of title formats that stick with our best practices of headline writing tips and allow you to seamlessly integrate your keyword ideas:

• Pose a question (“Why…” or “What is…”)
• Make a listicle (“Top 5…” or “5 Reasons Why…”)
• How-tos and tutorials (“How to…”)
• Compare and contrast (“Ranking the 5…” or “Best to Worst…”)

Channels like DFB Guide almost exclusively follow the formats above and their view-count speaks for itself.

Although these aren’t the only types of titles you’re restricted to, they’re arguably the safest options for both piquing people’s curiosity and ease-of-use for keywords.

As a side note, try to avoid writing clickbait headlines–audiences are increasingly familiar with and fatigued by these tactics, meaning they may reduce trust in your content.

How to optimize YouTube video descriptions

Descriptions are definitely a big deal when it comes to YouTube SEO.

With 5,000 characters to work with, it might be tempting to stuff keywords here.

However, that’s obviously not what this space is for (and keyword stuffing could land you in trouble).

There are plenty of ways to naturally integrate keywords into your YouTube descriptions minus any sort of spam. Also, your descriptions are crucial for funneling traffic from YouTube to your website, landing pages and social media channels.

In short, don’t let this space go to waste. Here’s a combination of elements to include in your description:

• A brief summary of your video which integrates your primary keyword
• Links to other relevant, keyword-specific videos on your channel
• Timestamps on your video which integrate relevant search terms
• Links to your website, social channels or other promotions

Let’s look at some examples of solid descriptions that stick within the best practices of YouTube SEO without being totally spammy.

This description for Beardbrand integrates multiple keywords throughout, including links to other videos which translates into more engagement and longer watch-times (all good for video SEO).

This description for Elgato manages to target keywords for their specific products, a smart move if you’re looking to tie the ROI of your YouTube channel to purchases on-site.

This straightforward example from Food Wishes proves that including keywords in your descriptions doesn’t have to be complicated (note that this video ranks #1 for “Baklava recipe”).

Here’s an awesome example from JHS Pedals which manages to integrate specific product-related keywords through timestamps. As a side note, including timestamps in your videos is great for engagement as it keeps your viewers from bouncing by allowing them to zero in on the most relevant parts of your videos.

Finally, this example from SEMrush does all of the above with a keyword rich-description, timestamps and links to useful resources on their site.

5. Make the most of YouTube tags

Tags are a subtle aspect of YouTube SEO that your audience more than likely will never see, but they can help improve your visibility and ranking.

But again, that doesn’t mean you should go stuffing tons of tags in your videos.

The concept behind YouTube tags is simple: by tagging your videos with descriptive terms, you’re helping YouTube understand the content of your videos and recommend what’s relevant to viewers (think: “DIY jean distressing” or “distressed jeans scissors”).

Although YouTube themselves don’t specify how many YouTube tags are considered “optimal,” five or so seems to be fair game for most channels.

If you’re interested in example tags or want to see what tags your competitors are using, figuring both out is simple. Simply go to a video, view the page source (CTRL-U) and then search (CTRL-F) “keywords” to uncover the tags.

6. Create compelling thumbnails

Although thumbnails aren’t directly tied to video SEO, they’re crucial for grabbing the attention of viewers and therefore scoring clicks.

As a rule of thumb (ha!), here are some best practices of YouTube thumbnails for most channels:

• Striking colors (either via text or background)
• Bold text which highlights the video’s title (or a benefit)
• A person or some sort of action

Here are some examples from Upright Fitness:

Thumbnails are important for establishing your brand’s identity and giving your channel a much-needed sense of professionalism. Even if you’re not a design expert, you can create consistent, eye-popping thumbnails with the help of the following template tools:

• Canva
• Bannersnack
• Visme

7. Promote your content across networks

Let’s talk about some less technical YouTube SEO tips for boosting video engagement both on the platform and off of it.

Increasing clicks, views and subscriptions to your channel are all signals to the YouTube algorithm that can improve your overall visibility, and should be a goal of your video SEO strategy.

Asking for engagement in-video

When you’re trying to get more engagement, anything you can do to get a reaction from your viewers is a plus. Some tips for doing so include:

• Asking for comments, “likes” and subscribers (don’t be shy about this but also don’t be obnoxious)
• Include some sort of call-to-action in your video (pose a question, for example)
• Add a call-to-action or question in the first line of your video description

You don’t have to beg for likes or comments, by the way. Just include a passing mention at the beginning or end or include an in-video prompt that doesn’t interrupt your viewers. Here’s an example from Emergency Awesome:

Sharing and promoting your content beyond YouTube

Pointing viewers to your YouTube content means consistent promotion across as many channels as possible. This might include:

• Embedding videos on-site or within blog posts
• Promoting your video content to your email subscribers
• Sharing your videos via social media

The last point is a big one. Video content performs well on social media, which is exactly why businesses make a point to share their latest videos time and time again across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and/or Pinterest.

You can use tools like Sprout’s social media publishing platform to queue up and promote your videos as soon as they’re ready to go live. Additionally, Sprout’s built-in YouTube publishing allows you to push content directly to YouTube without having to leave our app.

8. Leverage analytics to find what’s working

The last piece of YouTube SEO is analyzing your results.

Through your YouTube analytics, you can assess your content’s performance to understand what’s doing well and what isn’t in terms of SEO.

For example, your YouTube dashboard can clue you in on the following:

• Which keywords are you ranking for?
• Which types of videos perform well? (think: how-tos versus listicles)
• How long are your top-performing videos?
• Which videos result in the most traffic and off-platform engagement?

If you want to know where your YouTube SEO strategy should go, you need to know where you’ve been. Based on your data, you can explore new topics and keywords which brings us full-circle.

Essential YouTube SEO tools

Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a social media management platform that offers a range of tools for managing and analyzing social media activity, including YouTube management.

You can optimize your YouTube channels and videos for search with in-depth analytics, keyword and tag suggestions, and the ability to track performance and engagement.

Sprout Social also offers features for scheduling and publishing YouTube content, as well as the ability to collaborate with team members and clients.

YouTube autocomplete

YouTube autocomplete is the platform’s built-in tool that helps you identify top keywords related to your content. Simply type something in the platform’s search bar and view a list of suggested search terms.

This gives you valuable insight into popular topics and content types on the platform. Use this to tailor our own content to better meet the needs and interests of your audience.

Ahrefs Keyword Research

Ahrefs is a powerful keyword research tool that can help you optimize YouTube videos for search. With Ahrefs, you can see the search volume and competition level for different keywords, as well as the keywords your competitors are ranking for.

This information can help you identify the most relevant and valuable keywords to target in your video titles, descriptions and tags. Additionally, Ahrefs provides data on the types of queries that are driving traffic to your channel, as well as the specific keywords that are driving the most views to your videos.

TubeBuddy

TubeBuddy is another powerful tool that you can use to optimize your channel and videos for improved visibility and performance.

Some of the key features of TubeBuddy include the ability to see what tags and keywords your competitors are using, the ability to bulk edit video titles and tags, and the ability to see detailed analytics about the performance of your videos.

AnswerThePublic

AnswerThePublic is a tool that allows you to enter a keyword or phrase and generates a list of questions that people are asking about that topic online. It’s a useful resource for understanding the interests, needs and concerns of your YouTube audience.

Ready to put your YouTube SEO knowledge into action?

SEO for YouTube doesn’t have to be rocket science.

By sticking to the tips and principles above, you’re already way ahead of the curve when it comes to optimizing your videos for more reach.

And remember: video content is among the most-shared on social media. Find out how to use video to reach and engage your audience with current data and innovative tactics in our free Social Media Toolkit.

The post YouTube SEO: Strategies to optimize your videos for search appeared first on Sprout Social.

When made strategically, playlists can help you leverage the YouTube algorithm to your advantage, influence your viewers’ choices and keep them coming back.

In this article, we’ll walk you through how to create and manage new playlists on your YouTube channel. We’ve also compiled a few best practices to make the most out of this tool.

What is a YouTube playlist?

A playlist on YouTube is a collection of videos typically curated based on themes. You can use playlists to categorize content and help viewers discover specific videos. Visitors can find them on the Playlists section of your channel page.

You can also use playlists to organize your channel’s homepage—like we did on Sprout’s YouTube channel:

Playlists add a binge-worthy element to your channel. They go by the same rules as streaming platforms (like Netflix): as soon as one video ends, the next in the sequence starts playing.

Both viewers and channel owners can make YouTube playlists. Let’s look at why creating playlists is an important part of your brand’s YouTube strategy.

Why create playlists on YouTube

Improves YouTube SEO

Playlists often rank in YouTube’s search results. In fact, many search results bring in a separate section for ‘Related playlists.’

If your playlist description and title are optimized based on what people are searching for, it will rank higher and improve your chances of scoring more views. With a 5000 characters limit for descriptions, you can naturally integrate keywords that your audience is searching for.

To learn more about getting your videos at the top of search results, here’s our guide on YouTube SEO.

Improves discoverability

Videos included in a playlist have more chances to show up as suggested videos to viewers. YouTube prefers to show “topically related” videos in the Suggested Videos column. And they can come up as suggestions even when someone watches one of your videos outside of that playlist.

See how a playlist and video by the same channel show up in the Suggested section:

In short, by creating playlists, you’re increasing your chances of being discovered on YouTube.

Increases engagement

There are many ways you can use playlists to boost YouTube engagement rates.

For example, you can point visitors to the videos you want to specifically promote. Putting together your most popular videos under one playlist so that new viewers see your best content first is a good practice to follow.

You can organize videos by theme, audience type or content. This is especially helpful for viewers if you have a wide range of videos on your YouTube channel. They will find it easy to navigate and discover content that interests them the most. Here’s a great example from Andey Crowley’s channel where he curated separate playlists for guitar lessons based on learning levels:

Longer watch times

Playlists minimize the chances that a viewer will move on to another channel after consuming one of your videos. The next video in the playlist automatically plays, thus increasing watch time. And longer watch time means higher search rankings.

How to create a new YouTube playlist

You can create, edit and manage playlists for your channel from YouTube Studio.

Step 1: From the left menu, select Playlists. Select NEW PLAYLIST on the top right-hand side.

Step 2: Enter a title and description (optional). Select visibility settings (we suggest selecting Public so that your audience can view it) in the drop-down box and click CREATE. You can now view the playlist.

Step 3: To add videos, click the edit pencil next to the playlist you have created.

Step 4: Click the three dots menu and select Add videos.

Step 5: Under Your YouTube videos, select the videos you want to add to the playlist. Click Add videos.

Step 6: To re-order videos in a playlist, drag and drop the video up or down.

Your curated YouTube playlist is ready! It can now be viewed by your audience under the playlist section of your channel.

You can also add a video to one or more playlists while posting on YouTube. After adding video elements, you get the option to choose an existing playlist or create a new one.

Best practices for YouTube playlists

Use a compelling title and description

When naming playlists, add a compelling title and description that are also optimized for search.

As mentioned earlier, adding a description is optional. But, we recommend making it a mandatory step for every playlist you create so that it shows up for certain searches. The trick is to focus on keywords that your viewers might be searching for and are related to the videos in your playlist.

The title and description should also accurately represent the content watchers will see in your playlist. Think about it: Would you watch a playlist if you weren’t sure what was in it? While YouTube lets you add up to 5000 characters to the description, it gets shortened in search results. Front load your description with details that will grab attention while concisely summarizing what’s within the playlist.

Place your best videos first

Organize playlists by placing your best video first. The idea is to get your top-performing content in front of more people and increase watch time. Increasing watch time will further improve channel engagement rates.

Find which videos bring in the newest subscribers or have the longest watch time through YouTube Creator Studio. For more powerful insights, use a tool like Sprout Social to discover what resonates with your audience and determine attributes that bring more engagement.

Of course, this isn’t applicable for every playlist you make on YouTube. You’ll want to decide contextually if the video fits in the playlist. Sometimes, you’ll have to consider the narrative you want to create—which brings us to the next tip.

Have a narrative

Videos in a playlist should have a flow to them. Based on what your channel is about, decide on appropriate themes and categories. Like episodes of a TV show, viewers should be eager to know what the next video in the playlist is about.

If you create vlogs, end each video with a loop and tell your viewers what’s coming up. Arrange your playlist based on this order and watch your views soar!

Does your brand have tutorial videos or videos on how your product is made? Make sure they’re arranged in the correct order so that viewers understand what comes next. Check out how Wix.com curated playlists with lessons on building an eCommerce business. Each playlist has a specific order for the videos to make it easy for beginners to learn:

Create a special playlist for new visitors

Just like an About us page on a website, make a YouTube playlist containing videos that will let new visitors know what your channel is all about. For brands, you can compile different videos that tell your brand story—like how Duolingo has an ‘All About Duolingo’ playlist with videos on the story behind the company and their brand mission:

You can also introduce your brand with a ‘New Here’ playlist to highlight your best videos that will let new viewers know what kind of content your channel typically covers. Many YouTubers choose to do this, especially if they have uploaded many videos over time. Creator Ali Abdaal has a special playlist with 14 videos for new viewers, so they can quickly get acquainted with his content.

Set the best thumbnail

There isn’t an option to upload a separate thumbnail for playlists. The thumbnail from the first video will be set as the playlist’s thumbnail by default. But YouTube lets you choose a thumbnail from any video in that playlist.

You can easily modify this from YouTube studio. Go to the playlist you want to edit. Select the three dots menu from the video you’ve decided to use as the playlist thumbnail. From the drop-down, select Set as playlist thumbnail.

It’s best to choose a thumbnail that matches your playlist title. Just like for videos, they can entice your audience to click through when it shows up on the search results.

Don’t add too many videos

The point of creating playlists on YouTube is to make navigation easier for your audience. So, the last thing you want to do is overwhelm them with an enormous number of videos in playlists. We recommend going for 3 to 10 videos per playlist. If a theme or topic you choose has many videos, try splitting it into another playlist.

Make the most out of YouTube playlists

Creating playlists on YouTube is more than just grouping together related videos. They are tools in your video strategy to organize content and give your audience more ease in navigating through the channel.

It’s up to you to decide how to best curate playlists for your channel. Get insights about your audience to know their preference and create playlists accordingly.

For more insights on growing your brand presence on YouTube, check out our guide on YouTube marketing.

The post How to make a playlist on YouTube: The step-by-step guide to increase engagement appeared first on Sprout Social.

Social media is constantly giving itself a makeover and has changed dramatically over the last few years. This Instagram-born brand has had to evolve its social media strategy along with it.

Join Glossier’s Jamie Dinar, Senior Manager of Social Media & Digital Content, as she reflects on the past year and unveils how the brand will continue to evolve its approach in 2023 and beyond. You’ll hear about:

• How to adjust your social strategy to remain relevant
• Why community-building is the foundation of Glossier’s brand & how to do it well
• Top tips for TikTok & social ecommerce

The post How Glossier Contours Their 2023 Social Strategy Around TikTok, Community & More appeared first on Sprout Social.

Staying relevant and capturing your audience’s attention is a constant challenge for marketers. And now that brands rely on video content more than ever, it’s critical to use the correct social media video specs and advertising video sizes.

However, we couldn’t find all the correct social video sizes in one place. So we decided to create a complete guide of every single social media video spec and advertising video dimension.

Before we start, here are some additional resources to help you keep the information in once place:

• Easily reference our social media video specs in our always up-to-date Google Doc.
• Looking for image sizes? Check out our social media image sizes guide for help.
• Want to get better results with video? Download our social media video content workbook.

Instagram for brands

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Social Media Video Specs & Ad Sizes Per Network

We’ve gathered a plethora of information on each social network’s specific video sizes and specs. Simply click the links below to jump to your desired network:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• TikTok
• Snapchat
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest

Collaborative Publishing Made Easy with Sprout

Visually appealing content can often be found at the heart of successful social posts.

Whether it’s a video, image or text, Sprout’s Asset Library serves as the central hub, making accessibility, organization and collaboration easier than ever.

Experience how easy asset management can be when you get started with a free trial today.

Facebook Video Specs

Facebook video is consumed at higher rates each year, so it’s no wonder why so many marketers search for the correct Facebook video specs.

The challenge for marketers is that there are simply so many types of videos you can share on Facebook and the platform updates its design frequently. Each video format has different dimensions and specs, which can make it confusing to know whether or not you’re uploading the correct format for organic or paid posts. Follow the specs below to optimize your posts.

Shared Post Video (Landscape & Portrait)

Easily the most common type of video on Facebook comes from shared posts. This type of video lives in your Facebook feed, and can be shared by brands or your friends. While it’s not as easy to get organic reach on Facebook, it’s still a viable way to share video. You can choose between two video orientations: Landscape and Portrait. Here’s a look at the video specs for both.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended video dimensions 1280 x 720 for Landscape and Portrait.
• Minimum width is 1200 pixels (length depends on aspect ratio) for Landscape and Portrait.
• Landscape aspect ratio is 16:9.
• Portrait aspect ratio is 9:16 (if video includes link, aspect ratio is 16:9).
• Mobile renders both video types to aspect ratio 2:3.
• Max file size is 4GB (3 GB maximum in Sprout).
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length max is 240 minutes (45 minutes if uploading in Sprout).
• Video max frames 30fps.

360 Video

Facebook’s 360 Video allows users to get a complete 360-degree view by scrolling with a cursor on web, by touch or turning the device on mobile.

Video Guidelines

• The resolution and aspect ratio depends on the type of content:
  • Monoscopic: 5120 x 2560 maximum, aspect ratio 2:1
  • Stereoscopic: 5120 x 5120 maximum, aspect ratio 1:1
• Recommended max file size is 10GB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length maximum is 30 minutes.
• Recommended framerate is 30 fps.

Facebook Reels

The convenience of cross-posting your Instagram Reels to Facebook expands the viewership and reach of your videos. This format appears organically in feeds, but often gets “priority” on Facebook feeds.

• Recommended video formats are MP4 and MOV
• Allowed Frame Rate: 23 FPS minimum
• Allowed Duration: 4 seconds – 90 seconds
• Allowed File Size: No file size limit
• Resolution: 540 x 960 (540p) minimum (1080×1920 or greater recommended)
• Allowed Aspect Ratio: 9:16

Facebook Video Ad Specs

In-Feed Video Ads

These ads are the sponsored equivalent of in-feed posts and follow similar guidelines.

Video guidelines

• Recommended to upload the highest resolution video possible.
• Recommended resolution: 1080×1080.
• Recommended aspect ratio is between 9:16 to 16:9 (Horizontal: 16:9, Square: 1:1, Vertical: 4:5 or 2:3 and Full Portrait: 9:16).
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV (see full list here).
• Max video file size is 4GB.
• Video length max is 240 minutes.

Character limits

• Primary text: 125 characters.
• Link description: 30 characters.
• Headline: 40 characters.

There are more than 5 million advertisers now on Facebook and having the right specs for your ads can be tricky. Each type of Facebook video ad is different, so let’s go ahead and break down the specs for each type of video you can produce.

Carousel Video Ads

Facebook Carousel Video ads allow brands to showcase multiple videos (or images) and a link within a user’s Facebook feed. It has grown in popularity because its unique scrolling feature allows users to see more content before clicking a link. In fact, Digiday estimated Carousel Ads to be 10 times more effective than standard social media ads.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended video resolution 1080 x 1080.
• Aspect ratio is 1:1.
• Max video file size is 4 GB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video duration range is 1 second to 240 minutes.
• Video max frames 30fps.

Collection Video Ads (Mobile)

The Facebook Collection ads showcases multiple images and a main video above it. This is perfect for displaying multiple products (or various colors of a single product) and a video as well. The ad type has been popular so far with retailers and clothing companies.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended video resolution 1080×1080.
• Square aspect ratio is 1:1.
• Max video file size is 4GB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length max is 120 minutes.
• Video max frames 30 fps.

Character Limits

• Primary text: 125 characters.
• Headline max: 40 characters.
• Landing page URL required.

Instant Experience Video Ads

Facebook Instant Experience ads open up a full-screen experience after the first click, which can be further customized with a variety of interactive features. This can include multiple video experiences, including features to auto-play on loop.

Video Guidelines

• Minimum resolution: 720p
• Portrait aspect ratio of 9:16 with pillarboxing for all others uploaded.
• Max video file size is 4GB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Maximum length of all video content must be 2 minutes combined.
• Video max frames 30fps.

Slideshow Video Ad

Facebook’s Slideshow videos were built for advertisers wanting to reach audiences with slower internet connections. Instead of a regular video, slideshows are just that–a slideshow of images or video in an ad display.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended video resolution 1200 x 720.
• Aspect ratios available are landscape (16:9), vertical (4:5) and square (1:1)
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Slideshow duration max is 15 seconds.

Facebook Stories (Ads & Organic Posts)

Facebook has also added the Stories feature, disappearing short photo or video updates that are only available for 24 hours. In addition to user-generated organic posts, Stories ads that run in between sets of user stories are also available.  While most users will be sharing immediate & organic updates from their phone’s camera without worrying too much about their video specs, the guidelines for this format are similar for paid & organic posts.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended resolution 1080×1080
• Aspect ratios: 1.91 to 9:16, with colored gradient bars rendered above and below videos under 9:16. The text field will also be placed under below videos smaller than this aspect ratio.
• Max video file size is 4GB
• Duration is 1 second to 2 minutes
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.

Character Limits

• Primary text: 125 characters
• Headline: 40 characters

For more information on the video specs for Facebook, visit the Facebook Help Center.

Instagram Video Specs

Instagram launched video capabilities in 2013 and quickly saw enough success to start advertising on the platform in 2015. Since then, video only continues to grow as an engaging social format. So needless to say, Instagram videos are absolutely worth the investment.

In-Feed Video (Landscape, Square & Vertical)

Since 2015, Instagram crafted its videos formats to allow three different styles: landscape, square and vertical. The predominantly-mobile social network is perfect to share videos of any size organically to reach your audience.

Video Guidelines

• Minimum resolution for all formats is 1080 x 1080
• Recommended horizontal pixel resolution is 1920
• Multiple aspect ratios are supported: Landscape aspect ratio is 16:9, square aspect ratio is 1:1, vertical aspect ratio is 4:5.
• Max file size for all formats is 4GB (*100MB maximum for Sprout Direct Publishing and 512MB maximum for Sprout Mobile App Flow Publishing).
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length is 3 seconds to 60 minutes.
• Recommended frame rate is 23 to 60 FPS.
• Recommended data rate/bitrate: 25 Mbps (megabits per second)

Character Limits

• Primary text recommendation: 125 characters.
• Maximum number of hashtags: 30

Instagram Reels

Introduced in 2020, Instagram Reels are another option for your video strategy on Instagram. These short-form, easily digestible videos are becoming the preferred type of content in Instagram feeds.

Fortunately for social content creators looking to easily generate a lot of content for Instagram, most of the video specs for Instagram Reels are fairly similar to other formats on the platform, with the main differences being the short length and the ease of editing in-app to add effects and sound.

As Instagram has started to add separate tabs for different content types, thumbnails will be cropped differently on each view. If the viewer is on the first tab that has all content types, the thumbnail will be cropped to the traditional square post size of 1:1–center your subjects and plan to avoid undesirable vertical cropping.

• Allowed file extensions: .MP4 or .MOV
• Allowed Frame Rate: 23-60 FPS
• Allowed Duration: 3 seconds – 15 minutes
• Allowed File Size: 4 GB max (1 GB or less in Sprout)
• Allowed horizontal pixels: 1920
• Allowed maximum bitrate: 25 Mbps
• Allowed aspect ratio: 0.01:1-10:1 (9:16 recommended)

Instagram Video Ad Specs

Instagram’s advertising revenue has significantly increased over the last year. In fact, Instagram predicts to earn $4 billion in mobile ad revenue in 2017 alone. The push for Instagram advertising is real and marketers have to be ready to take advantage with engaging videos.

In-Feed Video Ad (Landscape, Square & Vertical)

Much like the in-feed organic Instagram video options, the network provides similar options for advertising. These video ads appear nearly identical to organic posts to blend in with users’ feeds. In fact, the Instagram video specs are the same for organic and paid content.

Video Guidelines

• Same as In-Feed Video.

Video Character Guidelines (Mobile)

• Same as In-Feed Video.

Carousel Video Ad

Much like Facebook’s Carousel Ads, Instagram offers a similar feature. Carousel ads allow users to see more of a product or feature than a single image or video. With Instagram, your carousel video ads can have 2-10 cards with a full-width call to action below the ad.

Video Guidelines

• Minimum resolution is 600 x 600.
• Max resolution is 1080 x 1080.
• Aspect ratio is 1:1.
• Max file size is 4GB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Max video length is 60 seconds.
• Instagram allows 2-10 videos/cards per ad.

Instagram Stories (Ads & Organic Posts)

It didn’t take long for Instagram Stories to feature ads within users’ story feeds. Brands can seamlessly integrate their video content between other Instagram users. Much like Snapchat, it’s smart to make these videos more raw and in-the-moment to avoid drastically standing out as an ad, especially since users can immediately swipe to leave.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended resolution is 1080 x 1080.
• Aspect ratio is 9:16.
• Max file size is 4GB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length max is 2 minutes for ads and 15 seconds for organic. If you upload a longer video on organic, it will be clipped into multiple Stories slides.

If you’re looking for further information including images, check out our complete guide to all the Instagram ad sizes!

For more information on the video specs for Instagram, visit the Facebook Help Center.

TikTok Video Specs

TikTok has quickly gained attention in the social space, and some social marketers might be feeling caught off guard by the rush to understand what works and what doesn’t on the platform. Fortunately, TikTok’s focus on easy to create and share videos means it’s not hard to start producing video content for the platform, and there are plenty of trends to inspire TikTok content creation. Read on for the specs.

TikTok Organic Videos

TikTok videos are all about the ease of creation, editing and sharing, so it makes sense that specs are more or less oriented around typical mobile phone dimensions. One key trait to keep in mind if you’re trying to repurpose video content across platforms is that videos uploaded from another file source, rather than recorded on the app, can be longer than 60 seconds.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended resolution: 1080×1920
• Aspect ratio: 9:16 recommended to fill a standard mobile phone screen (1:1 with letterboxing)
• Length: 3 minutes recorded in-app or 10 minutes when uploaded from another source (10 minutes if uploading in Sprout)
• Maximum file size: 287.6MB
• Video formats: MP4 or MOV recommended

TikTok Feed Ads

TikTok ads are a rapidly evolving opportunity for brands. The in-feed option for paid TikTok content is fairly similar to the formatting for existing organic content. To fine-tune paid content for the best performance, be sure to consult TikTok’s business center for the latest tips.

Video Guidelines

• Resolutions must be at least: 540×960, 640×64 or 960×540
• Aspect ratio options: 9:16, 1:1 or 16:9
• Length: 5–60 seconds, but 9–15 seconds is recommended
• Maximum file size: 500MB
• Bitrate minimum: 516 kbps
• Ad description character limits: 1-1000 Latin characters or 1-50 Asian characters
• Video formats: .MP4, .MOV, .MPEG .3GP, .AVI

Twitter Video Specs

Twitter is a popular space to share and interact with different social media videos. For marketers, it’s all about keeping a user’s attention with enthralling and click-worthy video content. In the sports and entertainment industry, Twitter is often the go-to for sharing video content, so it’s critical to learn the correct Twitter video specs.

Twitter Landscape & Portrait Videos

Twitter provides two formats of in-feed video content to share with your followers: landscape and portrait. These specific formats are only available for uploading video directly to Twitter, rather than sharing YouTube or Vimeo links. Luckily, Twitter makes it easy to share organic content, but the dimensions do change as the video bitrate alters.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended resolutions are 1280×720 (landscape), 720×1280 (portrait), 720×720 (square).
• Aspect ratios recommended at 16:9 (landscape or portrait), 1:1 (square). 1:1 is recommended as the best route for rendering across devices with the best output.
• Max file size is 512MB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 for web and .MOV for mobile.
• Video length max is 140 seconds.
• Recommended frame rates are 30 or 60 fps.

Character Limits

• Maximum count: 280 characters.

Twitter Videos Ad Specs

Looking to promote your video through paid ads on Twitter? Luckily, you can use the same exact formats from Twitter organic videos. Stick to the same specs for both organic and paid video to ensure maximum visibility.

For more information on the video specs for Twitter, visit the Twitter Help Center.

Snapchat Video Specs

Snapchat is still an active network for younger generations to share video content. Whether it’s through FOMO-inducing disapppfilters, Snapchat is a hotbed for video sharing. And for your brand, it’s important to know the correct video dimensions for Snapchat.

Single video ad

This video format is the most common across the channel and is the main way users communicate back and forth through the app. However, your business can post videos to its story so others can see what your business is up to. Just follow these specs:

Video Guidelines

• Recommended dimension is 1080 x 1920.
• Aspect ratio is 9:16.
• Max file size is 32MB.
• Accept video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length is between 3 and 10 seconds.

Long-Form Video Ad

Snapchat currently offers one main video format for ads, which is known as the long-form video. While there are partner opportunities to put video within Snapchat’s discovery option, most dimensions are the same, but require your business to reach out to the social network for more details on advertising. However, the Snapchat Long-Form Video Ad is what users see in between viewing users’ Stories.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended dimension is 1080 x 1920.
• Aspect ratio is 9:16 or 16:9.
• Max file size is 1GB.
• Accept video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length is 3 to 180 seconds.

For more information on the video specs for Snapchat, visit the Snapchat Ads Help Center.

YouTube Video Specs

Known as the second-largest search engine behind Google, YouTube is an essential network for video content. For marketers, YouTube is a great space to promote, educate and share video content around your brand.

As YouTube continues to grow as a destination for video content, it hosts everything from short form promotional videos to full-length movies and TV. This means users are streaming content on all sorts of devices, which could have different levels of zoom or overscan.

While there’s no hard and fast rules from the platform on how to approach the video editing concept of ‘title safe’ areas where text like titles and subtitles aren’t cut off, you do want to avoid placing these types of visual elements right at the edges of your video area. Read on for more specifics on each format available on YouTube.

Video Player (Standard YouTube Video)

While YouTube allows users to upload various types of media formats and use plenty of different dimensions, organically, there’s truly only one format for the video player. Organic videos should all follow 16:9 ratio, but can be uploaded 4:3. However, the smaller ratio will automatically pillarbox the sides to still make it fit in the player. YouTube has seven recommended dimensions and ratios for standard YouTube videos:

Video Guidelines

• Recommended dimensions: 426 x 240 (240p), 640 x 360 (360p), 854 x 480 (480p), 1280 x 720 (720p), 1920 x 1080 (1080p), 2560 x 1440 (1440p) and 3840 x 2160 (2160p).
• Aspect ratio is 16:9 (auto adds pillarboxing if 4:3).
• Max file size is 128GB or 12 hours, whichever is less.
• Accepted video formats include: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.
• Video length max is 12 hours.

YouTube Video Ad Specs

Standard YouTube videos are pretty straightforward, but there are a few video ad formats to learn if you want to advertise on the network. According to data from Google, Brands advertising on YouTube often receive a 20% increase in traffic.

Skippable, Non-Skippable, Mid-roll & Bumper Video Ads

We’ve put these four YouTube video ads specs together because in the end, they all play through the standard YouTube video player. That means all of these ad types follow the same dimensions as the non-ad videos, but only differ in video length. Let’s look at each ad type:

• Skippable Video Ad: This YouTube ad type is played before, during or after the content and becomes skippable after 5 seconds. This ad format is the only one allowing advertisers to monetize views from any viewing device.
• Non-Skippable Video Ad: This YouTube ad type is played before the content and users must watch the full 15 seconds (can also be added during or after video). However, views from TVs or game consoles don’t count toward a monetizable view.
• Mid-roll Video Ad: This YouTube ad type is played mid-view (like TV commercials) and is only available for content longer than 8 minutes. Ads are added either manually or automatically and again, views from TV or game consoles don’t count toward a monetizable view. Mid-rolls can be skippable, but users must watch 30 seconds or entire ad (whichever is shorter).
• Bumper Video Ads: This YouTube ad type is played before the content.It’s a small 6-second video ad that cannot be skipped, which is usually optimized for mobile views.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended dimensions: 426 x 240 (240p), 640 x 360 (360p), 854 x 480 (480p),1280 x 720 (720p), 1920 x 1080 (1080p), 2560 x 1440 (1440p) and 3840 x 2160 (2160p).
• Minimum dimension is 426 x 240.
• Max dimension is 3840 x 2160.
• Aspect ratio is 16:9 (auto adds pillarboxing if 4:3).
• Max file size is 128GB or 12 hours, whichever is less.
• Accepted video formats include: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.
• Skippable video length max is 6 minutes (skippable after 5 seconds).
• Non-skippable video length max is 15 or 20 seconds (30 seconds in some regions).
• Mid-roll video length minimum is 30 seconds.
• Bumper video length max is 6 seconds.

Display Ad

YouTube display ads are shown in users’ search queries and sometimes appear in the right video column when watching a video. These ads are static, which means they don’t automatically play. However, once the video is clicked, the type of content displayed can simply follow the standard video player guidelines mentioned above.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended dimensions for the static image is 300 x 250 for the larger side view or 300 x 60 for the smaller side view.
• Actual recommended video dimensions are: 426 x 240 (240p), 640 x 360 (360p), 854 x 480 (480p),1280 x 720 (720p), 1920 x 1080 (1080p), 2560 x 1440 (1440p) and 3840 x 2160 (2160p).
• Aspect ratio is 16:9 (auto adds pillarboxing if 4:3)
• Max file size is 128GB or 12 hours, whichever is less.
• Accepted video formats include: .MOV, .MPEG4, .MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.

For more information on the video specs for YouTube, visit the Google Help Center.

YouTube Shorts

Introduced late 2020, YouTube Shorts have recently made its debut as another short-form video feature. These videos are a new way to watch, create and discover short-form content. Shorts can be captured and edited from a smartphone or uploaded through the standard upload workflow from desktop or mobile. Because people are watching more short-form videos globally, using Shorts is a new way to reach wider audiences to entertain, education or make them feel good.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended dimensions: 240×426 (240p), 360×640 (360p), 480×854 (480p), 720×1280 (720p), 1080×1920 (1080p), 1440×2560 (1440p), and 2160×3840 (2160p),
• Aspect ratio is 9:16.
• Video length is 60 seconds max.
• Accepted video formats include: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.
• Music from the YouTube music library is limited to 15 seconds.
• Title character limit: 100 characters max.

For more information on the video specs for YouTube, visit the Google Help Center.

LinkedIn Video Specs

Even though LinkedIn is still in the early stages of video content adoption, the network is still a go-to source for sharing. In fact, nearly 75% of business executives say they watch online videos every week. With that number only likely to grow, it’s safe to say LinkedIn will continue to put video content at its forefront.

Shared Video

The only video format you can upload is through a shared video. While there are options to share YouTube links in shared posts and in LinkedIn Pulse articles, there’s still just one way to upload your own video.

Video Guidelines

• Aspect ratio is 1:2.4 to 2.4:1.
• Max file size is 5GB.
• Accepted video formats are .ASF, .AVI, .FLV, .MOV, .MPEG-1, .MPEG-4, .MP4, .MKV, and .WebM.
• Video length minimum is 3 seconds, max is 10 minutes.
• Video max frames 60fps.

For more information on the video specs for LinkedIn, visit the LinkedIn Help Center.

Video Ads

As of 2018, LinkedIn now offers video ads. The requirements are a little bit different than shared video, so be sure to consider them when developing ads for your paid campaign.

Video Guidelines

• Required dimensions are:
  • Landscape video: Minimum: 640 x 360, maximum: 1920 x 1080.
  • Square video: Minimum: 360 x 360, maximum: 1920 x 1920.
  • Vertical video: Minimum: 360 x 640, maximum: 1080 x 1920.
• Aspect ratios are:
  • Landscape: 16:9
  • Square: 1:1
  • Vertical: 9:16
• Maximum file size is 200 MB
• The accepted video format is .MP4
• Video length max is 30 minutes, although LinkedIn’s guidelines state most ads perform best at around 15 seconds
• Frame rate must be less than 30fps.

For more information on the video specs for LinkedIn ads, visit LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Help.

Pinterest Promoted Video Specs

Pinterest allows video upload for business accounts only, so they have specs designed for brands to get the most out of the highly visual and inspirational lifestyle content frequently shared on the platform.

Shared Video

In addition to ads, business accounts can upload organic video content. There are two formats: standard and max width video.

Video Guidelines

• Standard video recommended aspect ratio: 1:1 (square) or 2:3, 4:5 or 9:16 (vertical)
• Max width video required aspect ratio: 1:1 (square) or 16.9 (widescreen)
• Max file size is 2GB.
• Acceptable video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video duration is 4 seconds to 15 minutes (for ads, the platform notes that 6-15 seconds are optimal).

Character Limits

• Title: Up to 100 characters.
• Description: Up to 500 characters.

Promoted Pinterest Video

There are two formats for Pinterest Promoted Video: standard and max width. Both versions have the same specs as the options for organic uploads. These video ads appear in users’ boards, but advertisers can select the style in the ads manager.

Video Guidelines

• Same as shared video

The post Always Up-to-Date Guide to Social Media Video Specs appeared first on Sprout Social.

The popularity of livestreams stabilized as the world has opened up, and 37% of consumers think livestreams are the most engaging type of content. With streaming on the rise brands will need to fine-tune their current strategy and prepare for the future of YouTube and livestreaming.

In this article, you’ll learn why YouTube Live should be a part of your YouTube marketing strategy, how to livestream on the platform and tips for creating engaging live content.

Table of contents

• What is YouTube Live?
• What are the benefits of YouTube Live?
• How to livestream on YouTube
• YouTube Live features to use
• How to get YouTube Live ideas
• YouTube Live best practices and streaming tips

What is YouTube Live?

YouTube Live is YouTube’s livestreaming feature that enables content creators to interact with their audience in real time via video and chat. Users can watch trending livestreams in their country by clicking on “Live” from the left sidebar on YouTube via desktop.

If your audience has subscribed to your channel, previously watched or liked your content or interacted with content similar to yours, your Live videos and streams may display on your audiences’ YouTube feeds.

What are the benefits of YouTube Live?

Livestreaming presents serious opportunities for creators and your brand’s Video marketing strategy. In 2021, YouTube was the most popular platform for livestream ecommerce in the US.

Still not convinced that YouTube Live can expand your reach and brand awareness? Consider these unique ways using YouTube live helps you engage with your audience:

• Hosting virtual events: Organizing in-person events can be time-consuming and costly. YouTube Live is an excellent alternative for hosting workshops, webinars and product launches virtually with less spend. Plus, virtual events make it easier for more people to attend globally.
• Interacting with your audience in real time: Livestreaming empowers you to talk directly to your audience, respond to compliments and react to humorous comments. Having a two-way conversation with your audience builds stronger connections with them.
• Answering questions instantly: Just as with any in-person event, going Live on YouTube enables you to respond to questions and comments instantly and in real time, which leads to higher audience satisfaction. You can solve problems, teach and even answer questions about your product—all in a more personal and immediate way.

• Standing out from the competition: Youtube is the second most popular website, with more than 2.5 billion monthly active users. More than 500 hours of video content is uploaded to YouTube daily. Since livestreams still make up a relatively smaller percentage of that content, they can help you stand out and look unique.

Now that you’re aware of the key benefits of YouTube Live for business, let’s talk about how to live stream on YouTube.

How to livestream on YouTube

Before you go live, you need to make sure you’ve set up your channel, equipment and met the YouTube livestream requirements. Here are the steps you need to get started:

1. Enable livestreaming

Before you can dive into YouTube Live, enable livestreaming on your device or devices.

If you’re using a web browser, follow these steps:

• Open YouTube in your browser
• Click on the Create symbol at the top

• Click on Go Live
• Request access and verify your channel (if you haven’t)
• Wait until livestreaming is enabled—this may take up to 24 hours

If you’re using a mobile device or tablet (Android, iPhone or iPad), follow the steps below:

• Open the YouTube app
• Tap the Create symbol at the bottom
• Tap Go Live
• Wait until livestreaming is enabled—this may take up to 24 hours

YouTube livestream requirements

While you may be excited to jump in and go live, there are a few requirements you’ll have to meet first:

• Verify your channel—this is a simple, fast process
• Avoid any YouTube livestreaming restrictions in the past 90 days
• Have at least 50 subscribers to go live on mobile devices—this requirement is not in place for streaming from a computer
• Be patient—once you enable livestreaming (steps listed above), it can take up to 24 hours before you’re able to stream

Heads up: If you have under 1,000 subscribers, your mobile livestream viewers may be limited by YouTube. And for users aged 13-17, the default privacy setting is set to Private or Unlisted (for mobile.) This means the stream is not going to show up in search results or recommendations. For users aged 18+, the livestream’s privacy will be set to Public by default.

2. Choose a stream type based on your purpose

YouTube lets you livestream in three different ways. Let’s take a look at each one briefly and when to use it.

• Mobile: To go live from your mobile device, like a phone or tablet, you need to have a verified YouTube channel with at least 50 subscribers. This is a good option for vlogging or sharing quick updates on the go.
• Webcam: All you need to go live is a computer and a webcam. This is useful for simple livestreams that don’t require too many resources. For example, you can conduct a quick Q&A session or share your thoughts on a specific topic.
• Encoder: This is ideal for gaming streams, concerts, business events, podcasts and interactive presentations. If you want to share your screen in your livestream, or use multiple cameras, microphones and other hardware, the encoder option is for you.

3. Choose a title, description and thumbnail image

You’re almost ready to use YouTube Live!

The only thing left to do is to choose a title, description and an attention-getting thumbnail image for your livestream.

Here are some best practices when adding these details to help you reach a bigger audience:

• Create an eye-catching title: Well-written titles can mean the difference between someone clicking on your livestream or scrolling right past it. Make sure you write catchy titles that accurately describe your video and pique interest. And take YouTube SEO into account—using strong keywords helps your livestreams show up in search results.
• Optimize your description: Just like the title, your livestream description should include important keywords to help it rank higher in search results. You should also add relevant links and information in your description to help your audience understand what they’re watching and where they can go to find out more.
• Design a custom thumbnail: Your thumbnail is probably the first thing your audience sees about your livestream. Capture attention by designing a custom thumbnail—at the correct size for social media—that captures the essence of your video in an engaging, vibrant manner.
• Add calls to action: If you want your audience to take any specific actions during or after they watch your livestream, add CTAs to your description or within the stream to visit your website, social media profiles or any other resource.

4. Start livestreaming

All set and ready to go live? Follow the steps below to start (and end) your livestream on mobile, desktop and encoder.

How to livestream on YouTube on mobile or a tablet

• Open the YouTube app
• At the bottom of the screen, tap on Create (plus sign button) → Go Live
• Tap More options to schedule your stream for later and adjust settings for age restriction, live chat, monetization, to schedule for later and more. Then tap next.
• To share your mobile device’s screen, tap on Create channel → Share screen
• Tap Go Live to start streaming
• To end your livestream, click on Finish

How to livestream on YouTube using a computer and webcam

• Sign in to YouTube in your browser
• Click on Create → Go Live in the top-right corner
• Select Webcam from the left
• Add a title and description, set the privacy and schedule your livestream if you’d like to go live at a later date
• Select More options → Advanced Settings for additional settings you want to set
• Click on Next to capture a thumbnail with your camera
• Ensure you’ve selected the right webcam and microphone
• Tap Go Live to start streaming
• Click on Edit to adjust settings for privacy, monetization, live chat, add tags and more
• Tap End Stream at the bottom when you’re done

Here’s how to livestream via an app through iOS ReplayKit—think, drawing or painting pieces of art while livestreaming through an app like Procreate:

• Open the app you’re planning to stream from
• Go to the livestreaming menu → select YouTube
• Follow the prompted steps
• Tap Go Live

How to livestream on YouTube using an encoder

• Sign in to YouTube
• Click on Create → Go Live to enable livestreaming
• Tap Stream on your left and click on Create Stream
• Install an approved encoder
• Connect any additional hardware, such as cameras and mics

Source: YouTube Help

• Connect your encoder by entering your YouTube Live server URL and stream key
• Start streaming

Google Support has more information about livestreaming on YouTube using an encoder.

5. What you can and can’t stream on YouTube Live

Your livestream must adhere to YouTube’s Community Guidelines and Terms of Service. If you fail to meet the guidelines, YouTube may restrict your content or remove it from the platform altogether. And a restriction on your livestream may result in a strike on your YouTube channel, which can prevent you from going live for 14 days.

YouTube Live features to use

Now that you know how to start a livestream on YouTube, let’s talk about some features and YouTube tools you can use to enhance, promote, analyze and monetize your livestream effectively.

1. Cross-channel live redirects

You can direct viewers from your livestream, to livestreams on other channels outside of your own. This opens up new ways to collaborate with other YouTube creators and drive viewers to your other channels.
You need at least 1,000 subscribers to take advantage of this feature, and permission from the channel you want to redirect to via YouTube Studio.

2. Go Live Together

Go Live Together allows creators livestreaming on mobile to invite guests to join their livestream via a link.

This is a feature YouTube is testing out in 2022, and one to keep an eye out for once it rolls out to a larger audience.

Note: While you will have access to streaming analytics for this content, guests will not, nor will they benefit from ad revenue gained during the shared stream.

3. Create clips

YouTube allows you to take short snippets from your livestreams and turn them into highlights to post as standalone videos on your YouTube channel.

This makes it easy to repurpose livestream content—especially useful for streams that cover a lot of topics, such as a Q&A session. You can create multiple highlights, each focusing on a specific topic or question.

When you post a highlight on YouTube, it will appear on your channel just like a regular uploaded video.

You can create highlights during or after your livestream. If you want to mark interesting moments while you’re still live, add stream markers to pinpoint the exact minutes. Refer to these markers later to easily create highlights.

4. Track your livestream’s metrics

A useful feature of YouTube Live is the ability to track the real-time performance of your livestream on all three devices; mobile, tablet and desktop. This enables you to quickly detect and fix any issues, and analyze your engagement.

There are three main types of analytics you can track:

• Stream health: This will notify you of any potential issues with your livestream so you can quickly rectify them to avoid a dip in viewer count.

• Real-time analytics: During your livestream, you’ll be able to track metrics like your stream’s total duration, total viewer count and total likes. If you’re on desktop, you can also view the chat rate, total playbacks and your stream’s average watch time.

• Post-stream analytics: After your livestream ends, you’ll get a quick summary of how your stream performed. This includes the total playbacks of your stream, the average watch time, the peak times and the number of new subscribers you gained through the stream.

You can also use YouTube Analytics to view an in-depth report on your audience retention, demographics, traffic sources, playback locations and other metrics.

5. Premiere a new video

Premiering a video on YouTube lets you watch the video with your audience in real time.

Unlike livestreams, video premieres are not exactly live. They are videos that are uploaded and scheduled to play at a certain time with live chat and other interactive features. So while it’s not live per se, it still creates an interactive experience with your audience in real time.

Here’s how you can premiere a video on YouTube:

• Sign in to YouTube
• Click on Create → Upload video
• Select the video you want to upload and edit its details
• To immediately premiere a video, go to Save/Publish → Public → Set as Instant Premiere
• To schedule the premiere for later, tap Schedule, select a date and time and click on Set as Premiere
• Click on Done or Schedule

Once you’ve set up a premiere, a watch page will be created for your video on your YouTube channel, just like other uploads. Viewers will be able to visit the page to set reminders, leave comments and use Super Chat, if enabled.

Once the premiere is over, the video will stay on your channel as a regular upload.

6. Turn on livestream DVR

YouTube’s Digital Video Recording (DVR) feature allows viewers to pause, rewind and continue watching your livestream.

Here’s how to enable DVR on your livestream:

• Go to YouTube Studio
• Click Create → Go Live
• Tap Stream on your left to start livestreaming or click Manage to schedule for later
• From the dashboard, tap Enable DVR

YouTube’s DVR feature also comes with a few limitations, including limitations on how far back in the video you can “rewind,” depending on latency of livestream rights.

You can disable DVR from Advanced Settings if you want viewers to only watch your stream live. Disabling DVR restricts viewers from going back to a specific time in your stream, until the stream ends. However, you can’t disable DVR for webcam or mobile streaming.

7. Show a trailer

As a way to promote your YouTube Live event, show a trailer. Trailer length can range from 15 seconds up to 3 minutes. These play on your channel’s watch page before your Live event to create hype and interest.

To upload a trailer, follow the steps below:

• Go to YouTube Studio and select the video you want to upload
• In the Visibility tab, schedule the video as a Premiere
• Click on Set up Premiere
• Tap Add under Add a trailer to choose your trailer

Note: This feature is only available to creators with more than 1000 subscribers and no Community Guideline strikes.

8. Monetize your livestream

One of the benefits of going live is the ability to make money from your streams. There are several ways you can monetize on YouTube Live:

• Ads: Running ads on your videos is a great way to earn some extra revenue by monetizing your YouTube livestream. YouTube allows you to run pre-roll, mid-roll, display and overlay ads on your livestreams.
• Super Chat: Enabling this feature allows your viewers to purchase chat messages. When someone sends a Super Chat, their message is highlighted or pinned at the top of the chat feed, making them feel exclusive.

• Super Stickers: Similar to Super Chats, Super Stickers are exclusive stickers users can purchase and share within the livestream chat feed to better express themselves. You can activate or deactivate Super Chats and Super Stickers if your channel or video is eligible.
• Channel Memberships: Subscribers can become members of your channel by paying a monthly fee. Most creators offer members-exclusive perks like custom emojis, members-only live chat and loyalty badges as an incentive to join.

Note: To enable monetization on YouTube, you need to meet the minimum requirements of the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). Once accepted, you’ll get access to exclusive features, like monetization.

9. Manage live chat & captions

YouTube gives you several options to manage your Live chat to ensure a safe, comfortable environment for all viewers.

Some Live chat features include:

• Turn Live chat on or off
• Make your Live chat subscriber-only or members-only
• Review or block chat messages with certain words
• Assign moderators to respond to or remove messages
• Turn on “Slow Mode” to restrict the timing between chats

You can also choose whether or not to display a live chat replay alongside your video after your livestream has ended so people can view the conversation.

Another useful feature is adding captions—visual displays of the audio content in your videos. It’s recommended to have live captioning to your videos for users who prefer to listen without sound, but more importantly to be more inclusive of a wider audience.

You can either take advantage of automatic captioning, embed captions in your video or send them to YouTube through supported software.

How to get YouTube Live ideas

Now that you know how to set up a YouTube livestream, it’s time for the fun part: brainstorming what you want to stream.

There are dozens of ways to show up on YouTube Live. Here are just a few ideas:

• Q&A with you and your team
• Q&A with an external guest
• Interviews
• Office or studio tours
• Behind-the-scenes features
• Courses or how-tos
• Live gaming sessions
• Relaxing livestreams
• Music sessions
• Product demos

Start by exploring YouTube. What kinds of livestreams are channels similar to yours creating? What interests your audience, and can you adapt these topics into live events?

If you’ve uploaded videos before, look at your YouTube video data for inspiration. Use your top-performing video topics to develop live content topics, ideas and formats. This is especially easy in Sprout’s YouTube Video Performance report, where you can sort your videos by performance and compare data points like views, estimated minutes watched and engagement side by side.

Additionally, using a social listening tool, like Sprout’s, to search for topics and how engaging they are is a powerful way to come up with ideas.

YouTube Live best practices and streaming tips

You’re ready to go live and engage with your audience! Here are some final YouTube streaming tips to ensure your livestream is a success.

Check your network connection

It’s important to have a reliable internet connection to prevent a broken stream. So, run a speed test before you go live to avoid any issues.

Test your equipment

Make sure your webcam, microphone and any other equipment is fully functional before you go live to avoid any embarrassing moments.

Promote your livestream

Schedule a premiere, upload a trailer and share your link on social to spread the word about your livestream. You can also promote your YouTube channel to attract more visitors to your livestream.

Write a script

Going Live can be nerve-wracking for even the most confident speakers. To avoid making clumsy mistakes that you’d rather keep off-air, have some notes ready or a script prepared for your stream.

Stay safe

Be careful about sharing personal information during livestreams. Take advantage of YouTube’s safety and moderation features to ensure a safe and comfortable environment for your audience.

Use YouTube Live to deliver interactive audience experiences

Livestreaming is a unique way to engage with your audience on a personal level—regardless of where they are located. From hosting live events to workshops to Q&A sessions to product launches, you can use YouTube Live to grow your business in tons of different ways.

If you’re ready to level up your social video strategy, try Sprout’s YouTube management tools free for 30 days.

Start your free Sprout trial

The post The complete guide to streaming on YouTube Live appeared first on Sprout Social.

Haven’t heard of it? No worries, you’re not behind the curve. In fact, you’ve probably already been creating this type of short-form video content on other platforms.

And if you’re not, you should be. Customers consider short-form video content to be 2.5x more engaging than long-form video content. Plus, two-thirds of customers also agree that short-form video content is the most engaging type of content, over images, live videos, GIFs, memes and more.

• What are YouTube Shorts?
• How to make YouTube Shorts
• What are the benefits of YouTube Shorts?
• YouTube Shorts best practices
• YouTube Shorts monetization options
• Start creating your own YouTube Shorts

What are YouTube Shorts?

YouTube has been one of the most popular (if not the most popular) video-sharing platforms since its inception nearly two decades ago in 2005. It’s been known for its longer-form, horizontal video content where creators upload funny, educational and promotional content—over 500 hours of it per day.

YouTube Shorts are a new video type where users can shoot, share and view vertical short-form video content (i.e., videos that are 60 seconds or less). Because these mobile-friendly, vertical micro-videos have proven to be so popular, a number of platforms are trying to get a piece of the pie (we’ve got our eyes on you too, Instagram Reels).

And while many brands are repurposing content and sharing them across platforms, this provides yet another way for brands and businesses to engage their YouTube subscribers.

And if you’re new to micro-video content in general, here’s a great example of a YouTube Short (click the picture to view):

How to make YouTube Shorts

There are two options when making YouTube Shorts: create your video from scratch within the app or upload an existing or edited video. The latter tactic is ideal if you’re repurposing your TikTok videos, Instagram Reels or longer YouTube videos onto your channel.

How to make a Short on mobile

To create new Shorts natively in YouTube, you’ll need to use the mobile app.

Step 1: Open the YouTube app on your mobile device and tap the plus sign + at the bottom of the screen.

Step 2: Tap Create a Short. If this is your first time creating a Short, you’ll need to Allow Access to your camera.

Step 3: Start recording your video by tapping (not holding) the red record button. By default, Shorts are set to record for up to 15 seconds. But if you tap the 15 in the top right corner, you can change that to 60 seconds.

To record multiple segments, tap the record button to pause recording, then tap it again to resume recording for your next segment.

There are a number of recording and editing tools in the right sidebar to help you get even more creative with your video:

• Flip: Flip the camera to use the front or back camera while recording
• Effects: Choose different effects that change up your recording, like mirror images, motion trails, fisheye lens and more
• Speed: Increase or decrease the speed of your recording—options are 0.3x, 0.5x, 1x, 2x and 3x
• Timer: Set a timer when using a tripod or other form of self-recording so you can get into position
• Green screen: Place a photo behind you while recording instead of your actual background
• Retouch: Automatically touch up your video
• Filters: Change the coloring of your video by adding a filter overtop your recording
• Lighting: Adjust the lighting of your video to make it brighter or darker depending on the mood
• Flash: Turn the flash on or off while recording

Step 4. Once you’re happy with your video, tap the white check in the bottom right corner of the screen. Here, you can preview your video and add music, voiceover, text overlays and more. Then tap Next in the top right corner of your screen.

Step 5. Create a caption for your video, set visibility, select an audience (i.e., dictate if the video was made for kids or not) then tap Upload Short.

How to upload a Short on mobile

Instead of recording a new video natively, you can upload a Short directly from mobile.

Step 1: Open the YouTube app and click the plus sign + at the bottom of the screen.

Step 2: Select Upload a video.

Step 3: Select any video under 60 seconds from your camera roll. Any video under 60 seconds will automatically be considered a Short.

Step 4: Fill in all of the relevant details (caption, visibility and audience) and publish.

How to upload a Short on desktop

If you want to upload a Short from your desktop, the process is the exact same as uploading long-form videos—YouTube distinguishes which type of video it is by both length and orientation. If you’re uploading a square or vertical video, the network knows it’s a Short. Same goes for if the video is less than 60 seconds.

To upload a Short from desktop:

Step 1: Head to YouTube or your YouTube Studio.

Step 2: Click the Create icon in the top right corner of the page.

Step 3: Upload your YouTube Short.

Step 4: Fill in all of the relevant details (caption, visibility and audience) and publish.

What are the benefits of YouTube Shorts?

YouTube Shorts can be a great way for brands to further engage and increase brand awareness with their customers. It’s time to switch things up.

Additionally, half of all YouTube watch time comes from mobile devices, compared to just 14% on desktop computers. And since YouTube Shorts is a mobile-first feature, you may reach that expanded viewership with more than traditional horizontal, long-form video content.

Since YouTube Shorts was released in July 2021, this feature has reached 30 billion daily average views. People are watching—and loving—YouTube Shorts. So if your brand already has a presence on YouTube, consider adding some micro-vertical video content into your YouTube marketing strategy.

And of course, if a new potential customer finds your brand via Shorts and subscribes, they’re automatically subscribed to your long-form content as well. So this gives you an entirely new outlet to increase your channel subscriptions. Win-win, right?

YouTube Shorts best practices to consider

Let’s cover a few best practices first to help you get the most out of this new marketing avenue.

Post consistently

Just as most platforms do with new features, it’s safe to assume that YouTube is prioritizing Shorts for performance and views. One creator’s analysis looks to verify that after seeing a “massive jump in views in the last month since uploading a Short every day”.

Creating YouTube Shorts consistently will help you boost your brand reach to a wider audience. If you’re struggling with staying organized, making a content calendar that will help you plan out ideas and stay on schedule.

Make content relevant to your audience

What is your audience going to enjoy most? If you’re not sure what to create, spend a while exploring the platform to see what other businesses are putting out there. A few ideas include:

• How-to videos
• Quick reviews
• A relevant story
• Industry tips
• Fun facts
• An experiment
• Use a trending sound byte

If your short-form video content is relevant, engaging, educational and valuable to your target audience, then you’re on the right track.

Here’s a great example from online course platform Teachable, talking about burnout that creators often feel:

Focus on making the first few seconds captivating

If those first few seconds don’t immediately hook your viewer, they’re going to keep scrolling. Those first few seconds of your video are the most important part. Find a way to capture your viewers’ attention immediately so that they stay for the rest of the clip.

Get creative with your captions

Your caption can be up to 100 characters, so make it count. Tease the content, use a funny line, summarize what viewers can expect to see and the like.

While your video is the most important part, captions are still shown when Shorts pop up on the YouTube home feed, so having a compelling caption can be what makes someone decide to watch your video or keep scrolling.

Record in vertical format

No one wants to turn their phones as they watch YouTube Shorts, so make sure you’re always shooting in vertical format to make your videos easy to consume. Videos shot in horizontal format appear with blank space above and below the video to pad the vertical space, and it doesn’t create an ideal viewing experience. So just keep it easy and stick to vertical.

You can repurpose a horizontal video as a vertical Short, like Visme did with its educational content, by cropping the video to focus on the most important part:

Use trending songs, hashtags and events

One great way to increase views and get people interested in your content is using trending songs, events, audio clips, hashtags and challenges. Because of the viral nature of the content, you can boost visibility and reach new audiences. Just make sure that it’s still relevant to your business and makes sense for your brand.

Use your authentic voice

Don’t forget your brand voice when creating YouTube Shorts. You still want to follow your guidelines to ensure your video content still makes sense for your brand and aligns with your messaging and mission. If your content seems out of place for your brand, it can hurt your image and reputation.

Here’s an example from Starbucks showcasing a barista injecting a bit of personality into her drink tutorial:

Show behind-the-scenes moments

Consumers love a good behind-the-scenes moment. Use your Shorts videos to showcase product creation, product packaging, office tours, behind-the-scenes from filming, bloopers and other fun video clips. Giving your audience a glimpse behind the logo can help to humanize your brand and make your viewers more interested in what you have to share.

Remember that Shorts loop

YouTube Shorts (and all other micro-videos) loop back to the beginning once the video clip ends. Use this to your advantage by tying the beginning and end of your video together, creating a seamless loop that will keep viewers entertained and interested in watching more of your videos.

This is really useful in recipe videos, as we see from this example by Tasty:

Monetize your YouTube Shorts

You can monetize your YouTube Shorts using the YouTube Shorts Fund. This is a $100 million fund dedicated to creators who are publishing YouTube Shorts specifically as a way to incentivize creators and businesses to use this new feature. If you’ve monetized your YouTube channel, creating Shorts is yet another way to increase the revenue you’re generating.

YouTube Shorts monetization options

Speaking of monetizing, let’s dig a little deeper into this. Because brands of course want to increase revenue through social selling, but why not increase revenue just because of the content you’re publishing on social media?

YouTube created the Shorts Fund in August 2021, which is a $100 million fund dedicated to paying out creators that generate large audiences for their Shorts. To qualify, YouTubers must fit the following criteria:

• They’ve uploaded an eligible Short within the last 180 days
• They follow YouTube’s community guidelines
• They create completely original content
• They’re 13 or old (and creators between the ages of 13-18 have parental consent)
• They’re located in one of the participating countries

There’s no application process for the YouTube Shorts Fund; instead, YouTube notifies qualified creators during the first week of each month via email and notification inside their YouTube account that they will be receiving a bonus from the Fund.

To increase your chances of qualifying, create consistently high-quality and original content to share as a YouTube Short. However, there are other ways of monetizing your YouTube account as well if those are more appealing to you and your team.

Start creating your own YouTube Shorts

YouTube Shorts are a great way to improve the performance of your YouTube channel overall. Don’t forget to check out our guide to find more ways to increase your video views. Then start creating, publishing and promoting your YouTube video content.

The post What are YouTube Shorts and how to make them appeared first on Sprout Social.