How to beat the YouTube Algorithm.

Good morning from New Zealand!

I often get asked, “How does the YouTube Algorithm work?”

This question always takes me back to 2022. In that year, that’s when I saw my views drop from 50k-100k views to 5k-10k views. I set off on a journey to understand how does the YouTube algorithm work. I was in complete “collect data” mode analysing, copying, and ultimately, not seeing the results I hoped for.

So of course, like all of us, I thought I needed to understand the YouTube algorithm even more. You ever heard of the YouTube Creator Academy? ViqIQ? Film Booth? I was all over that $h*t.

Now here’s the ultimate bummer of all this. I kept running across this quote in everyone’s content, which I’ll be honest, only really ‘clicked’ after a year of research:

“Our algorithm doesn’t pay attention to videos, it pays attention to viewers. So, rather than trying to make videos that’ll make an algorithm happy, focus on making videos that make your viewers happy,” says YouTube’s own explanation of how to reach your audience.

I had become so preoccupied with deciphering the intricacies of the YouTube algorithm that I was completely ignoring where I should have been focusing my attention: on my audience.

The YouTube algorithm is constantly changing, but one this that is always constant is that it will be designed to make recommendations that increase the amount of time viewers stay on the platform. It analyzes watch time, engagement, and viewer retention to determine which videos to promote to achieve this goal. So the problem with asking, “How does the YouTube Algorithm work?” is that it often leads to overanalysing these aspects. And that leads to inauthentic and unoriginal videos that often don’t resonate with your audience.

Audience-Focused Content

So, what do you do? What does it look like to focus on your audience? At the base level, it means understanding their interests, challenges, and desires.

But actually, there’s more layers to it than that.

On the onset, you need to have a journey that you and/or your audience are going on that your audience would be interested in. We won’t get into how to choose a journey in this newsletter but just know that inherently some journeys are more interesting than others (e.g. learning to sail from scratch and circumnavigating the world is much more interesting than going to work every day to save for your first house).

Once you know what that journey is that you are going on, you need to think deeply about what your audience cares about. I recommend doing this through something like an Audience Journey Map, but it can also be something as simple as making a short list of every step of the journey (e.g. step 1: learn to sail, step 2: look at boats, step 3: buy boats, etc).

Then you want to think about what people would want to know at that stage. For example, right now I am preparing to walk 3,000km across New Zealand. As I am very much in the beginning stages of my journey, the number one thing my audience cares about is how I am preparing, and which gear I am buying. So, my first videos on this journey are about exactly that. As I am going through the research process, I am making note of the questions I am asking and the things I am researching, because it is likely my audience is interested in the exact same things!

Don’t Over Complicate it

The thing is, we hear this complicated question of, “How does the YouTube Algorithm work?” and we think we need to have this complicated answer of all the things we should be considering. But actually, it’s quite simple:

1. You are on a journey.
2. You need clarity about what that journey is and what type of person would be interested in that topic.
3. And then you need to think about what parts of that journey they would be interested in.

Are you setting sail around the world? Well, unless you’re a big name, they probably don’t care about your Aunt Carol’s birthday or the fact that you went to the farmers market to get your groceries. UNLESS your Aunt Carol is the one who taught you to sail and you’re using the visit to the farmer’s market to tell us how you provision for 2 weeks at sea.

Do you see how it must circle back to your audience and the main reason they are there watching your content (e.g. sailing)?

Remember, it’s the people behind the views that matter most; prioritize them, and the metrics will follow.