Just last year, a slew of AI tools for YouTube hit the market to help content creators with topic generation, audio recommendations, dubbing, and multiple other aspects of video development. In the past few years, we’ve also seen the launch of third-party video marketing tools for YouTube like Lumen5, Magisto, TubeBuddy, VidIQ, and Descript.
What’s behind this explosion of technology? YouTube algorithms are changing, the platform is expanding into new markets every day, and AI is a surefire way to help your brand keep up. If your brand needs new insights into the changing YouTube algorithms in 2024, an overview of how AI fits into the puzzle, and helpful YouTube best practices to grow your brand, the Leap Group team is here to give you the scoop you need.
Why Market on YouTube?
YouTube not only ranks high on the social media popularity scale, but it also holds the title of second largest online search engine. Of the platform’s 2.7 billion global monthly users, only 80 million pay for premium, ad-free content: That means your brand has access to the remaining 2.6 billion consumers who use YouTube for free and could be shown your targeted ads. Boil those statistics down to U.S. viewers, and you’ll see that 62% of YouTube users access the platform daily, consuming 1 billion hours of videos in their free time.
Keeping Up with the YouTube Algorithm: What's New in 2024?
Social media content creation is an ever-evolving digital landscape, and even though YouTube is one of the oldest social platforms, it’s also one of the most used, meaning its developers are constantly updating the way it organizes and delivers media to its audience. It’s true that an incredible 70% of viewers make purchases after seeing a brand video on YouTube, but the types of videos that generate these conversion numbers are different than before.
Research shows that people are now subscribing to fewer channels in favor of relevant short-form videos. Current studies also reveal that the best-converting and least-skipped videos in 2024 are intent-based ads. YouTube has made algorithmic changes to reflect this evolution and is altering its algorithm in these key ways:
- On top of its current engagement metrics, YouTube is now allowing its users to click “filter” buttons and provide direct feedback about video content. These filters help the YouTube algorithm tailor its video recommendations in new ways.
- YouTube is now personalizing video suggestions for each viewer based on their interests and behaviors, as well as the quality and performance of the videos. This means that different users may see different recommended videos for the same search, giving brands the opportunity to diversify their video campaigns even further to reach a broader target audience.
- The new YouTube algorithm will also favor watch time rather than simple clicks to give high-quality videos better rankings and increased visibility, meaning it’s more important than ever to keep viewers hooked and watching rather than focusing your CTA on getting them to subscribe. This change incentivizes brands to publish superior video content that can hold viewers’ attention longer.
- The YouTube algorithm is moving away from subscriptions and toward a more engagement-driven model, meaning the platform will now prioritize and promote short-form videos that are 7-15 minutes in length. Brands don’t need to trash existing content and reshoot; rather, they can repurpose existing content to keep pace with the new algorithm preferences.
YouTube Best Practices: Your Guide to Content Optimization for Social Media
Because YouTube, and the entire social media landscape, is a digital marketing space that’s here to stay, it’s critical that brands understand how to leverage their YouTube content as the platform evolves. The great news is that, even in the wake of these algorithmic changes, your brand can stay in the game if you know how to make AI work to your advantage.
Our goal at Leap is always to help you reach their target audiences. After years of helping our clients boost their YouTube viewership and conversions with social media content creation, we’ve compiled a list of best practices your brand can start implementing today. Choose one, two, or all of the following tips to optimize your brand’s YouTube video content for today’s algorithms and user preferences.
01.
Make your video description work harder.
Approach your video’s description just like a website meta description to leverage its power. Use the first two sentences as a brief summary of your video, then include time stamps to mark key moments. Clearly direct the viewer to next steps by linking to your website, social channel, or a free trial of a service, and don’t forget to include keywords and video tags to boost your video’s SEO.
02.
Leverage AI tools for YouTube.
New video marketing tools can bring automation and efficiency to tedious processes related to video repurposing and distribution. After testing out the most popular AI tools for YouTube, the (amp) team recommends Munch and Castmagic. Munch is an amazing tool that helps you quickly and efficiently repurpose existing videos into short-form content and distribute it across multiple channels.
Castmagic automates the tedious work of video transcription by transforming longform audio into usable text that can be repurposed across platforms. (If you’re wondering, yes, YouTube does provide its own internal video transcription, but unfortunately it’s not always accurate, so it’s best to rely on an AI tool like Castmagic instead.)
03.
Know your audience.
It might seem obvious to consider your audience’s needs, but when sweeping changes like YouTube algorithm adjustments happen, brands have a tendency to play to the platform’s wants rather than their audience’s. Don’t fall into this common mental trap! Instead of optimizing your content for the YouTube algorithm, focus on creating videos that answer your customers’ most-searched questions.
04.
Pack your video with value, not time.
Like we mentioned above, the new YouTube algorithm favors shorter videos that are 7-15 minutes long, but this shift away from long-form content shouldn’t mean your videos provide less value. Think of this shorter time constraint as a challenge to pack as much value as possible into the shortest videos. Remember, the more value your video offers, the longer viewers will watch and the more the YouTube algorithm will recommend your video to others.
Amp Up Your YouTube Content Today
The algorithm is changing, but our team can help your brand boost its visibility, engage viewers, and lead them further down the marketing funnel – even with these new YouTube algorithm changes.
So much goes into building a successful YouTube channel for your brand, and the process can often feel overwhelming. Whether you’re just getting started, looking to give an existing channel a refresh or a boost, or want some guidance implementing new AI tools for YouTube, we can make everything easier and more efficient.
Leap has decades of proven success in the media industry helping clients build successful brands on YouTube and other digital and social channels. Contact us to see how we can inject new life into your next brand project!
