Organic promotion of the YouTube channel: +165,000 subscribers in 3 months

Maintaining Large YouTube Channels

We were approached by an online school for psychology and self-development. This business is promoted through the owner's personal brand as a leading expert. We have signed an NDA with the client, so we will not disclose the names and the name of the channel.

137 305 655

shows

8 195 957

views

165 200

new subscribers

$5 812,62

channel revenue

Details

GEO

CIS Countries

Target audience

Women who are interested in psychology, aged 24 to 54 years old

Nisha

Online School of Psychology

The channel focuses on several topics: women’s psychology, business psychology, and self-development. The videos answer frequently asked questions from the audience, provide recommendations and techniques to help choose a direction for development. The client operates in the Russian-language segment with clients all over the world.

When we started working with them, the client’s channel already had 233 thousand subscribers.

Статистика просмотров и подписчиков до старта работ

Task

The main task of our cooperation: growth of 30-40,000 subscribers per month. Previously, channel management and promotion was completely organic.

When we start working with large YouTube channels, we start by auditing the channel and identifying growth points. It is also important to correctly determine which content is best suited for the regular and new audience on the channel.

One of the key metrics of the channel’s development is attracting a new audience and turning it into a regular one. To do this, we are working on the following steps:

Analysis. We additionally conduct a niche analysis to identify key competitors, content formats that get the maximum reach and response from the audience.
Content. Since content is a key tool in promoting large YouTube channels, we always create a content plan when working with a client and provide hot topics once a week (which are relevant to shoot in the near future).
Serialization. The strategy of continuous growth and development of large channels is based on video engines. These are the videos that get the most views on the channel and bring subscribers. Therefore, if a topic hits the mark and creates a video locomotive, it makes sense to shoot a few more videos on the topic that came up in the recommendations.

Work progress

Channel audit and competitor analysis

We started with a comprehensive channel audit, which included analyzing the audience, competitors, keywords, content formats and playlists. This allowed us to identify key growth points and key metrics for further development of the channel. We also conducted a niche analysis to identify successful content formats from competitors that are gaining maximum reach and generating the greatest audience response.

Development of a new content plan

Based on our analysis, we developed a new content plan that took into account the interests of both new and regular audiences. The plan included hot topics that were relevant for filming in the near future and a strategy for creating serialized content that forms the so-called “video engines” - the videos that gain the most views and attract new subscribers.

Optimize metadata and improve visual content

We re-optimized the metadata for all videos on the channel. This included changing titles, descriptions, tags and hashtags to improve SEO and increase CTR. Special attention was paid to the design of video covers - we developed new minimalistic covers with large text and clear images, which significantly increased the perception and clickability of the videos.

Introducing subtitles and improving descriptions

Added subtitles to videos with keywords, which improved content indexability and attracted additional traffic. Video descriptions were expanded and supplemented with keywords, which increased their visibility in YouTube and Google search engines.

Hosting YouTube Shorts and live broadcasts

We suggested that the client actively use the YouTube Shorts format to attract new audiences. This format is promoted organically by YouTube and has high ranking factors. In addition, we started holding regular live broadcasts, which help increase viewer engagement and improve the channel's performance in recommendations and search.

Playlist optimization and community outreach

Optimized playlists by creating keyword-focused covers and descriptions. Community management included regular posts announcing new videos, live streams and polls. Stories were also introduced, which helped increase audience engagement.

Launch and optimization of advertising campaigns

We set up and launched advertising campaigns in Google Ads, focused on promoting content through Discovery and In-Stream formats. The process of running the campaigns included collecting search queries, creating ads, setting optimal bids and regular adjustments to achieve the best results.

Monetization and collaborations

Also worked on improving the monetization of the channel by introducing sponsorships, donations, super chats and applause. Research was done to select channels for collaborations and audience sharing. We also designed a blogger portfolio and placed it on exchanges to sell ads on the channel.

Analysis and reporting

On a monthly basis, we conducted an in-depth analysis of the channel's performance using YouTube Analytics, providing the client with detailed reports and recommendations on how to improve results. Based on the analysis, we made changes to the content plan, tested new formats and optimized advertising campaigns.

Expert comment

After discussing the conclusions and recommendations for running the channel, as well as creating a content plan - the client started shooting the video, and we started optimizing and running the channel on a turnkey basis.

After the audit, we identified a number of problems:

Rather low CTR of video covers

The text on the cover was hard to read, and it’s important to remember that most of the audience watches YouTube on mobile devices, which results in fewer impressions and views.

It is recommended to make more minimalistic covers, less text, but more, fewer different images so as not to overload the overall picture, a photo of the problem with a large frame, not overloaded, conveying the essence – this will increase perception, CTR and click-through rate.

The wrong approach to working with video metadata

When working with large channels, it is important to make clickbait titles of the first type – this will increase perception and CTR.
Video does not have subtitles with embedded keywords
You need to increase the description for the video, as the description of the keywords from the video title is embedded and diluted in it
…and other little things that need to be finalized.

The client did not use live broadcasts

This increases the engagement on the channel, and they move well in Youtube recommendations and search. As a result, you will get more impressions, views, and subscribers.

The client did not use YouTube Shorts

YouTube Shorts is perfectly promoted organically by YouTube – it brings views, a new audience and subscribers.

In addition, the playlists were not optimized, the client did not maintain a community, stories, etc.

What was included in our work

Selection of titles and topics to bring the video to the Top 10 of YouTube, Google search results promotion through similar videos
Selection of competitive keywords and hashtags
Creating subtitles for the video
Designing an attractive video cover
Correct presentation of the video
Creating SEO video descriptions from 500 characters, tags, hashtags
Writing the first 3 comments
Add videos to the playlist according to the topic and set a cover
Add traffic-generating links to each video
Adding stops, minus words to remove swearing and negativity under the video
Posting in the community for new videos, live stream announcements, and polls
Writing stories for new videos and thematic channels
Maintaining Youtube #Shorts
Planning and assistance with live broadcasts
Running through social bookmarking services
Launching and maintaining Google Ads paid advertising
- collection of search queries
- creation of advertisements
- setting optimal rates
- control, correction, and optimization of advertisements
Work on improving channel monetization (Sponsorship, donations, super chats, applause, etc.)
Analysis of trends for hype content and new content formats for the channel
Review of content for the channel and recommendations for its improvement
Optimization of old videos on the channel
Selection of channels for collaboration and audience exchange
Designing a blogger portfolio
Placement on blogger exchanges and agencies to sell advertising on the channel
Promotion of the channel trailer
Purchase of advertising from bloggers
Purchase of link mass to increase the weight of the video and higher ranking in order to get into the TOP 10 of Youtube
Channel analytics in Youtube Analytics and recommendations for work based on data
Reporting and conclusion for a month of work
Recommendations for improving the result (Channel development strategy, search for new formats, consultation)

New content plan

6 Content videos content
2 Live broadcasts
8-12 YouTube shorts

Results of YouTube channel promotion for 3 months of work

Key results

137 305 655

shows

8 195 957

views

165 200

new subscribers

$5 812,62

channel revenue

As part of YouTube analytics, a very important label “Audience” has appeared. It shows the presence of a regular and new audience on the channel. Information about new and regular viewers helps you plan your content strategy. For example, if you stick to a single format, the “Regular viewers” indicator will tell you whether you are able to retain your audience.

Мета “Аудитория” в YouTube analytics

Read more in the Youtube help: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/10246996

Since the client set the task of maximizing the growth of the channel, we focused our strategy on attracting a new audience. And here are the results we got in the first month of work:

Скриншот результатов, которые получили в первый месяц работы

The channel has seen an increase in the number of new viewers and, as a result, a good growth of +45.300 subscribers. Before that, the client’s channel grew by about 20.000 subscribers per month on average.

Unfortunately, by the second month, the client was unable to prepare content according to our updated content plan, so we used old videos that the client had shot a few months ago.

As a result, there was a slight drawdown in the channel’s growth, as the number of new viewers decreased, since the client always shot content only for a regular audience and focused only on it.

Скриншто просадки аудитории без актуального контента

But thanks to the fact that we already work with the channel comprehensively, the growth of 28,000 subscribers was 40% higher than the client’s average before.

For the new period, the client was already fully preparing all the content based on our recommendations. We prepared a related content plan based on a deeper analysis of the content that viewers like. These were topics that are of interest to both new and regular audiences

As a result, we got a great result of +90,700 subscribers.

Количество подписчиков после нашей роботы

The overall result of the work for 3 months:

Общий итог работы за 3 месяца

Our promotion was completely organic and we have screenshots from traffic sources to prove it:

Тип источника трафика

Скриншот источников трафика

Some of the ad views that were present on the channel were a test ad campaign launched for lead generation purposes.

Conclusions

The client was satisfied with our work, as we exceeded the KPI of 40.000 subscribers per month within three months.
We continue to work with the client, as the client has a goal of 1,000,000 subscribers on the channel.
We managed to achieve this result thanks to a well-constructed content plan, high-quality content shooting by the client, and comprehensive turnkey channel promotion.
In addition, in three months of work, we managed to improve all the indicators that we noted during the channel audit at the start of the work.

Interested in promoting your YouTube channel? If you need to promote your YouTube channel, don’t hesitate to contact 4Limes. Leave a request and our specialist will contact you as soon as possible and provide all the necessary advice.

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