7 Youtube Hacks That Will Boost Your Youtube Engagement rate

In recent years, the popularity of YouTube marketing has rapidly increased because of its ability to engage more customers than marketing on other platforms. This has resulted in higher competition for channels to gain customers’ time and attention. Millions of videos get posted on the platform every day, and each of them is fighting to come to the trending list and gain more views on youtube.

But the question is, “Do all videos succeed?” Well, the answer is no. YouTube is a large space and the videos having the potential to engage more audiences, succeed.

It is quite difficult to increase engagement on YouTube if you don’t know the right strategy. That’s why we have brought you 7 hacks like SidesMedia to boost your YouTube engagement rate.

Use music in your videos

Using background music in your videos can further engage the viewer. It’s important to choose music that is royalty free to avoid any copyright strikes. A great place to source royalty free music for YouTube videos is Artlist. You can also use this Artist discount code to get started with 2 months free.

Shorter videos get the most views

A question might be arising in your mind, “does video length really determine its engagement rate?” Well, yes, it is true.

According to a recent YouTube analysis, videos having a length between 16 to 120 seconds, get almost 50% of all YouTube views. Videos shorter than 2 minutes are outperforming longer videos.

In this modern world, it is easier to convince users to watch shorter videos than longer ones. People need a concise piece of content that contains all the information about a specific topic. So, the next time you create a YouTube video, try to limit it to a couple of minutes. This will increase its chances of getting viewed. In marketing, gaining more youtube views is the initial step of gaining more engagement.

Employ basic SEO on YouTube

The first step of marketing includes learning SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It is the ability to increase the traffic’s quality and quantity to any site through organic search traffic. In the case of YouTube, SEO makes it easier for users to locate your videos in YouTube search, and increase their discoverability.

Though the application of SEO changes from one platform to another, the basic principles that guide SEO remain the same. Their tactical application simply changes as different marketing channels have their own requirements and rules.

Three SEO strategies that you can use to increase engagement of your videos-

Keyword optimization- Before posting any video, invest some time in keyword research and use the relevant ones in your video’s title, description, and captions.
Extend video descriptions- Since YouTube can’t listen to your videos, it understands your content through the description and captions. That is why use long-tail keywords in your video description to increase engagement on YouTube.
Promote tirelessly- To get an ample amount of real youtube views and engagement, you need to actively promote your content on YouTube. Using other marketing channels such as Instagram, emails, Facebook, and Twitter to promote your videos will help a lot in increasing your engagement.

Encourage your viewers to like, comment, and share your videos

Engagement is a two-way path that requires input from you as well as your audience. Given that likes, shares, and comments are some important metrics used to measure YouTube engagement rate, you have to do whatever it takes in order to encourage your viewers to take these actions.

Given the fact that viewers tend to move on to other videos right after finishing one video, you need to make sure they don’t leave without taking any action. Most YouTubers, in the first and last few seconds of their videos, ask their viewers to like, comment, and share their videos.

Respond to viewer behavior in a timely manner

Your viewers feel valued when they are recognized and appreciated for their actions. Always remember that whenever a user views, likes, comments, and shares your YouTube videos, or subscribes to your channel, they are doing an effort that wasn’t required. Make it a practice to reward those efforts. Maybe not all, but always appreciate your audience who engage actively with your content.

If a user tweets your YouTube video, appreciate them by retweeting their effort and thanking them. If a viewer asks a question, try to answer as soon as possible. If they are dissatisfied with your content or leave suggestions for improvement, acknowledge them by thanking them in another comment and always ensure responding in a way that encourages conversation instead of ending it.

Be consistent

Your channel is not going to do you any good if it does not have ample content for the audience to engage with. Just like content marketers produce quality content on a regular basis, YouTubers also need to post new videos regularly in order to keep their audiences engaged.

Long periods of silence will kill your YouTube channel’s engagement. If you want to become a famous YouTuber, do not stop at posting frequently. Maintaining consistency while posting content on your YouTube channel is extremely important.

You should always keep the quality of your content on the top of your priority list as quality always outweighs quantity on social media. Maintaining consistency in the quality of your posts will also engage more viewers. People generally skip low-quality videos that are badly edited or shot.

Utilize Annotations and CTAs

Encouraging your users to like, comment, and share your videos will probably increase engagement, but it is not enough to reap all the benefits of YouTube marketing.

Calls-to-Action (CTAs) and Annotations are other effective ways to get your audience to engage with your videos and channel in general. Annotations are small icons and boxes that pop up on the screen when a video is playing. You can direct the viewers to your other videos or ask them to subscribe.

To make your annotations more effective, couple them with irresistible CTAs that direct them towards a desirable behavior.

Use YouTube analytics

Through YouTube analytics, the platform provides a lot of useful data regarding the performance of your videos and your channel.

You do not need any external software to know more about the engagement rate of your channel. YouTube analytics will help you with that. It will give you a wealth of data such as-

The average time your videos are watched
Your traffic sources such as YouTube search, channel pages, YouTube ads, etc.
The demographics of your viewers such as the device they use, their age, geography, etc
Audience retention and subscriber rates

Using this information you will be able to understand what works for your channel and what doesn’t. You can also know what type of videos are driving the highest engagement so that you can produce similar videos in the future.