This is so simple, it hurts. It’s plain as day and the way Mr. Beast lays it out is so understandable, and I just wanted to get it down here, in case this video gets taken down since it uses unoriginal content:
The simple formula and then, the transcript of this video. Bolding the parts that REALLY popped out to me.
Make them click on a video
Make them watch the video
Make them click on a video
Make them watch the video
Keep doing this
Another way to say it would be CTR + AVD = Growth
Increase your click through rate (Intriguing Titles and Thumbnails, entertaining videos, leave a good impression with your last video) + Average View Duration (keep them watching, no dull moments, maximum effort, go the extra mile for each sequence, add a payoff at the end, start with a strong and simple hook in the beginning) = YouTube serving and suggesting your videos more.
Here’s the interview transcript from the above video (content ripped from two separate interviews, as far as I can tell):
“you know with the videos i was making when i was a smaller creator, i genuinely felt like ah you know the algorithm hates me or this is unfair but i just wasn't making content that deserved to get views i don't know a nice way to put it so i'm glad i'm talking about myself because anyone else i feel bad
i mean you just look at the retention graphs people would click off at the beginning people didn't know sometimes what they're clicking on and like if i wasn't retaining a viewer just why would it make sense for you to promote it?
like why would you promote a 10 minute video that people watch an average a minute and a half it just doesn't make sense
i've seen people literally start a channel within a month hit 100 000 subscribers i've seen it i personally know someone who had a channel with 100 subscribers and me and my boys you know other youtubers that i feel like have a good understanding of how youtube works we just help them optimize the video and i don't like to say the name of the channels because then i feel like i'm taking credit for their success but literally 100 subscribers he got 3 million views on a video and that was with no artificial push it did like 50 views you know 5 000 thousand fifty thousand it just stares stepped up every day and so it's one million percent possible but
it's very hard right off the bat to know what makes a good video how to hold a viewer or how to get them to click and stuff like that some people are naturally entertaining and retaining your viewers just much easier for them and some people like me you just need a long time to develop
at the beginning of the video just tell like literally the simplest thing just tell them why they should watch it you know if you're putting a million orbeez in a pool don't start the video with you shopping for you know your mom's birthday present at the beginning of the video just say we're gonna put a million orbeez in this pool
and then that right there is should you know be at least slightly sufficient a lot of people blame the algorithm but typically you can i mean you can just look at the data and point to it i mean i mean when you really boil it down to the people who are watching just think about it like what what do you think youtube wants like to me
i think youtube just wants people to click on a video and watch it
right i mean that's how they get their ad revenue that's how they keep you know viewers happy and stuff like that i mean i'm sure comments like stuff like that but at the end of the day they want you to click watch a video click watch a video and just do that as long as possible
so to me what's important is click-through rate getting people click on your video and then average view duration average view percentage or just relative retention and you know having them watch it if people are clicking your video more than they click other videos and they're watching it longer than they watch other videos you know i just as simplistic as that is that's like what youtube wants and i think that's how you just you know be successful obviously everything starts with an idea and for me um i like to make my videos a little longer so that's a big part of what ideas we do um so we just you said the biggest thing is is you know obviously a clickable thumbnail and title interesting stuff yadda yadda but is it something that people will genuinely want to watch um and this might be a little tangent but one thing is a lot of creators think click-through rate is just like the title and thumbnail and did they click it but a lot of it too is did they enjoy your last video you know what i mean like as if someone watches a video of yours and they loved it you can bet the next time you're recommended their chance of clicking is a lot higher you know so it's like is it something that can be entertaining for a long time is it something that they watch this next time you know they see a video of mine will they be excited like i love that last one so i want to watch the next one like those two type of things and then obviously you know is it just interesting and clickable well um well i guess we start with filming for me um and it might not always show trust me i and i know i might sound like you're coming across as a know it all i swear i'm still learning stuff every day
when filming though i like to try to just put like i feel like a lot of creators have a mindset it's like how can i get the most views with the least amount of time and i'm not saying that's wrong you know um because obviously i have that mindset sometimes too but i try to when filming put in as much work even if it's like a 15 second part of a video even if that one little part will take like 10 hours
(MAXIMUM EFFORT)
you know but like hypothetically right but that that 15 seconds is like wow like that's great like i i feel like viewers genuinely notice when you go the extra mile and so with filming it's just like trying to make sure we're doing everything we can no matter how expensive it is no matter how much time it takes to make the best video possible so they have the best experience and so they want to you know obviously watch more videos because that's what you want the viewers to do and then with editing just no dull moments you know have a good hook at the beginning um some minor tips i could give is like you know if i do a video like last sleep circle wins 10 grand obviously people are going to watch the end because they want to see who won the money so have you could apply that to your videos if somehow you could have a payoff at the end then you know more people are going to watch the end just to see what happened
when it comes to editing, cut out all dull moments try not to over explain things the camera just sits on me and i'm just talking for 20 seconds it doesn't hold retention as well as you know maybe me talking and other footage popping up there's things like that if you just you know there's literally in your analytics and most you probably know this audience retention you can see where people click off just literally go through your last 50 videos write down where everyone clicked off and then just don't do those things again
again i'm not perfect so i don't do a great job of it but you know i like to end a series or a challenge on a high note like you can just kind of tell when people are getting a little tired of it or you know i just gave away a million dollars let's take hand off of it so now if i do last one in wins 10 grand it's just not really the same effect but some i'm still gonna maybe occasionally do it but it's just like to keep things fresh just again it's hard because so many of them are different like if they're a fortnite creator you know i'm not trying to tell them to switch games every month because then that might kill their career but for me me i just like to you know do stop don't milk a series too hard you know what i mean keep it fresh and always try to introduce things here and there and then if it if it works well take it and run with it for a little bit and introduce something else new because if i just did lastly videos non-stop in the next three years like no one would watch me everyone's like we've seen it you know what i mean at the end of the day like the idea is a big part of the video you know not even just from clicking it but whether or not people watch it you know
if you're spending 24 hours in a corner that's just not as entertaining as spending 24 hours in a jail cell and at the end of the day like the only difference there is the idea it's not the content it's like it's what you formulated beforehand so yeah like i like to spend an hour a day
you know it's dwindled recently we have a lot of ideas but if you spend an hour a day thinking of ideas it's pretty hard to not expect your channel to do better you know um unless you're just not executing them properly but it was afterwards like i was like literally like i gotta make this work so i was like i was doing everything i could like non-stop chances are like to have a video go viral you need people need to watch it for a really long time and high percentage need to click on it so yes it sounds like people just don't want it it's long watch time and that's true you're right it's really just a formula of of clicking and and yeah i mean like people over complicate the algorithm like if people click on your video and watch your video they don't care about comments or likes no that matters they don't want you to click and watch yeah that's it's it's funny because people tell me oh there's an algorithm shift two months ago and this and i'm like what are you going on about you know like
their core principles have been the same for like the last six years
yeah and you had to work smarter not harder i mean some people i i say this analogy a lot but since we're on the topic i think for most smaller channels like if they're pulling a thousand views a video and they upload a video every day for a hundred days they'll pull a hundred thousand views but i i would recommend you just think of a really good idea one that people genuinely want to watch put a lot of time into the video and you can pull a hundred thousand views in a week you kind of see what i'm saying because i've most people that i talk to because i like to counsel small channels sometimes just get in the motions of just whatever you know and it's just like if you just took a step back i haven't even uploaded in the last week i don't care you know it's not like it's that big of a deal like and you just make a kick-ass video like you could like pull exponentially so many more views you know with so much less effort you know i was so motivated like i mean i would stay up all night just thinking of ideas like lots of times and stuff like that so like it just i don't know i i'm glad i did it because like without it i just wouldn't have had the time and just uh when you just don't have anything else you just you just go hard you know what i mean i don't know how else to put it you really anyone listening to this probably spends an hour plus a day on instagram and twitter and if you cut that out yeah like your life would be no different like for the worse and you would have a free hour to like do whatever but i actually speak since we're talking about the hustle
i love when people like grind on youtube for like a year or two and they're like oh it's impossible and then i'm like that's rookie numbers
since we were on the subject oh absolutely something a lot of people forget is like unsuggested on phones thumbnails are really small so like people are editing thumbnails full blown on their computer and when you shrink it down you can't see all these little things when i first started i got a hundred thousand subscribers with an iphone and this is an iphone 5 that recorded in 30 fps terrible quality so as you guys know like equipment's never an excuse because like people would constantly roasting me for the quality when i first blew up i was like i don't have money i don't know what to do but then um you know i just reinvested every dollar made and over like the last you know whatever eight years um just slowly grew into whatever i do now like if there's something that like i genuinely just don't want to get out of bed and do that's a problem in the end of the day it's just
keeping it enjoyable
so i have chris and chandler if you've seen my videos they're really fun to be around so like you know spinning spending 24 hours in a desert by myself would be miserable but spending 24 hours with my boys and just hanging out and stuff like that makes it so much more fun so for me i do this might not apply to like 90 of you but for me creating an environment that's fun that i get excited for and then you know outsourcing things that just make me not want to get out of bed i don't know a different way to phrase it that's what has helped you know long term make me stay motivated if we are getting a little deep it was it was pretty hard like because like all throughout high school people would tell me i was too obsessed and told me like you shouldn't spend so much time on this my mom and i fought constantly because like i just wanted to make videos instead of doing schoolwork and when i dropped out of college she kicked me out you know my mom's like really sweet and she cares about me but she's like go to college or leave and i was like i guess i have to leave so it was just it was a lot of ups and downs and every part of the way to me because i just knew that this is what i wanted to do i just i couldn't see a life where i wasn't a youtuber it was either i'm a youtuber and half me or i'm sad that those are like the only two outcomes
so i just kept making videos
and persevering and a big thing is i i tried to connect with other youtubers because a lot of what i know and what i've gone over i wouldn't know without other youtubers so i i would constantly spam like a dozen youtubers a day and like the first few people that i finally got in contact with i learned so much off of and they helped me understand how to make an entertaining video and stuff like that
It’s so simple. It’s so so simple.
“I just wasn’t making content that deserved to get views… if I wasn’t retaining a viewer, why would you promote it?”
at the beginning of the video, tell them why they should watch it — SIMPLE. keep it simple.
Click Through Rate is Thumbnail and Title but it is also, how much did they like your last video? do they trust that you are gonna give them a good experience this time, based on your last video?
With editing, no dull moments. Don’t give them an opportunity to click away.
Get that average view duration up. Let’s Go.
Mr. Beast Speaking at VidSummit 2019