YouTube Growth: Strategies for Small Channels to Succeed

Small channels can rapidly grow by understanding audience profiles and creating targeted, data-driven content strategies.

### Unlocking YouTube Success: Strategies for Small Channels to Boost Views
* 📈 If you're struggling to gain traction on your YouTube videos, there's a **secret hack** that small channels are using to **beat the algorithm** and achieve **hundreds of thousands of views** on their initial uploads.
* 🔍 Channels like Hoyos, who **skyrocketed to over 1 billion views**, demonstrate that **understanding your audience profile is crucial for success**.
* 🎯 Audience profiles consist of groups of viewers with **shared interests**, which the algorithm uses to test your videos against potential viewers based on **relevant titles and descriptions**.
* 💡 Maintaining a consistent niche helps the algorithm better understand your content, **increasing the likelihood of your videos being pushed to the right audience**.
* 📝 To identify your audience profiles, utilize the "**Getting to Know Your Audience**" document linked in the description, which can help clarify your ideal viewer's **characteristics and preferences**.
* 📊 To create content that resonates, analyze outlier videos using the vidIQ browser extension, which highlights videos performing **significantly better than average**, and adapt their **successful formats to your style**.
* 🔄 Establishing content buckets with similar titles and formats can enhance viewer retention, as demonstrated by Jenny Hoyos, who attributes **much of her success** to this strategy.
* 🚀 Ultimately, to prevent your channel from declining in views, consistently produce **engaging content that encourages viewers to return**, leveraging proven strategies to **capture and maintain their interest**.

if you're struggling to get more than 100 views on your videos, and you feel like the algorithm is ignoring your channel, then I have some exciting news. Yeah, it really is that exciting, and that's because I've just discovered a secret hack small channels are using to beat the YouTube algorithm and get hundreds of thousands of views on their first few videos. Like this channel that got three-quarters of a million views on their first upload, or this channel that got nearly a million views and should do soon on their very first video. In fact, after more research, I found that Hoyos, the queen of YouTube shorts, used this exact strategy to go from literally zero to over 1 billion views on YouTube. But this hack will not only get you more views; it will help your channel get monetization faster than the average creator. So, let's break this down step by step, starting with identifying your core audience profile. After spending hours breaking down why these channels grew so fast, one thing became clear: they have a deep understanding of how the algorithm chooses what videos to go viral, and it's

because they understand something called audience profiles. Let me explain, and we'll do this through the medium of circles. Let's imagine this big circle is your channel, and these small circles around your channel are your audience profiles. Now, audience profiles are simply groups of people that like similar video topics. For example, one audience profile could be people who like side hustle videos. Another could be people who want to achieve financial freedom or increase their productivity. So, when you publish a new video, the algorithm will test it with a few different audience profiles that are likely to enjoy your videos. It does this by matching your titles, descriptions, and what you say in your videos with the topics that these audiences are interested in. For example, imagine your channel is about gardening. If you post a video about five easy plants for beginners, the algorithm will test it with viewers who showed interest in gardening or home improvement topics. But here's the critical part: the algorithm will only push your video further if it performs well with these initial test audiences. It determines this based on

factors like watch time, engagement, click-through rate, whether previous viewers of your content are returning to watch this new video. This is why maintaining a channel niche is crucial. When you constantly make videos for the same type of viewer, you get better at satisfying that audience. You're also training the algorithm to understand your content and know exactly who would enjoy watching it. Channels like Frankie C poker, who hit nearly a million views on their first video, stick to a specific niche and topic. They constantly create content that appeals to a particular audience profile, making it easier for the algorithm to understand who might be interested in their videos. But if Franky suddenly posted a video about one of his other passions, let's say gardening for example, the algorithm would struggle to find the right audience. Let's be honest, high stakes poker and gardening is not a typical or natural fit. So how can you get a deeper understanding of who your audience profiles are so that you can create more consistent and targeted content? Well, it's actually pretty simple.

and I'll show you how to do it in less than a few minutes with a little bit of help from AI. We have a link in the description of this video to a document called Getting to Know Your Audience. Now, the most important thing you need to do with this document is click File and then Make a copy, so you can edit this on your own Google account. Then, start filling out the questions to create who you think the ideal viewer of your content is. If you're struggling with any of these questions, try using VidIQ's AI coach to help you answer the questions using the prompts suggested at the bottom of this document. Doing this exercise will ground you with a much better understanding of hopes, dreams, goals, desires, obstacles, fears, and pain points of the type of people you want to connect with through your videos. Whenever you come up with new video ideas, look at this document and ask yourself, Does this idea resonate with my target audience? But all of this still leaves us with one big question: Now that you know who your target audience is, how

do you make content they actually enjoy? Well, after I compared these channels side by side, I noticed they were both using data-driven strategies to make videos they knew their audience would absolutely love, and that's by recreating outlier video formats. Now, if you're a regular here at vidIQ, you might be thinking, Yeah, yeah, I know about outliers, because we've been talking about this topic extensively over the last few months. But I've realized that we've missed one critical step, because simply copying and pasting outlier videos doesn't always work. For example, notice how the second two videos here didn't perform as well as the first video here. Well, this is a common problem people face when recreating outlier videos. So now, let's touch on how to find outlier videos, but also talk about the missing piece of this jigsaw puzzle so that the same problems don't happen to you when you're recreating outlier videos. To give you a crash course in outlier videos, if you have a vidIQ browser extension installed, you'll see this number next to

videos, and it represents the outlier score. For example, this video performed 26 times better than average for this channel, and I'm sure you'll agree, 5.5k views for a channel with less than 500 subscribers is pretty awesome. And if you want to do a deep dive search, you can use the outlier tool in vid IQ's web app to search for a topic, and then it will list video after video after video that's a proven outlier for a YouTube channel. There is, of course, a link in the description to use these tools should you want to try them yourself. They are a shortcut to viral video ideas that are proven to work, which you should consider remaking in your own style with your own audience. But here's what channels like Out of Bounds are doing to take this one step further and guarantee their videos go viral. If we take a look at their second video, it's based around this outlier from a completely different niche, and the reason this works so well is because it allows channels to tap into proven

outlier formats while still feeling fresh in their own niche. This is an extremely powerful strategy that can help you hit your first viral video. But there is one last thing you need to do to prevent your channel spiraling back down to below-average views, and that's to optimize your content for return viewers. This is because YouTube has repeatedly released statements just like this: Our recommendation system, otherwise known as the algorithm, aims to offer viewers more videos and channels they're likely to enjoy. If viewers are returning to your channel regularly to watch more, they're more likely to be recommended more of your videos in the future. So, you know when you watch a video but you don't subscribe to the channel, and then the next time you come on to YouTube, you see another video from that channel you didn't subscribe to right over the top of your home feed? Yeah, that's the algorithm, or YouTube's recommendation system, at work. This proves that returning viewers is a key metric for the algorithm to decide whether to recommend your videos or not. So now that

we know this. How do you increase your return viewer rate? Well, one of the best ways to do this is by creating content buckets. In fact, in a recent interview we did with Jenny Hoyos, she revealed how this exact strategy helped her grow her channel to 4 million subscribers in just a few years. So, I'll let her explain how they work. Buckets are probably like 90% of creating returning viewers. So, buckets are repeatable formats, and I try to keep mine very similar titled. For example, my bucket would be $1 fast food item versus restaurant. So, it would be like $1 burrito, $1 Boba, $1 everything basically. And because everything is titled, structured, and formatted, and the video is very similar, like all the videos are metadata linked, YouTube can easily be like, Oh, the viewer liked when she made $1 pizza. Oh, they're going to like when she makes a $1 sandwich or a $1 Burger. It's very easy for YouTube to understand what your viewer is going to want to watch next. So, the goal with

returning viewers is to make videos that your viewer is probably going to watch next, and you do that through structure, format, and metadata such as title. If you're uploading once a week, I think two to four buckets is really reasonable. So basically, what Jenny is saying is that there are certain types of videos that will consistently perform well on your channel. Your job is to find these formats and then repeat them as many times as possible until they stop performing. For example, let's take a look at this channel. They have 30,000 subscribers but recently hit a massive outlier: Golden Retriever Meets Terrified Rescue Puppy that got over 1 million views. And so what they did is immediately take that main video concept Golden Retriever Meets Blank and twisted it slightly for other videos. And as you can see, they've had hit multiple viral videos using the same format. So this is the perfect and purest form of what we call a Content bucket, and this channel should keep posting this format until it stops working. However, the inevitable

Truth is, this strategy only works if you're able to get a viral video in the first place. We briefly touched on outlier research in this video, but if you want a much more in-depth guide, then I highly recommend you watch this video where I will walk you through a powerful tool that will help you find outlier videos in just a few minutes.

The 9-Minute Algorithm Hack To Hit 1000 Subscribers Fast

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Secret Hack to Boost YouTube Views for Small Channels

Small channels are using a secret hack to beat the YouTube algorithm and gain hundreds of thousands of views on their first videos.

This strategy involves understanding audience profiles, which are groups of people with similar video topic interests.

The algorithm tests new videos with different audience profiles, and if the video performs well, it gets pushed further, leading to increased visibility and faster monetization.

Understanding Your Audience for Targeted Content Creation

Maintaining a channel niche is crucial for satisfying a specific audience and training the algorithm.

Channels like Frankie C poker succeed by sticking to a particular topic, making it easier for the algorithm to find the right viewers.

To gain a deeper understanding of your audience, use the "Getting to Know Your Audience" document and VidIQ's AI coach for guidance.

Data-driven strategies and outlier video formats are key to creating content that resonates with the audience.

Simply copying outlier videos doesn't guarantee success, as demonstrated by varying performance.

The vidIQ browser extension and web app offer tools to identify and recreate proven outlier videos, providing a shortcut to viral content.

Optimizing YouTube Content for Return Viewers

Creating outlier formats can help achieve viral videos, but optimizing for return viewers is crucial for sustained success.

YouTube's algorithm favors channels with returning viewers, increasing the likelihood of recommending their videos.

Implementing content buckets with repeatable formats and similar titles can effectively boost return viewer rates.

Strategies for Increasing Returning Viewers on YouTube

Creating videos that viewers are likely to watch next is key to increasing returning viewers, achieved through structure, format, and metadata.

Identifying and repeating successful video formats can lead to multiple viral hits, as demonstrated by a channel that used a consistent concept.

However, this strategy relies on initially achieving a viral video, making outlier research crucial for long-term success.