How Cutting Distribution Boosted Our YouTube Views by 420% [Expert Interview] – InstantFollowerz

When I first heard how HubSpot’s YouTube team increased one channel’s views by over 400%, I begged permission to share the story. (I’m not above humiliating myself on your behalf.)

It’s a lesson that applies to almost all content marketing – and I promise you won’t hear it anywhere else.

Are you ready for it? Not every distribution is a good distribution. And that includes yours.

Below, I chat with our YouTube boss about the hows and whys of quitting everything external distribution actually increased our YT performance. And his advice on when you should consider the axe.

Path to the chopping block

When Carl Mueller joined us as HubSpot’s Head of YouTube earlier this year, he noticed that one of our YT channels was having a problem with another one not. If the video was six minutes long, most viewers left after only a minute or two.

Although, to be fair, that’s still longer than my kid made it through Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Carl has been producing videos for over 10 years for names like Business Insider and Morning Brew. Which is to say, where media and marketing mix, Carl knows his shit.

So when he says the content wasn’t the problem, I know he’s not just trying to avoid hurt feelings.

“I came in at the end of February and the first thing I did was look at our content from a quality perspective,” he says. “But then I looked at the metrics and the numbers were surprisingly low. I don’t think the metric reflects the quality of the video.”

But if content wasn’t the problem, what was?

The call comes from home.

As Carl investigated the issue, he noticed that about 90% of the views for this channel came from external sources. That includes Facebook, Instagram, blogs, newsletters — everything except YouTube.

“What I’ve noticed is that when you’re asking someone to jump from another platform to YouTube, you’re asking them to change their consumption behavior,” he explains. “Does that person sit down with free time to watch a 10-minute video?”

The answer to that depends a lot on what platform they’re jumping from.

And about 90% of those external views came from The Hustle newsletter.

“Which, at first glance, makes a lot of sense. It seemed like a good, targeted distribution. But that meant most of our total viewership came from newsletters.”

That seems like the opposite of a problem, doesn’t it? As I not-so-subtly mentioned earlier, Hustle has an audience of over 2.5 million and engagement rates above the industry average. That’s the kind of audience most marketers would change a body part in front of. (And I mean a useful body part. Not just a little toe.)

And in the vast majority of cases, they would be right. Hustle is an absolute catapult for content, often driving thousands and thousands of views to blogs, short videos and content offers. So why didn’t it work here?

Carl puts it this way:

“The bulletin goes out at, what, 5:30 in the morning? People open it in bed.” They click on the video, “watch it for a few minutes, then leave”.

Or they save it for later, and then forget about it in the sea of ​​cards. (Guiltyyyyy!)

“If you were them, would you watch the whole video? For me, the answer is probably no,” laughs Carl. “Maybe sometimes if I lay on the couch. But if the average newsletter reader isn’t in a position to watch a long-form video, then that’s a lot of bad retention metrics.”

For this otherwise highly engaged audience, that was about a 20-30% retention rate.

Let’s do some quick math. What if 90% of your audience has a 20% retention rate? Unlucky algorithm.

Carl says it too: “YouTube won’t promote your content if your viewers aren’t watching it.”

We needed surgery, stat.

Making the Cut

“We decided as an experiment to pause all direct external distribution,” says Carl.

But why? everything distribution and not just a mismatched audience?

“We wanted to see first if we had a core audience on YouTube. We wanted to serve the videos only to our subscriber base and see if they liked it.”

And it worked. Better even than Karl had predicted.

“I warned everyone that we will get worse before we get better. A few thousand guaranteed views were gone,” Karl recalls. “But it was pretty immediate. The first video after the shift had 27,000 views. A few videos later we had one hit of 300,000. Then after that 450,000.”

Approximately 90 days after the distribution pause, the channel’s average views and average watch time increased by 420%, and our subscriber count jumped by 257%.

This goes against everything I’ve learned about content marketing, where more distribution equals more views. What gives, Carl?

“That contributes to success. If something is doing great, YouTube is more likely to promote the next video.”

An audience built on YouTube is ready to watch YouTube videos. And if most of your viewers are watching most of your content, that sends positive signals to the YT algorithm. YouTube then serves your videos to a wider audience and a true cycle is created.

“Not every distribution is a good distribution,” says Carl. “It’s a universal attachment for all channels and all content. Make sure you’re targeting the right audience at the right time.”

Ask your doctor if pausing the distribution is right for you.

Here’s where I hit the pause button, because I can sense some of you are pissed off at DIY.

I asked Carl what he would say to readers who are now considering ending their own distribution.

“Make sure your channel is in the same circumstances as our channel. It relied heavily on external distribution and short viewing times. If you have that combination, then probably those disengaged outside views are affecting your performance.”

So let’s be clear: if you don’t if you have low engagement, your distribution is probably doing its job, and dismissing it won’t help you grow further.

Similarly, if most of your views aren’t coming from external distribution, then that’s probably not the cause of your low metrics.

But Carl isn’t letting the rest of you walk away empty-handed. Here are some eateries for everyone:

1. Consider patterns of behavior when sharing with your potential audience.

This is good advice for any type of marketing, not just video marketing.

Before you distribute your content through any channel, think about the consumption habits of that audience.

Are they in the right place to share the post on SOCIAL MEDIA? Download PDF? Listen to a podcast?

“There is value in external distribution, but you have to make sure it’s to the right people at the right time and at the right stage in the content lifecycle.”

2. Look for distribution on the platform.

“On YouTube, I would always prioritize platform partnerships, video swaps or invitations. Targeting people on YouTube is the best place to get people to watch your video on YouTube.”

And this is generally true for most types of content. Consider, for example, that you are most likely to find TikTok viewers on TikTok. Or that newsletter readers are often willing to be blog readers. (And, like magic, here you are.)

3. Optimize for the platform, not the distribution channel.

“Let YouTube do its thing for a bit,” advises Carl. “If that doesn’t work, change the thumbnails, change the titles. Do everything you can to optimize for YouTube.”

Not to break the record, but, again, this applies to any type of content or platform. First, optimize for search, social, or wherever your audience primarily finds your content.

“And if that doesn’t work, then it might be worth the risk of putting it somewhere else.”

4. Set clear expectations.

If your audience clicks on a link without knowing it leads to a video, many more people will abandon ship. The same goes for long-form written content.

To avoid this, you need to set expectations for what they will encounter.

“If we do share – because there’s value in sharing a video with a newsletter audience – we’re making it very clear that it’s a video,” he then switches to a falsely stern voice. “All caps. WATCH THE VIDEO. You are leaving. ARE YOU READY?”

Now you are.

How to view YouTube reports in HubSpot

Marketing Hub Enterprise users can actually drag their YouTube performance data right into HubSpot so you can see all of your glorious success in one place.

You can check custom reports on watch time, views, shares, subscribers, engagement, etc. — allowing you to be the Carl Mueller of your company.

First, you will have to connect your YT account to HubSpot.

1. In HubSpot, click on settings icon in the top navigation bar.
2. Choose Marketing crack Social.
3. Click on Connect your account in the upper right corner.
4. Choose YouTube reports in the box that appears.
5. Select a YouTube account to connect.
6. Review the permissions and click Allow.

Now that you’re all connected, here’s how to access your reports:

1. Go back to Marketing and then Social. (Unless you’re already there from part one. Then skip this part.)
2. Click on the tab that says Analyze.
3. Click on the drop down menu that says All accounts and make sure YouTube is selected.
4. Apply filters for date range, campaign, etc. to your heart’s content.