More than 1 billion hours of watchtime happen on YouTube every single day. If that’s not surprising enough, you’ll be shocked to know that’s more hours than Facebook video & Netflix combined. Whether you already have a YouTube channel or you’re thinking about making one, knowing how to get YouTube views in 2020 is one of the most important parts of growing your channel.

It’s no doubt: YouTube is where it’s at. As time goes on, people are seeking for more convenient answers to their questions and problems. Want to learn how to cook Panda Express style orange chicken? Just pull up a YouTube video on how to do it. Similarly, there are plenty of informational YouTube videos on how to market your YouTube videos. From watching sports highlights, reaction videos, beauty gurus, and so much more, YouTube is essentially the video version of Google.

5 Methods: How to Get YouTube Views in 2020

Getting YouTube views can be easier than you think. More views helps build your brand awareness, boosts conversions, and brings even more traffic to your YouTube. Once the algorithm senses your content is doing well with a specific audience, it will keep rewarding you by making you show up for relevant searches, in the suggested feed, etc.

Sure, anyone can run an ad and target a large, general audience to get in front of as many eyes possible. But that’s not the point. The point is to get views from people who are interested in the value provided in your video. Even beyond that, there are so many ways to get YouTube views aside from running ads. Let’s dive a bit deeper into those methods.

1.  Create Quality Content

If you’re going to post a video on YouTube, it’s most likely for a reason. Unless you’re uploading personal content such as family gatherings, school events, etc. to share with friends & family, then your intention is to get your video out there and in front of eyes who are interested. If you’re not sure of how to create interesting content for your audience, one of the simplest ways is to make a “How To” type video. To put it simply, you need to 1. Make videos that answer people’s questions and 2. Make sure those videos look and sound good.

That’s not all, because when you have high quality videos that people like to watch, the YouTube algorithm will bless your videos with those rankings and suggestions we mentioned. The more people spend watching your videos, the more YouTube rewards it. This is known as your “watch time” when you are going through your channel’s analytics.

2.  Engage Your Audience

Once you have eyes and ears on your content, don’t be afraid to remind them to subscribe to your channel at the beginning and end of your videos. (*Don’t forget to remind them to hit the notification bell as well!) This is a staple of being a content creator on YouTube because most people won’t do something unless they are told or asked to do so. Once you have subscribers, you’ll find that many of them will keep coming back for your new videos. Some may even watch your older videos. This is a modern example of “your best customers are your old customers”.

3.  Promote on Social Media

How are you supposed to get views on your YouTube video when there are so many other videos on similar topics that already have hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of views? By using other social media platforms, of course! When you go on other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, you need a better approach than posting a direct link or image to your video. We’re in the digital age and videos are one the most engaging piece of content you can post on these social media sites.

You may have the idea to just upload your entire video onto those platforms as well. Before you do that, change your gameplan to this: create a short version, or a “teaser”, of said video and redirect people to the full version of the video with a link. This way, you are providing quality content to these social media platforms while incentivising people to go to your channel.

4.  Don’t Underestimate the Power of the Thumbnail

Before you rack up a view on your video, you need the power of the “click”. Your video’s thumbnail is the first impression, so it’s got to be convincing. You should always use the custom thumbnail feature to help gain more clicks, resulting in more views. The ideal thumbnails for your channel should be consistent in terms of branding for a clean, professional look when someone lands on your page.

When making thumbnails for your videos make sure to incorporate the following:

• Bright colored backgrounds
• A high-quality png of a face making a strong expression
• Clear text overlays
• Consistent branding (such as a logo/watermark)

In terms of technicalities:

• Resolution should be consistent with the 16:9 aspect ratio, preferably 1280×720
• Lower than 2MB size
• .PNG, .JPG, .GIF, or .BMP

If you’re not familiar with graphic design, there are awesome tools you can use for free online. Canva is a popular site where you can make all sorts of graphics aside from YouTube thumbnails.

5.  Nurture Your Community

The last tip on our list is that you consistently nurture the community you’ve built. It doesn’t matter whether you have a couple subscribers or tens of thousands, one of the most important things you have to do is engage with your viewers. YouTube isn’t only a place where people watch videos, it’s a social network too. The more engagement your video gets (likes, dislikes, comments, etc.) the better!

So, how do you nurture a community, especially if it’s small? The easiest thing you can do is reply to your comments. When viewers see you are active with the people commenting on your video, they will value leaving a comment more since they know they are likely to get a response as well. Responding to comments is simply a must. If you go onto any large content creator’s videos, you’ll see that they reply to comments – just not all of them…that would be impossible at a certain point.

Conclusion

This list is to help you get a better idea of the basics of getting more views on YouTube. If you post consistent, quality content and follow the 5 tricks we shared with you, you will get views on your video. If you want to know more about how to get YouTube views in 2020, check out our other posts covering YouTube SEO, current trends, and more!