Understanding the YouTube Algorithm

 YouTube is a giant of the social media industry, ranked as the second most popular social media platform worldwide. There are over 2.68 billion monthly users who watch an average of 23.06 hours on YouTube every month. That’s twelve total days of consumption per year, which means YouTube is the perfect place to advertise in a world that is shifting farther and farther away from traditional television to almost exclusively streaming.

Business savvy marketers are well aware of how powerful YouTube can be as a marketing tool. Ninety percent of the world’s top 500 brands have one or more active YouTube Channels. Understanding the algorithm is your best bet to successfully market on YouTube. There are three personalization categories that determine what shows up on a user’s feed. Understanding these three elements can help you adjust your content to show up on your target demographic’s ‘for you’ page.

1. Personalization:

This is based on user watch history. When someone watches something, YouTube provides similar content for further consumption. This may include content from the same creator, videos about the same topic, or videos other people have enjoyed that have also watched the video of said user.

2. Performance

This is based on how much engagement a user has with a video. Their interest is measured by view duration and satisfaction. View duration is concerned with how long a person watches a video, if they decide to stop watching before the video is complete, the video will rank lower in performance. This is why it is important to keep videos shorter and to constantly grab the viewer’s attention. Satisfaction can be determined by how a person interacts with the video, such as liking it, subscribing to the channel, or commenting positively on the video.

3. External Factors

External factors are widespread trends across the platform. They can be related to seasonal relevancy, how competition is performing, and topical interests. For example, now that the holiday season is approaching, videos concerning Christmas and Thanksgiving will perform far better than they do in the summer months.

Understanding these three key elements allow you to better understand what type of content you should be posting for your brand. There is no guaranteed method, but making sure your content is relevant to the season and resonates with your target audience’s interests is a good set of guidelines to follow.