Ask any YouTuber and they will tell you that generating significant views and subscribers isn't easy. But with the right strategy and tools, any video creator can build an engaged subscriber base when they understand what those subscribers want to watch.

Appealing to an audience to watch content you are passionate about making is just the first step, you need to know how to reach them and get your videos discovered. Our guides to how to guide more views on YouTube will give you the best tips to succeed on the platform.

Getting Views

How To Get More Views on YouTube

Getting thousands or even millions of YouTube subscribers is a dream for most creators. In the articles below, we'll show you how to turn casual viewers into long-term fans. 

Subscribers

YouTube Subscribers

Do you want to make money on YouTube? Millions of creators are earning a very good living from monetizing the platform and uploading content that drives huge views and engagements. Whether that YouTube income is from advertising revenue, merchandise sales, or brand deals, or subscriptions, we keep you updated with best practices and ideas.

Monetization

How To Make Money on YouTube

Want to see how your channel is performing? Read these YouTube analytics articles to discover what's working and what isn't. You'll learn how to identify which videos have the most Watch Time, clicks, audience retention, revenue, and more.

Analytics

YouTube Analytics

Watch Time is arguably THE most important metric on YouTube right now, and creators won’t be able to monetize their content without 4000 hours of it. But what is it and how can creators increase the amount of Watch Time their videos attract? We keep you updated on the best practices around Watch Time, and how you can increase how much your video content generates.

Watch Time

YouTube Watch Time

YouTube Shorts content is set to explode! 

All the latest tips, tricks, and rock-solid advice you need for this new feature.

YouTube Shorts

Do you know how to do keyword research so you understand what videos people are actually searching for on YouTube? Do you know how to create a custom YouTube thumbnail? Do you know how to create a Playlist on YouTube?

vidIQ has a ton of tips that will help every creator maximise their video content. We publish content every week to keep you up to date with all the best practices.

Tips & Tricks

YouTube Tips & Tricks

At vidIQ we have incredible insights into what viewers are searching for on YouTube. Not only can we confirm the top keywords being searched for, we can also show you how you can leverage that interest to create content around trending topics and tentpole events. That's going to give you a clear edge over other creators!

Insights

YouTube Insights

Your In-Depth Guide to Building a Successful YouTube Channel

Thumbnails are one of the biggest pain points for new creators, and an important one to solve. Thumbnails are the "book cover" of your video—something that needs to grab attention in just a fraction of a second. 

There are so many elements that go into making that winning thumbnail for your content, and it's simply not possible to address all of that here. So, 

 with expert, John Scott, to get all your thumbnail queries answered.

In this post, we'll walk you through the ideal 

, some key best practices for creating thumbnails that stand out!

12 Types of YouTube Thumbnails People Love to Click On

First impressions are critical in the endless ocean of YouTube content. The thumbnail plays a massive role in getting viewers to click on your video over countless others. For new YouTubers trying to gain traction, getting your thumbnail right can be the difference between a low-performing video and that ever-alluring viral hit. Here’s why size specifically matters:

: YouTube thumbnails appear across a wide range of devices—desktops, tablets, and, most importantly, mobile phones. Therefore, you need a thumbnail that remains sharp and eye-catching across all these platforms.

: Thumbnails with the correct size and dimensions ensure a polished, professional look. Low-quality, blurry images won’t just make your video less appealing—they’ll make it look amateurish.

 Faster Than Ever: 6 Ways to Make YouTube Thumbnails in Record Time

The Best Size for YouTube Thumbnails in 2024

When designing your thumbnail, the recommended size is 

 with a 16:9 aspect ratio. This size works across devices and ensures your thumbnail looks pleasing to the eye. Additionally, the minimum width YouTube accepts is 640 pixels but going lower than the recommended size is probably not a good idea. To keep things simple, here's what you need to follow.

: 16:9 (standard YouTube video aspect ratio)

https://www.oberlo.com/blog/youtube-thumbnail-size

Using the optimal size guarantees that your thumbnail will look crisp, regardless of the screen size it's being viewed on. It also helps your video stand out in YouTube search results and suggested video sections, making it an essential element of your overall video SEO strategy.

Best Practices for Creating YouTube Thumbnails

Creating a well-designed thumbnail is more than just getting the size right. It’s about crafting something that resonates with your audience and drives them to click. Let’s break down some important design strategies that’ll help your thumbnails pop in 2024:

Your thumbnail needs to deliver a clear message in a split second. Overloading it with too many details, colors, or text can be overwhelming, especially when viewed on smaller screens like mobile phones. Stick to one focal point and keep the design clean.

Text on thumbnails can be incredibly effective—if done right. Use 

 that stand out against the background. Avoid cramming too many words; instead, aim for short, snappy phrases that intrigue viewers. Also, contrast is essential. If your background is dark, make sure your text is light, and vice versa.

Your thumbnail should immediately grab attention, even when it’s displayed alongside hundreds of others. Using high-contrast colors can help your image stand out. Consider using colors that are complementary or that contrast sharply with YouTube’s default red, black, and white color scheme.

Thumbnails that feature human faces—especially ones that show strong emotions—tend to get higher engagement. Whether it’s excitement, surprise, or curiosity, showing a human expression can create an instant connection with potential viewers.

One great trick for building brand recognition is to use a consistent style for all your thumbnails. This could include specific color schemes, text placement, or the use of your logo in a corner. Over time, viewers will come to recognize your videos at a glance, making it more likely they’ll click on your content.

For example, this is how the vidIQ channel home page looks at first glance. As you can see, there is homogeneity in the way we use our creators faces and other graphical elements across videos./

While designing thumbnails can be fun, it’s wise to avoid a few traps. Here are some common mistakes that you should avoid at all costs:

: Never use clickbait or misleading images that have nothing to do with your video’s content. This will only frustrate viewers, hurt your channel’s reputation, and lead to a high bounce rate—something YouTube’s algorithm won’t like.

: You don’t want to clutter your thumbnail with unnecessary text. Keep it short and to the point. Let the title of your video do the talking, and use text on your thumbnail sparingly.

: More than half of YouTube’s traffic comes from mobile devices, so always ensure your thumbnails are legible on small screens. If you’re adding text, make sure it’s large and bold enough to read easily on a smartphone.

: A blurry or pixelated thumbnail can significantly reduce your video’s chances of getting clicked. Always use high-resolution images, and if you’re unsure, err on the side of larger file sizes (

Tips for Testing and Optimizing Thumbnails

If you’re not sure which thumbnail design will work best, don’t be afraid to experiment. YouTube allows you to change thumbnails even after your video has been published. Here are some tips for testing and optimizing your thumbnails over time:

: Try switching between different thumbnails on the same video and track their performance in 

. This way, you can identify which design drives more clicks.

 of your videos. A higher CTR means more people are engaging with your content, which helps boost your visibility in YouTube’s algorithm.

: Beyond the CTR, also look at how long people are watching your video. If your audience is dropping off quickly after clicking, your thumbnail might not accurately represent your content. 

 for optimizing, testing, and comparing different thumbnail options for the same video by using the above metrics. 

According to YouTube, 90% of the best-performing videos use custom thumbnails.

 In 2024, making it on YouTube involves more than just creating great content—you need to package it well, starting with your thumbnail. Understanding the 

 and following design best practices will set you on the path to success. 

Whether you’re just starting or looking to level up your YouTube game, getting your thumbnail right is a crucial step to increasing your views, engagement, and subscriber count. 

Now it’s time to create that killer thumbnail

Learn the correct YouTube thumbnail measurements for 2024 and how to optimize them for the best quality and viewer engagement!

YouTube Thumbnail Measurements: The Right Size for 2024

YouTube Rewind is designed to celebrate all that is good on the platform. The 2018 edition features Will Smith, Baby Shark, Ninja and many other famous YouTubers. But what was once a loved tradition now seems to be one of those lightning rod videos that people will click on and immediately dislike irrespective of the content.

Here is an explanation on why it did so bad

Marques Brownlee has a lot of great ideas and theories on why this video blew it.

Haters are always gonna hate but there just seems to be a lot more of them on YouTube these days. It wasn't always like this. People use to look forward to the annual YouTube Rewind video. In 2012-2016 millions would watch and like it and less than a hundred thousand would dislike it; a ratio of more than ninety percent in the positive.

As the years have gone by and YouTube has become global and more mainstream however, they've also been hit by bad news stories such as adpocalypse and the controversy over Logan Paul - remember he was one of a poster boys of last year's Rewind. 2017 saw a 25% drop in approval while 2018 sees the Rewind being disliked almost twice as much as it is liked.

So what's going on? More people are watching YouTube than ever before, more video creators are making more money on YouTube than ever before yet more viewers seem more disillusioned than ever before

We noticed something about YouTube Premieres

In this video we talk about our thoughts on how they used YouTube Premiers for this video and why that confused us.

We'd love to hear your constructive thoughts on why you think this is happening on YouTube. Let us know in the comments.

People seem to really hate the YouTube rewind 2018 video. In the first 24 hours, it received over 2.35 million dislikes making it the 9th most disliked video of all time on YouTube.

YouTube Rewind 2018 Hits 2 Million Dislikes in 24 Hours

We make managing your YouTube presence as easy for brands as Twitter and Facebook, and help bridge the gap between your video marketing and social media team. And we’re making it available to HootSuite’s 8+ million users.

Already a HootSuite user and using vidIQ Premium? Use this link to Install the vidIQ app for HootSuite now!

Not a vidIQ Premium user? Request a Demo and find out what all the buzz is about.

Here’s the scoop: If you’re a vidIQ Premium user you’ll now be able to access our best of breed YouTube management suite directly in the HootSuite dashboard. You’ll be able to:

Monitor every mention of your YouTube videos on Twitter!

90% of Tweets that contains URLs to your YouTube videos don’t mention your brand name or Twitter handle. These are valuable conversations about your brand that you’re missing out on. We find them all!

Increase your volume of tags 10x across your entire YouTube library in less than 10 minutes

YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world, and 58% of YouTube viewers watch your video because of Search and Related Videos, making SEO very important. We deliver high quality tags in bulk on a weekly basis. Respond to YouTube comments from any of your YouTube channels

Engaging with your viewers via YouTube comments is proven to increase engagement and views by 4x. We take the tedium out of YouTube comment moderation and response with powerful moderation tools. Upload YouTube videos at the best time of day

Don’t treat YouTube like dropbox – just like Twitter and Facebook, there is a best time to upload your videos. We find it. Gain actionable insights into your YouTube campaigns and see how your videos are being shared across Facebook and Twitter.

Views and Subscribers are only part of the story. We show you how your videos are performing across Twitter and Facebook so you can optimize for success. With vidIQ for HootSuite, vidIQ Premium users now have a powerful YouTube tool to add to your social media management arsenal – 

As a global brand, managing your YouTube presence along with your Facebook and Twitter endeavors is no easy task – especially with a fragmented array of tools and a large social media team.

Introducing the vidIQ App for HootSuite

At last month’s Streaming Media East show in New York City, our CEO Rob Sandie was on an expert panel.

Rob critiqued YouTube’s cost benefits, built-in audience, established marketing channels, native device compliance, technical features, and discussed YouTube’s platform as a destination for engagement.

If you weren’t able to attend, watch the video below to learn the pros and cons of using YouTube as a video platform and hear which content and distribution strategies YouTube is best suited for.

In addition to the panel, Rob was interviewed by Blip.tv on how vidIQ is helping brands leverage YouTube as a primary home for their audience with our YouTube optimization tools. Watch the video below for the full details.

There has never been a better time to be a brand on YouTube – 

get started with vidIQ and start growing your audience

As viewers continue to flock to YouTube, brands are re-evaluating it as a practical alternative to costly online video platforms.

Using YouTube As An Online Video Platform

In a short time, YouTube grew from relative obscurity to beast

And becamea a video platform with over 1 billion monthly active users, and the 3rd largest social network and 2nd largest search engine in the world. To celebrate we decided to take a trip down memory lane and highlight how the seen-but-rarely-acknowledged YouTube Embeddable Player has changed over the years. So break out your corn cob pipe and monocle, and join us on our trip down memory lane!

"It’s hard to believe, but this week marks YouTube’s 8 year anniversary.

Then & Now | A Brief History of the YouTube Player

T-Series is definitely gonna overtake PewDiePie. No. PewDiePie just got half a million subscribers in a single day.

I woke up to this morning was something quite incredible. First of all, it starts with vidIQ. We did a video last week about another MrBeast antic on the subscriber race. And it'd been doing relatively well, but overnight, it exploded in views. At one point, we were giving it 20,000 views per hour. And that told me something about the current situation with the PewDiePie-versus-T-Series subscriber count. And no doubt, I'm sure you've seen all of these over the past couple of weeks. Live subscriber counts of the battle. The number of people watching these livestreams on Sunday morning exploded. The top result here, FlareTV, at one point had 70,000 people watching the subscriber count. To give you some perspective, that's the entire population of Andorra watching two numbers compete with each other.

This was supposed to be the endgame. The YouTube universe was starting to smell blood. By the end of December the 1st, T-Series was less than a hundred thousand subscribers behind PewDiePie. It seemed as if not even a MrBeast-inspired stunt by Justin Roberts, apparently spending $1 million on a billboard in Times Square, asking people to subscribe to PewDiePie, could save him now.

And by noon, just as PewDiePie surpassed at 73 million subscribers himself, the subscriber gap was down to less than 20,000.

It could've been the billboard, it could've been a tweet, it could've been the livestream. It could've been PewDiePie's latest video with a rather direct title. Or it could've been something going down on Reddit which you're always keen to tell me about in the comments because I forget that corner of the internet. Whatever happened, the subscriber gap between PewDiePie and T-Series has increased once again. The breakdown of the day is astonishing in itself. From noon to nine p.m., PewDiePie gained 350,000 subscribers. Over the course of the entire day, PewDiePie gained 544,000 subscribers.

As for the subscriber gap between PewDiePie and T-Series, you know, the other channel in this story. Well, up until noon, as you can see, it got as close as 16,000 subscribers and then PewDiePie absolutely obliterated T-Series in the second half of the day. Look at the increasing difference between three o'clock and six o'clock. It's astonishing. It should also be noted at this point that T-Series had a pretty good day as well. They average 155,000 subscribers a day, but they doubled that on December the 2nd. And that's rare. Usually, they're very consistent and they don't have such spikes. But what they do have, just like PewDiePie, is passionate, committed fans rallying behind their cause as well.

If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level then make sure to download vidIQ. It will help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps 

It was all set to happen on December 2. T Series was less than 20,000 subscribers behind. By the end of the same day, they were only 230,000 subscribers behind.

Pewdiepie VS T Series - 500,000 Subscribers In One Day

1 Studio Beta Individual video impressions and CTR

In the new YouTube Studio Beta click on Analytics then click on top videos.

A list will pull up where you can sort by highest CTR

Click on reach viewers and you will see unique viewers on the right.

This allows you to understand how many views you get per viewer. You can see this metric under build an audience.

This metric shows how your latest has done compared to other content.

With compare metrics you can compare lots of metrics together to get a visual feel for how you are doing.

Do you need to know your YouTube analytics to grow your channel right? Well here's 10 you might be missing and where to find them!

10 YouTube Data Secrets You Didn't Know!

The upload process can be a daunting process. You've got thumbnails, titles, tags, hashtags, cards, endscreens, translations, description and a whole lot more to consider.

Every day we all watch videos and think, well this video is missing this or that, no wonder it isn't doing well. We've come up with a list of 15 video upload tips to follow to help your YouTube video off to a flying start.

The upload process can be a daunting process in this video we show you how to properly upload videos to YouTube.

How to Properly Upload Videos to YouTube

Need ideas on making your next video, here are 30:

Start talking to camera and see what happens

Try to add a cliff hanger at the end or beginning

Double your video length and see what happens

Or shorten your video and see if that changes the pace and tone of the video

Struggling to come up with content? Here are 30 YouTube ideas for ANY channel!

Want More YouTube Views? 30 YouTube Video Ideas To Kickstart ANY Channel

So you're a big fan of Fortnite, PUBG, Clash Royal, WWE 2K 18 or GTA V? And now you want to start a gaming YouTube channel? Awesome! Guess what? So does everyone else! There are millions of channels now about gaming, all competing for those same views and watchtime minutes.

What you want to know is why some channels stand out more than others? A lot of it has to do with channel personality, what the channel can offer that others can't and how enticing the content is. We explore this and a lot more with challenges, subtle gaming references and you'll discover what my favourite game of all time is.

How to Start a Gaming Channel on YouTube: Research is Everything!

How to Start a Gaming Channel on YouTube: The Creator is the Star

How to Start a Gaming Channel on YouTube: Focus on Your Target Audience

How to Start a Gaming Channel on YouTube: Double Down on Successful Content

How to start a gaming channel on YouTube in 2018? It's one of the most competitive video spaces on the platform. Here are 10 great tips to get you started!

How to Start a YouTube Gaming Channel: Tips and Tricks

How do you get your first 100 subscribers? We've got more than 10 tips and suggestions to help you get there. Getting started on YouTube and grinding up to 100 subscribers can feel like the hardest hurdle to overcome. Where do you start with so much to think about? We've come up with some awesome suggestions to help kick-start your channel and think more like a YouTuber and less like someone chucking videos randomly onto the internet!

Getting started on YouTube and grinding up to 100 subscribers can feel like the hardest hurdle to overcome.

How to Get 100 YouTube Subscribers FAST: Creator Tips for Success

Can you guess what question we get asked the most? It’s pretty obvious: How do I get more views on YouTube?

The answer, however, is far from obvious; unless you break it down into a hundred jigsaw pieces. And what jigsaw pieces do you look for first? The corners of course.

So let’s look at four crucial pieces of the YouTube puzzle What Do YOU Love to Talk About? YouTube knows what its audience wants, so you need to think like YouTube. Let’s say your passion is videogames. Be specific. If you love Fortnite or Call of Duty or Fifa 18, make sure to focus on that topic.

The more passionate you are about something, the more you know about it and the more confident you will be creating and sharing content about it.

Passion is an invisible vibe, energy and presence that your audience can always see.

Who Should Be Watching and Why? Don’t stop at just your favourite game, film, beauty product or superhero either. Dive deeper. Popular topics attract thousands of video creators, so you need to provide the audience with something they can’t get anywhere else.

Ask yourself this question: who should be watching and why? If you can’t answer that question then your audience won’t understand or (worst still) won’t care about your content. If someone else can answer those two questions better that’s where the audience will go.

This is your target audience and your value proposition and you should be able to sum it up in a sentence. For example: Helping Video Creators Get More Views In Less Time.

A ‘niche’ is an interest that appeals to a small, specialized section of the audience. Let’s say you buy the latest iPhone and you want to do a general video review on it. OK great, but the chances are there is a tech channel with millions of subscribers that has more resources to produce something in a shorter time frame to a wider audience.

But is that massive tech channel interested in EVERY aspect of the iPhone? Probably not, they will have another big phone release to worry about. But you? You could have a special interest in how the camera works or the best apps for productivity or how to record the screen. The chances are, if you are interested in something, there will be an audience out there who is also interested in the same thing.

This is your niche. While there may be millions of people interested in an iPhone, there may only be a few thousand interested in recording the iPhone screen, yet still passionate enough about it to create guides and tutorials that spread a message of value better than anyone else.

Dominate Your Niche and Become the Authority With passion, a target audience, a value proposition and a niche you know better than anyone else, you will start to build an audience.

Usually, there comes a point where one video outperforms everything else you’ve published before: 2x, 5x, 10x, it becomes your viral moment.

When this happens, go all in on follow up content. YouTube is telling you: you have something of value and we want to share it with more people. Your stock rising, your authority is gaining momentum, we ALL want to see more from you about something you are passionate about and can trust you with.

Try this: search for ‘Record iPhone Screen’ and you may see a very familiar vidIQ face appearing over and over again. Who knew such a niche could bring in so many views?

Channel success stories usually start with a niche that builds trust between the YouTuber and their audience. They then take that audience on a journey through more topics that stretch that authority into new, larger audiences.

Try this: do a YouTube search for ‘How Big Is’. This search term is dominated by a YouTuber called ColdFusion. The channel was already successful with tech videos that got 10,000s views. The ‘How Big Is’ video brought in millions of views and now ColdFusion is the authority on the phrase.

Youtube Always Starts With Something You Love and Ends with Something Your Audience Trusts You With.

How to Get More YouTube Views? Passion and Authority

Here are 10 ways to reach the largest audience with the most impact:

Promote in the first 24 hours to get velocity or what we like to call View Per Hour

Share a playlist link, not a video link so that people can watch more of your videos

Your In-Depth Guide to Building a Successful YouTube Channel

YouTube Rewind 2018 Hits 2 Million Dislikes in 24 Hours

Published

Introducing the vidIQ App for HootSuite

Published

Using YouTube As An Online Video Platform

Published

Then & Now | A Brief History of the YouTube Player

Published

Pewdiepie VS T Series - 500,000 Subscribers In One Day

Published

10 YouTube Data Secrets You Didn't Know!

Published

How to Properly Upload Videos to YouTube

Published

Want More YouTube Views? 30 YouTube Video Ideas To Kickstart ANY Channel

Published

How to Start a YouTube Gaming Channel: Tips and Tricks

Published

How to Get 100 YouTube Subscribers FAST: Creator Tips for Success

Published

How to Get More YouTube Views? Passion and Authority

Published

10 Awesome Ways to Promote Your YouTube Videos for FREE

Published