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

We’ve been hard at work refining our tools that help creators grow, and this summer’s drop is proof that vidIQ today isn’t what it was even three months ago.

a brand-new feature and other major updates

 - all built to help you stop the scroll, boost engagement, and turn casual viewers into loyal fans.

 you’ll want to experience the new power we’ve packed in.

One of the biggest struggles for creators is getting viewers to click on their content. With millions of videos out there, you need to stand out in a pool of endless scrolling.

Stopping the scroll is more of a science than an art. And like all sciences, you need tools to accomplish your goals. You haven’t seen vidIQ tools like this. Smarter AI. Faster workflows. Real results.

. This tool is like your own personal AI-powered design studio.

If you’ve been in the YouTube game for more than five minutes, you understand that 

 and best way to stop the scroll. A great thumbnail is clear, compelling, and makes viewers think, “I need to click this.”

Now it’s easier than ever to make thumbnails that 

. Whether you start with a prompt or upload your own assets, our AI builds out designs that look pro — without you needing any Photoshop skills.

 (we’ll remove backgrounds automatically)

 to match a visual style you love. Upload your own or choose from our library of top-performing YouTube templates. 

 to influence your thumbnail’s aesthetic

 with easy prompt tweaks, image edits, or by dropping in text

Thumbnails aren’t just art - they’re strategy. They’re decision points. The better your thumbnail, the higher your click-through rate. And a higher CTR means the algorithm actually works for you.

, you’re not just making something that 

 good — you’re making something that 

You stopped the scroll with killer thumbnails. Now keep them watching.

 helps you write stronger YouTube scripts in a fraction of the time, backed by real YouTube psychology.

: Continuously trained on what’s working 

: Include callback cues, pacing variations, and cliffhangers

: Adjust your scripts’ tone, add keywords, sound more like your favorite creator. All with one click.

 Automated research provides accurate and relevant information and stats.

 helps keep your message clear, your viewers hooked, and your content performing. And now, it doesn’t have to take days. With 

, you can go from idea to polished script in just 3 minutes - making it easier to publish consistently and keep your channel growing.

“I used to spend an hour and a half scripting videos that came out wordy and boring. Someone even commented saying my videos were 'so wordy' — that really stung. But vidIQ's Script Writer changed everything. Now I get organized, concise scripts in just 10–15 minutes.”

“When I used it for my next tutorial, I was so impressed I printed it out to study it. For creators like me who tend to over-explain on camera, this tool does wonders.”

Shorts are still one of the fastest paths to YouTube growth - but understanding why one takes off while another flops? That used to be a mystery.

We built our Shorts tools to tell you exactly what’s working, what’s not, and how to make your next one blow up.

Think of it as your personal highlight reel, performance breakdown, and growth strategist all in one. Now you can discover when a video truly gained popularity and understand what made them successful. 

All of these statistics can be seen directly in-line without having to exit the Shorts view:

including views & views per hour, engagement rate, views history graph, and outlier score.

including channel subscriber count, monthly & total uploads, and subscriber and view growth graphs. 

 now supports YouTube Shorts, giving you even more insight into what’s trending and outperforming expectations across the platform. 

Instead of just surfacing the most-viewed content, Outliers identifies videos that are gaining momentum relative to the creator’s usual performance. That means you’re seeing videos that are beating the odds, not just riding on big subscriber counts. 

Now that this includes Shorts, it’s an incredibly powerful way to discover smart video ideas, fresh angles, and unexpected winners across any niche.

Let’s say you search for a keyword like “budget travel.” Outliers might surface a Short from a smaller creator that’s getting unusually high engagement and rapid growth, even outperforming videos from much larger channels. That’s your signal: something in that format, topic, or style is connecting. Use it to guide your next idea, ride the wave, and post with confidence.

 now works with YouTube Shorts, giving short-form creators the same data-backed recommendations long-form creators have used to increase views and visibility.

Optimize analyzes your video and delivers clear, actionable recommendations for improving your title and adding the right tags to your description. You’ll also get an overall optimization score, so you can instantly see how well your content is aligned with what’s working — and where there’s room to improve.

Most Shorts get lost in a sea of swipes. To rise to the top you need smart packaging. Optimize helps ensure your content gets the visibility it deserves, boosting your chances of landing on the Shorts feed, reaching new audiences, and turning quick views into long-term growth.

 can now submit a video for personalized feedback from one of our expert creator coaches.

A coach will watch your video and record a response, pausing at key moments to explain what’s working, what’s not, and what changes could help you get more views and subscribers. You’ll see the exact moment-by-moment breakdown behind every suggestion. No vague advice, just direct, actionable advice.


Our initial rollout supports Boost users in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, for English language videos only.

__________________________________________________________________

If you’re looking for more than just one video review, you can work directly with a 

 who will take a deep dive into your entire channel and build a custom-tailored growth plan designed to break through the roadblocks holding you back. 

These aren’t cookie-cutter tips, they’re real, personalized strategies you can start applying immediately to unlock quick wins and build lasting momentum.

Want to see what’s possible with coaching?

. After joining vidIQ Coaching, they refined their content, followed their tailored plan, and watched their channel take off.

TL;DR: This Summer, You Grow or You Ghost

Here’s the latest features you get with the vidIQ Summer 2025 Drop:

 - Create high-impact, click-worthy thumbnails with AI and proven templates

 - Hook viewers and keep them watching with YouTube-optimized storytelling

 - Instantly spot top-performing Shorts and track breakout metrics

 - Discover overperforming videos across YouTube to inspire your next big hit

 - Find the best title and keywords to get your Shorts discovered

The Summer 2025 Drop is here: scroll-stopping science, smarter tools, and real coaching to help you grow on YouTube.

☀️ Welcome to the vidIQ Summer 2025 Drop!

We’re thankful that you’ve helped vidIQ grow to over 10k active weekly users since launching vidIQ Vision at VidCon last year:

In celebration of your support, we have added Velocity, our trending indicator, to the vidIQ Vision Chrome extension for all users.

No longer will you have to rely on total views and upload date to get a gauge on how fast a video is trending…

This would be like looking at your cars odometer to gauge its speed…

With an average of 22M+ Views Per Hour (VPH) occurring on YouTube (numbers reported by Nielson), it’s important to understand where those views are being spent in real-time.

When you load a video, now you’ll be able to see its Velocity in Views Per Hour (VPH):vphcut

To give you an idea of how fast videos typically move:

100-200k VPH is what the top 5 videos on YouTube are speeding along at

250k VPH – peak of Caitlen Heller Twerking spoof

650k VPH – PSY Gangnam Style during peak

750k VPH – Budweiser Up for Whatever Commercial (day of Superbowl)

1.2M VPH – Budweiser Puppy Love (day of Superbowl)

If it’s trending in a specific country we’ll also display the video’s per country ranking:

To explore the top videos from a specific category, or country, take a look at the Velocity Section for daily as well as real-time stats:

We’ve been using this tool internally for the last few weeks and hope you’ll like the sixth sense it gives you when working on YouTube. 

If you don’t have it installed, you can get started here

Close-up of a futuristic speedometer gauge with glowing blue and red indicators on black background

It’s not an easy task to grow your views and subscribers organically and it has been a privilege guiding you in the quest for video marketing success.

First Ever YouTube Speedometer – vidIQ Velocity

It’s a surprisingly powerful new metric that monitors the amount of videos YouTube is recommending back to a publisher’s own channel.

In the Budweiser Super Bowl Puppy Love video, we’re tracking a rating of 4/20, meaning 4 of the 20 videos YouTube is recommending after the video and on the sidebar are also on the Budweiser channel.

It’s not as glamorous as some other metrics, but this has huge implications for channel (and thus brand) engagement. Think about it: someone loved your video and watched it to the end, but then what? Either they hit the search bar to find something similar (which is probably going to be on someone else’s channel), or they’re so engaged they can’t help but click to watch another in the recommendations. The more of those videos that are on your channel, the higher the total views your channel will receive when those videos explode, and the better your brand sticks with each viewer.

4/20: This is the lowest Creator Suggested rating a channel can have and a sign the channel isn’t focused enough on playlists, proper metadata, and annotations.

6/20 – 10/20: You’re on your way! We’ve seen great channels averaging around here, like The Verge and American Express.

12/20 – 16/20: If you’re here, you’re killing it. This channel is likely in the ranks of Red Bull, Buzzfeed, and Old Spice.

20/20: At this point, you’ve likely been “whitelisted” by YouTube. We’ve seen some huge non-profits, political parties, and brands spending a significant amount on YouTube to get here. ARDrone, Nintendo, and The Olympics are great examples.

As of writing this, we are seeing the University of Minnesota have a very viral moment with Guy Pulls Out Sign on Gophers Kiss Cam. They worked to get a 19/20 on Creator Suggested, and that will pay off as this video drives a massive amount of views and increased watch time throughout their YouTube channel. That’s more watches, shares, and engagement with their canon of videos, leading to exponentially more total views as people continue flocking to them.

If you take a second to look through the channel, you can see they didn’t get here by luck, or even a huge budget. They just consistently upload content, grow their subscribers, annotate, and actively playlist content.

There’s no secret to success like this, just sound YouTube marketing practice. And sound practice starts with the right data to build it on, which can all be yours with the vidIQ Chrome Extension.

Don’t have the vidIQ Chrome Extension? Make sure to download it here.

vidIQ SEO score 76.4 with video optimization metrics and engagement data overview

Creator Suggested is a new metric we’ve been running in our Chrome Extension for the last couple of months.

What Is Creator Suggested?

We’ve been hard at work developing a competitive analysis tool that will help brands on YouTube improve their business intelligence – and today we’re happy to announce its availability to all vidIQ users!

Starting today you’ll be able to track your competitors’ growth on YouTube and see how you stack up against your competition, including views and subscribers by timeframe. This is just the beginning – stay tuned for many more exciting features in the future!

Haven’t signed up for vidIQ yet, click here now!

 There hasn’t been a better time – get started growing your YouTube audience today.

Line graph comparing Coca-Cola and Pepsi views and subscriptions growth over months.

Success on YouTube isn’t always about tracking just your metrics – it’s about gaining valuable insights into your competitors too!

Introducing YouTube Competitor Analysis

The vidIQ score takes into account a ton of different stats to determine the likelihood that of your video surfacing in YouTube Search, Related Videos, and the Front Page.

We look at total amount of engagements (accross YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook), velocity of that post, and views. We use a logarithmic function based on all this data and come up with a 0-100 score.

The videos with most velocity, engagement and views on YouTube will be a 100/100. If you have none of these you'll be closer to 0/100.

By finding videos that are achieving a higher vidIQ Score, you can better identify what's working on YoutTube.

YouTube video analytics dashboard showing Sherlock Series 4 teaser with engagement data

vidIQ Score: How We Rank YouTube Videos

Alas, no matter how many times you’ve learned how to buckle your seatbelt and return your seat back to its full upright position, you’re still obligated to re-learn every time you fly.

Luckily some clever aviation brands have taken it upon themselves to relieve their passengers of their woe by snazzing up their videos and unleashing them on the YouTube masses – and they’re really popular.

In the last three weeks alone four airline pre-screening videos accrued 4.7 million YouTube views – the most popular of which, a collaboration between Disney and KLM, nearly topped the vidIQ/Adweek Top 10 YouTube Brand Videos chart last week. These brands are leveraging collaborations and influencers in extraordinary ways in order to drive earned media and build brand equity – all things we’re very fond of here at vidIQ. Watch the videos below, check out their stats, and discover what they’re doing right or wrong.

Air New Zealand’s “Betty White — Safety Old School Style #airnzsafetyvideo”

Betty White’s collaboration with ANZ solidifies this air safety video as an instant classic.

Great number of shares on Facebook and Twitter. Well tagged! Solid, engaging description. Includes an end-card and annotations promoting other content. Cons:

End-card/annotations could be more engaging. No brand engagement with their commenters (proven to improve views by 4X). Could be promoting more links in description. KLM’s “Disney’s Planes: spectacular pre-screening on board of a KLM plane”

While it’s not a safety video per se, KLM’s pre-screening collaboration with Disney builds awareness for Pixar’s forthcoming “Planes.”

Above average Watch Time. Great number of shares on Facebook, Twitter. Well tagged! Good description length. Cons:

No end-card promoting other videos/a CTA! No links in description. No brand engagement with their commenters (proven to improve views by 4X). Virgin America’s “Safety Video #VXsafetydance”

Virgin proves everything is better with a robot-dance ensemble wearing flotation devices.

Great number of shares on Facebook, Twitter. Well tagged! Solid, engaging description. Cons:

No end-card promoting other videos/a CTA! No brand engagement with their commenters (proven to improve views by 4X). Could be promoting more links in description. Delta’s “Holiday In-Flight Safety Video”

Delta proves it’s never too early to start advertising Christmas with a creepy human-sized nutcracker.

No tags! Huge loss of organic traffic because of this. No description! How is your viewer supposed to know what action they should take next? No end-card promoting other videos/a CTA! No brand engagement with their commenters (proven to improve views by 4X). Could be promoting more links in description. Know any other great airline industry video examples? Let us know in the comments!

Bar chart showing social media engagement by airline on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube platforms

October has been a big month for a much-unloved fixture of air travel – the dreaded FAA mandated airline safety lesson that precedes every takeoff.

Airline Safety Videos Take Off On YouTube

Our rankings are based off of top gainers per week by views, and include our vidIQ Score as well as Twitter and Facebook engagement metrics.

If you haven’t already, check out the YouTube chart for August 4th – August 10th!

We hope you enjoy our new YouTube charts – be sure to check out Adweek.com/VideoWatch every week to see the new rankings!"

vidIQ and Adweek logos on blue background with upward trending graph arrows

Exciting news for YouTube creators, brands, and stats nerds! We have partnered with Adweek to provide weekly YouTube rankings for the Top 10 YouTube Brand Videos and Top 10 YouTube Web Series Videos

vidIQ Partnership With Adweek: Top YouTube Brand/Creator Video Charts

Our new customizable Advanced Analytics dashboard helps YouTube creators answer the question: “What are the top things driving watch time on my channel?”

Provides an at-a-glance understanding of YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter engagement data all in one location.

We break down the best time of day to post to YouTube for every day of the week, ensuring your channel’s programming schedule is set up to maximize engagement.

Drill down into your YouTube watch time metrics by source, including top YouTube and Google search keywords driving watch time, Embed URL watch time metrics, and watch time by country.

Understand the demographic makeup of your YouTube audience by gender, geographic location, and more.

If you haven’t already given vidIQ a spin, get started and start growing your audience!

Line chart tracking YouTube views, likes, shares, comments, and Facebook interactions in July

As we covered in our new Chrome extension announcement last week, success on YouTube is about more than just views. Helping YouTube creators understand what factors contribute to their channel’s success is our #1 priority at vidIQ, which is why today we’re announcing a complete revamp of our analytics suite.

Introducing Advanced YouTube Analytics Revamp

Install our Chrome extension and we provide you with key insights into what the top creators are doing to drive growth, increase engagement, and create viral content

So for every video you view on YouTube (not just yours) you’ll now see the vidIQ Vision “widget” that ranks every video with vidIQ’s proprietary Score as well as shows you Key Performance Indicators, including:

Helps judge the likelihood of a video being promoted in Related Videos, Search, and Recommended Videos.

You’re now able to see Watch Time not just for your own videos but for any video you’re looking at.

See how many times someone on Facebook has Liked, Shared or included your video’s URL in a comment.

See how many times someone has included your video’s URL in a Tweet, as well as the actual tweets themselves.

WPM shows you how many words per minute a video has. According to our dataset (from 8k+ channels) the most successful videos have higher WPM (~220). In other words, the faster you talk & the more jump cuts you add the more engagement + views you’ll get (surprising, I know!). This would explain why Jenna Marbles talks so fast (people have short attention spans!).

YouTube recently started hiding video tags. We surface them. This is extremely valuable for brands (if I’m Pepsi I probably want to see what Coca Cola is tagging their videos with).

We tell you the best number of links to add.

We tell you whether your description is too short or just right.

Chrome users can install vidIQ Vision for free by clicking here

Thumbnail of YouTube video "True Facts About The Owl" with two owls close-up and stats.

As we all know success on YouTube is about more than just views. There’s a lot of confusion about what metrics YouTube marketers should be paying attention to, so we developed vidIQ Vision to eliminate that confusion.

Introducing vidIQ Vision: A YouTube Chrome Extension For Power Users

And it’s just the beginning. As with any gold rush, those with the best tools will ultimately win out.

Which is why at vidIQ we’re extremely excited to be building the most robust MCN tools in the industry.

YouTube is becoming an increasingly crowded marketing channel, and getting “easy” subscribers and views will only become harder as more brands and creators scramble to get in on the action. Creators are beginning to realize that an MCN is only as good as the tools they provide, and MCNs are looking to vidIQ to provide their creators with tools that give them a leg up, drive real growth, and help manage their increasingly large networks of channels.

For Networks, some of the benefits we provide are:

With vidIQ’s White Label Support, YouTube networks are able to create a personalized experience for their creators with assets that reflect the network’s unique brand and identity.

Our Network Manager allows YouTube networks to easily invite and onboard their creators in a simple, intuitive workflow. Moreover, networks are able to easily keep tabs on their channels to see how they’re performing.

For creators, if your network uses vidIQ you gain access to our entire suite of YouTube marketing tools that optimize every step of your workflow and help supercharge your YouTube strategy. You get:

Take the guesswork out of tagging and titling your videos – vidIQ optimizes your metadata for maximum reach.

Gain invaluable insights into your audience, discover your super fans, and connect with them to drive growth.

Reign in your YouTube channel with advanced comment moderation tools built especially for the enterprise.

Stay focused on what matters with unparalleled insights into audience viewing habits and engagement metrics.

Manage multiple channels, invite your team, and define workflows with tools that promote collaboration.

Save time, money, and your sanity by automating many of the YouTube marketing tasks in your daily routine.

At vidIQ, our agile team is constantly innovating and creating amazing features for YouTubers big and small.

vidIQ logo on blue background with upward trending graph for MCN growth and optimization

If the recent deluge of investment in YouTube MCNs proves anything, it’s that online video has entered a feverish gold rush phase.

The Best YouTube Marketing Tools for Multi Channel Networks

Our YouTube comment moderation tool provides brands with enterprise level audience insight and control over interactions occurring around their videos – and today we’re making it even better.

With YouTube Comment Search, vidIQ users now have a powerful search tool that allows them to easily decrease comment spam, reduce illicit comments, or perform viewer sentiment analysis.

Combined with the ability to sort commenters by reputation, reply to comments from any of your YouTube channels, and unearth a viewer’s comment history, you now have a powerful arsenal of YouTube management tools at your fingertips.

If you haven’t already given vidIQ a spin, get started and start growing your audience

Search bar with autocomplete suggestions for YouTube comment search queries on blue background.

Engaging with your YouTube commenters is proven to increase your views by 4X – which is why we encourage all of our brands and creators to embrace the YouTube comments section rather than fear it.