If you’re producing great videos that you’re sure your audience will love, your next step is to master how to get more impressions on YouTube videos. After all, impressions mean that you’re:
- Earning more money – if you’re monetized
- Increasing your video clicks potential
- Growing your channel’s visibility
- So much more
While impressions and views are different, they go hand-in-hand, so the tips that we’re going to cover can be used across your YouTube to increase your chances of new viewers – and hopefully subscribers – watching your content.
12 Ways to Get More Impressions on YouTube
1. Buy YouTube Views and Shares
YouTube views and impressions are similar: one includes a person seeing your thumbnail on YouTube and the other is someone viewing your content. But creators know that if you’re getting more views, shares and engagement, the algorithm will promote your videos more often.
What many creators do is buy YouTube views and spread them among multiple videos.
Why?
YouTube will see the increase in views and connect the dots that your video is worth promoting. Organically, your video will show up in suggestions, helping you increase:
- Impressions
- Views
- Subscribers
If you’re on the fence about purchasing views, consider the pros and cons. Start small with a lower view package and see if views are helping you grow your impressions or not.
2. Work on Creating Clickable Thumbnails
Ask yourself: why do you get impressions on YouTube? And the answer is that it’s because the platform thinks that people will:
- Like your video
- Watch your video
- Drive ad revenue
If your videos are recommended and no one is clicking on them, a simple trick that works very well is to work on creating clickable thumbnails. You want people to begin clicking on your videos, watching them and even subscribing.
And your first impression is your thumbnail.
Creating a thumbnail that drives clicks often requires small changes that lead to big results. A few tips that can make your YouTube thumbnails irresistible are:
- Start using a thumbnail maker that will help you create thumbnails that are more professional and clickable. Consider a tool like Canva, VistaCreate or Snappa.
- Create thumbnails that truly represent your video rather than lure in clicks with false promises.
- Add emotion to your thumbnails. Mr. Beast is iconic for his facial expressions that entice people to click on his thumbnails.
- Use color theory to your advantage. For example, warm colors, such as yellow and orange, invoke excitement, while cool colors, such as blue and green, are ideal for creating a sense of calm and trust.
If you want to educate yourself further on thumbnails, consider going on Netflix and studying what the platform does to encourage clicks with thumbnails. You’ll find that Netflix has mastered thumbnails, and you can learn so much from studying them.
In terms of your audience and what they prefer, be sure to review your YouTube analytics to learn what thumbnails are leading to the most clicks on your videos.
3. Start Writing Video Descriptions Like This
It’s easy to overlook your video descriptions as being an important part of getting people to watch your content. You create videos – you’re not a writer – and it’s not easy to write something that’s ultra-catchy for your audience.
What works well is to:
- Create a strong intro that is just 2 – 3 sentences long. You want to focus heavily on the intro to explain what your video is all about and encourage a click. Spend a lot of time on these few sentences because it may be all that people read.
- Add another 2 – 3 paragraphs of text below the intro with a detailed outline of what you’ll be covering.
And don’t forget to add links at the end to your socials or website. We do recommend that you add keywords to your description to get more impressions on YouTube and in Google Search.
If you want to learn more about video descriptions, just look through some of the leaders in your industry and see how they’re writing their descriptions.
Once you’re confident in your descriptions, you can consider the multiple other types of content that are available.
4. Mix in Multiple Content Types
Are you experimenting with multiple content types? If not, you’re missing out on potential impressions. You may have an audience that loves your long-form videos, but there are many others who prefer shorts because they offer “fast, instant gratification.”
We recommend that you become a prolific content creator who offers:
- Long-form videos, which don’t need to be 45 minutes long, but they should be 2 – 10 minutes long. Experiment with length for your audience to see what they like and don’t like.
- Shorts, which will help you get tons of impressions and views, but they’re not ideal if you want to make money. We recommend using shorts to attract views to your long-form content. You can even make clips of your long-form content and turn them into Shorts to save yourself time when creating them.
If you’re not engaging with your community, you should start doing that now. You can start creating community posts and commenting back to people to encourage viewer loyalty.
5. Suggest Other Videos in Your Content to Keep Viewers Hooked
Are you suggesting other content in your videos? You should be. For example, let’s assume that you have a video on dachshunds that you just posted. You can then recommend videos on the breed that include:
- Training
- Common health problems
- Best clothes
- How to protect the breed’s back
- Etc.
And since the viewer is likely to want to view this additional content, they’ll have a much higher chance of clicking on it.
Every impression and view can help you appease YouTube’s algorithm and continue to grow your channel.
6. Add in YouTube SEO
Search engine optimization is for more than just websites; it’s also a great way to get more impressions on your YouTube channel. While we can write a novel on how to optimize for search, we’re going to focus heavily on just YouTube videos.
We have a few guides on the topic that can help, such as 28 YouTube SEO tools that you can use in 2024.
Once you start using tools, you can then follow these quick and easy tips to optimize your video’s SEO:
- Add in closed captions that help you cater to a broader audience and also add to your optimization.
- Create keyword-rich tags, titles and descriptions.
- Create transcripts with your keyword in them to improve search optimization further.
Following these few tips can help you optimize your videos further than most other creators do. Over time, you can add in other SEO tactics to push your impressions even further.
If you’ve optimized for SEO, the next step is to begin uploading your videos the right way.
7. Upload Your Videos at the Same Time All the Time
When do you normally upload your videos? Is it random? If so, now is the time to change that.
Uploading your videos at the same time, every time can help boost your impressions. Why? Because your subscribers will know when to look for your videos.
They’ll either:
- Visit your channel to find your new video, which will increase your impressions, OR
- They’ll look for your content in their feed, which will also boost your impressions
The question is: when is the best time to upload your videos? That largely depends on your niche and audience, but experts agree that the overall best time to post videos is:
- In the afternoon, between 3 PM and 9 PM
Experiment with this time range to see if it works well for your channel. And be sure to check your Analytics data to see when your specific audience is online and most active. Posting when your audience is online will help you maximize impressions.
8. Optimize End Screens for More Clicks
A well-optimized end screen will keep viewers engaged and encourage them to binge-watch your videos – leading to more impressions.
But how do you optimize your end screens?
- Add subscribe buttons or other CTAs
- Encourage people to watch another video
Testing different end screens is the best way to determine what works and doesn’t work for your channel. Look at your data to see which end-screen formats or layouts get people to perform your desired action.
9. Become a Master of YouTube Analytics
YouTube Analytics is one of the best free tools you can use to increase your impressions and channel growth.
Analytics data can help you understand what your audience wants to see, and which videos are currently getting the most impressions.
When you can see what’s working and not working for your channel, you can adjust your content plan, titles and descriptions accordingly.
Here’s how to access your YouTube Analytics:
- Open the YouTube app and navigate to View Channel.
- Tap Analytics from the middle menu.
From here, you can see your:
- Views
- Watch time
- Likes
- Subscribers
- Your most popular videos
- Your audience information
Use this data to figure out what people want to see and then create more of it.
10. Tell Your Audience What to Do with a Strong Call-to-Action
Increasing your shares, subscribers and views can also increase your impressions. What’s the best way to get shares, subs and views? Ask for them!
Add strong calls-to-action (CTAs) to your videos and tell your audience to share your videos, subscribe to your channel and check out your other videos.
Try adding CTAs towards the beginning of your videos and again at the end. Here are some examples of CTAs:
- Don’t forget to like, subscribe and share if you enjoyed this video!
- If you haven’t already, make sure you’re subscribed to my channel.
You can also add info cards and use them as CTAs. For example, you can tell your viewers to check out another video that’s relevant to whatever you’re talking about and display that video in an info card.
11. Create Playlists to Keep People Watching
One highly effective way to increase impressions and keep people on your channel is to create playlists.
A playlist will increase impressions – and views – for all of the videos on the list. This strategy is also a great way to get subscribers, which will naturally increase your impressions.
When creating playlists, think of your viewers. You can group videos by:
- Topic. For example, if you have a fitness channel, you can create a playlist of leg workout videos.
- Outcome. For example, if you have a digital marketing channel, you can create a playlist of videos that help users improve their search traffic.
- Moods or themes. Maybe you have a group of videos that share themes or moods. These types of playlists work best for music, relaxation or ambiance types of videos.
12. Try Collaborating with Others If Your Niche Allows It
If you’re in the right niche, you can collaborate with others to get more impressions. Collaborations will help your video appear in the search results more often, and people who visit your channel will also see your video to increase your impressions.
When you partner with other creators, you expand your reach, and more people will know about your video.
Here are a few tips about collaborations:
- Choose partners who have similar audiences.
- Don’t choose a direct competitor. Look for someone who is in the same industry or niche but focuses on something different. For example, if you’re in the finance niche, it may make sense to collaborate with someone in the real estate niche.
- Make sure the collaboration will add value to your audience and the collaborator’s audience.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an Impression?
Impressions are counted on YouTube whenever a video’s thumbnail is displayed for more than one second and at least 50% of the thumbnail is visible on the screen.
What to Do If Your YouTube Impressions Drop?
It’s common for YouTube impressions to drop occasionally, but they should bounce back after a few days. If they don’t, you may need to optimize your video’s title, description and tags to include your target keywords.
If you’re not getting any impressions, it’s because your video is not showing up in the search results for your keywords or because it’s not being recommended.
In either case, optimizing your video can help get your impressions back up.
Can Buying Views and Shares Get Me in Trouble?
No, not if you’re buying views and shares from real accounts. That’s exactly what we deliver at Viralyft. Shares and views from fake accounts or bots can get your account in trouble, so make sure you’re only buying from a reputable provider like us.
