Having issues with low click through rate on YouTube? Here’s the fix!
Let’s state the obvious: there are exactly two variables when it comes to your low CTR (click through rate) on YouTube.
These two variables are your title and your thumbnail.
How are those two things so important, that you can spend painstaking hours writing, recording, and editing an absolutely incredible video, just to get no impressions or have low ctr (click through rate)?
Because those two things all your potential audience have to go off of before they invest into clicking your video.
Let’s step back for a moment, and ponder a scenario:
Say you’re opening a brand-new restaurant, and you know you’ve got the absolute best burger.
You’ve crafted the most mouth-watering burger complete with fresh crispy veggies, a perfectly charred burger, decadent cheddar cheese, and savory sauce. This burger is your La fontaine de jouvence — the absolute best of the best!
But if you aren’t advertising it correctly, nobody will buy it.
Cut to the chase author — how do I turn all these impressions into actual viewers!
Alright, alright — you made your point. Moral of that story is this: your audience knowing you have something, is almost more important than you actually having said thing.
Let’s first discuss your thumbnail — thumbnails are the very first impression your potential viewer will receive from your video.
Your first and foremost goal is to catch their eye. Let me offer you some examples:
These examples are pretty obvious as to which the average user is more likely to click — but why?
We can break it down into a few key reasons, the first being contrast and color.
The first image offers significant contrast between elements, which in turn creates less work for the viewer’s eyes. Remember, viewers absolutely do not want to work hard, they’d rather scroll.
The colors shown in the first image pop, elevated by their contrasting hues.
Next up is the font.
The larger and more round font offers significantly more visibility. Visibility is key, considering 63% of YouTube users use mobile devices (smaller screen = smaller thumbnail real estate!).
The font choice also expresses a bubbly persona — what you want if you’re attempting to exude a fun, leisurely energy from your video.
These stylistic choices are what will catch your viewer’s eye initially, and are your first steps into improving on them toward clicking your video over the competition’s.
Before we get into titles, I want to quickly offer you some advice regarding your channel’s persona.
Just as it’s key for a large company to stay on brand, it’s important for your channel/thumbnails to as well to allow an audience to grow and increase repeat viewership.
For example, let’s say your channel’s objective is teaching users how to trade stocks/options.
You must emanate an aura of professionalism and authority when you’re giving executive advice like that.
A question I’m sure you have, is how can I emanate professionalism and authority but still get people to click my videos — won’t that be boring?
No, not as long as you keep both portions of the article in mind: eye catching visuals and your persona.
Check out these examples of stock investment YouTubers who keep their thumbnails professional, yet are still able to grab the viewer’s eye:
Now, let’s talk about titles. You’ve momentarily enthralled your potential viewer, and their eyes glance down to the title. How do you ensure they click 😊, instead of scroll 😔?
Tailoring a titular title!
The process is more or less the same as our thumbnail procedure — give the potential viewer a reason to crave your video (eye catching), and demonstrate your video’s goal.
What do I mean by “give the potential viewer a reason to crave your video”? Well it’s actually pretty simply done.
Allow me to offer another example, which of these titles would make someone interested in playing basketball more likely to watch my video?
“How I Got A 5 FOOT VERTICAL JUMP In Only 3 DAYS!”
“super high jump shot video.mp4”
They’d probably be more interested in viewing the first video, let me explain why (there’s more to it than you might think!)
Number one, the first title is more descriptive.
People love sensory descriptors — it’s what makes “a juicy, handcrafted 100% angus cheeseburger” sound better than “a hamburger”
This kills two birds with one stone: by crafting a more descriptive title, you produce a more searchable video. That means someone searching how to get a five foot vertical jump fast, is more likely to end up seeing your video — increasing your ctr ratio!
Psst….after reading that last sentence, you’re more knowledgeable than most people on YouTube SEO (Search Engine Optimization)!
The next reason the first title is superior, is due to its clickbait-y nature.
Unfortunately, to be competitive on YouTube in 2022, you must also be at least somewhat clickbait-y.
And while most people swear to hate clickbait, they can’t help but click it — It’s how we’re wired!
Lastly, the first title succinctly communicated the video’s goal, there’s no way to misunderstand what the video will be about.
This means the potential viewer knows exactly what your video is about through only a glance.
Those are some tips to help improve your CTR on YouTube!
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