Hey there. Everyone wants to know how to game the YouTube algorithm. Unfortunately, only the guy who created it understands how to do that. Fortunately, he's told us all how to do it...

And away we go! 👇

The YouTube Algorithm Explained By The Guy Who Created It 🧠

At VidCon earlier this year, Todd B - the guy who created the YouTube algorithm - sat down with MrBeast to discuss the how the algorithm works.

How does the recommendation algorithm work?

Whenever someone logs onto YouTube or goes back to the homepage, YouTube needs to figure out which videos to get in front of viewers within less than a second. There are 2 key metrics they use to do this:

1. Personalization - what does YouTube understand about each viewer?

YouTube looks at the channels that each viewer is subscribed to and which ones they actually watch. They also look at particular videos from each channel that viewers watches.

Here's an example to make it easier to understand. Say you create vlog videos and informative lifestyle videos for people in their 20's. If a viewer ONLY watches your vlog videos, YouTube is going to look at other videos that other viewers who only watch your vlog videos watch, and recommend those videos.

2. Performance - how are videos performing?

The algorithm will favor videos that result in more engagement directly from Recommended videos.

YouTube wants to reward the videos that "satisfy" viewers, keep them on the platform, and coming back. The way YouTube find this out is by running surveys. If you've seen a survey while watching videos, you know what these look like. If not, watch more content from other creators.

What creators tend to get wrong

Creators seem to expect that they're going to publish a video and YouTube is going to get straight to work showing their video to everyone. This is wrong because, again, YouTube needs to determine the best videos to put in front of a viewer at the exact time that they are online. So, if you release a video and no subscribers or viewers who are likely (as determined by the algorithm) to watch it are online, your video will be off to a poor start performance-wise.

This is why looking at your analytics to understand your viewers and when they are online goes a long way. To see when your subscribers are online, go to your Analytics in YouTube Studio and under the Audience tab, you'll find a chart titled "When your viewers are on YouTube" that looks like this... ⤵️

Does the algo care about small creators?

YouTube has teams of people dedicated to making sure small creators can still break through on YouTube. They're actively trying to find the balance between promoting creators with large audiences and those that are on the rise.

A lot of smaller creators upload a couple times, give up hope, and stop creating videos on YouTube. But Todd says not to draw premature conclusions on your videos. The algorithm can pick them up years after uploading.

Your focus (if you're a smaller creator) should be on experimenting to see what gets traction. Once you find content-audience fit, double down.

This segment of today's Viral Post was inspired by Jay Alto's recent tweet about understanding the YouTube algorithm. Go show him some love! ❤️

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Creator Advice Of The Day 📝

Do the hard stuff... 👆

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