I sacrificed YouTube views for more money and I’d do it again
Here’s the story:
In 2017, I stopped caring about growing my YouTube channel…
Amassing 20k+ subscribers didn’t matter because I had a variety channel.
Which means my subscribers want different things…
I’ve played many different games, made different kinds of content and I experimented A LOT with my channel.
Plus:
YouTube doesn’t send your videos to ALL of your subscribers anyway.
If someone misses a few of your videos…YouTube will usually take the hint and stop showing them your videos.
This means if you:
- Make videos on UFC 2 in 2016…
- Then switch to ARK in 2017…
- Focus on Rainbow 6 Siege for a few months and make a few dozen videos about YouTube marketing…
- Then switch back to ARK but focusing ONLY on people who rent a server…
Your subscribers will probably stop seeing your videos.
So, don’t do what I did – niche down instead (as I always instruct!)
Read on:
My YouTube subscriber count didn’t (and still doesn’t) mean much to me…
I was more concerned with not being poor anymore.
That’s when I started honing in and focusing on revenue generating activities while cutting everything else out…
Here’s where it gets interesting:
After starting my ARK PS4 servers business in 2018, I made a difficult decision…
Okay, I’m lying…
It wasn’t difficult at all.
But I knew that the decision would have negative effects on my channel…
The decision:
I chose to sacrifice more views for more $$$$ instead.
Very easy decision in my opinion.
But this is what that actually meant:
I created and added pre-roll ads for my business and added it to my tutorial videos about ARK PS4 servers.
Essentially putting my business in front of my target market…
(A pre-roll ad is an advertisement that appears before your video)
Beautiful business there, simple 1 – 2 punch.
So what’s the problem?
Well, adding a pre-roll ad to your videos makes some people leave.
I knew this…
And, I was comfortable losing viewers that didn’t want to watch my ad or just skip past it like a reasonable person…
But, YouTube isn’t comfortable with viewers leaving at ALL.
YouTube prefers when people watch more of your video, so when people leave that video after 20 seconds – YouTube doesn’t want to recommend it to new viewers.
I knew this too…
And, I’d make the same decision again – if given the chance.
Here’s why:
The pre-roll ads WORKED.
I get sales in my schleeeeeep son!
Customers send me “thank you” emails and leave great reviews because I help them save time and get their servers up and running without the headache of coding.
I’m no longer broke as a joke and I can do ANYTHING I wanna do when I wake up.
If the cost of freedom is pre-roll ads and losing out on recommended views – I’ll buy it twice!
And don’t forget:
I DOMINATE my video SEO, so I get most of my channels views from YouTube search anyways…
But…you shouldn’t use pre-roll ads like I did.
Let me explain:
It’s possible that getting my videos recommended may have gotten me MORE sales because of the added exposure…
My success there was based on me absolutely DOMINATING the niche.
There was basically NO real competition in that specific niche…
So I had free rein to use pre-roll ads and do whatever I chose.
There was NOWHERE else to find that niche content, I was the only game in town.
But, if you’ve watched any of my recent content, you’ll see that I’m mostly getting rid of my pre-roll ads altogether.
I’m moving into more competitive niches and I want to experiment with getting my videos recommended…
So what should you do?
Unless your broke and you need to make money ASAP, don’t use pre-roll ads.
Don’t do anything at the beginning of your video that will make someone click off…
Go STRAIGHT into the content you promised in the thumbnail and title.
And, if you have something to advertise:
Having your ad organically flow in the final third of your content is the approach I would recommend.
By “organically” I mean the ad isn’t pre-recorded: you actually deliver your CTA (Call To Action) live.
This method should lead to less viewers dropping-off but, having an ad midway through your video would be the best of both worlds – and likely most profitable.
If you want to learn more about advertising on your YouTube channel, going full-time on YouTube or getting more views on your gaming videos – go here:
Jay Cartere
