Collabs on YouTube - How to Grow Views & Subs

[00:02] That's the YouTube feature that lets one channel partner up with other channels, taking what's been a long-standing beloved tradition among creators, jumping into each other's videos, and giving it some official support and

[00:15] Ritchie, a long-time creator and now working at YouTube, and here's what's up. If you've already used collabs, you know that the video shows up on the host channel, but puts collaborator's branding right on the player. It shows

[00:28] up in everyone's subs feeds, makes everyone's audience available for potential recommendations, and optionally lets everyone see the analytics. So, does channel size matter? Every size matters, and every channel

[00:41] size can benefit from reaching new audiences. To give creators an idea of the baseline potential, YouTube recently ran a study analyzing performance data from videos published back in February to see how different channel sizes

[00:53] performed. YouTube found that creators with a significantly larger subscriber base, about 30 times larger than their collaborators, experienced, on average, a 30% uplift in first-week views on collab videos. That's compared to their

[01:06] own non-collab videos of the same format published within the preceding 5 months. For similarly sized channels, the results were pretty similar, on average, 25% uplift in the first week's views. YouTube is sharing these numbers not as

[01:18] important to remember that performance varies by video, but the overall stats are incredibly clear. Collabs across different channel sizes opens up new offering an opportunity to reach an entirely new audience. Does posting a

[01:34] collab hurt a regular video? Collabs are additive. It's not a zero-sum game. A collab video simply creates an additional distribution path, one that pushes your video into the subs feed and potential recommendations of your

[01:46] collaborator's audience. How can we get the most out of collabs? Well, by doing it either for fun, because you just vibe with a friend and want to collab without a metrics care in the world or by being strategic and intentional and thinking

[02:00] outside your usual circle of creator friends. For the first one, just do you. Collab with who you want to collab with, how you want to do it, and enjoy. For the second, think about collabing over events like a big movie premiere,

[02:12] concert, product release, foodie or dance trend, or a news story. This gives existing fans a total team-up thrill, but also exposes you to an audience but just doesn't know about your take on it yet. Also, think about complementary

[02:26] creators and topics. If you're doing fitness, collab with a nutritionist doing meal prep or a sleep expert talking about recovery. If you're a woodworker making furniture, collab with a metalworker for the legs or an artist

[02:38] for some fancy decor. Gamer and gear channel to set up a new rig. Fashion and photography to show off a shoot. You get the idea. It'll provide fresh value to theirs. Mostly, think about building bridges between communities. That's

[02:52] where collabs really shine. Also, if you started a new channel, collaborating with your main channel can help give that side channel a jump start. So, what's next for collabs? To help further expand your reach, you can now invite up

[03:04] to 10 collaborators to join a single video. That's twice the previous amount cooking, so keep an eye out for more updates. Let me know your thoughts and any additional questions in the comments and keep it real.