How Mark Rober Averages 37 Million Views Per Video (Genius)

[00:01] for going viral on youtube his crazy science experiments have become some of the most popular uploads on the platform to the point where right now he averages to the point where right now he averages an insane 37 million views per video and

[00:14] his audience just keeps growing when i put out a video i get an increase of 300 000 subscribers in like two days now i covered mark in a video last year but since then i've learned a lot more about the tactics he uses to make banger after

[00:29] banger i've realized that this guy literally has a three-step formula for his viral videos and today we're gonna get to the bottom you see the reason mark's youtube strategy is worth studying is the fact

[00:41] he's part of a very exclusive club and it started by accident in 2011 he randomly uploaded this halloween prank video it went viral and the scientist inside mark rober realized something viral videos aren't just random they can

[00:56] be engineered for entertainment channels on youtube there are certain tiers you've got a huge group of creators who hover somewhere between 1 million to 10 million views a video but there's a huge gap to the next level

[01:09] only a small handful of creators consistently get more than 20 million views on their videos so what's the difference youtubers like mark know something about the algorithm that keeps them ahead of the competition

[01:22] let's go through his three-step formula by analyzing this video here watch some of the video because mark does some pretty interesting things in his editing but first we need to talk about something that is often overlooked

[01:37] which takes us on to step number one mark has a system for viral ideas creators in the world is they are incredible at identifying viral opportunities someone like mark is constantly thinking

[01:50] of ideas his real skill is being able to filter through them and pick the one and the good news is there's a bit of a best ideas on mark's channel have to pass four main criteria before they get

[02:04] the first thing is all mark's videos have an extreme element it shouldn't be a surprise that viral videos need to be somewhat unique if they were easy to replicate there would be too much competition for example the

[02:16] world's largest videos concept is a proven way to stand out the algorithm rewards going to the extreme the second thing is mark's ideas are optimized for new viewers his videos can be shown to someone who has never seen his channel

[02:29] before and still be interesting they have wide appeal mark's video ideas are usually previously proven as much as it's good to innovate most viral ideas on youtube are just adaptations of things that have

[02:41] worked in the past for example the video we are covering today is just a progression of this video from 2019 this removes the guesswork if it's worked for you or for another channel we can already predict there's a good

[02:54] chance it will work again and finally mark has said if he can't visualize the start filming we'll cover some of the tactics mark uses in this area later in the video if you look at any of mark's recent uploads they all follow these

[03:07] four criteria but now it's time for the really interesting parts because ideas are useless without execution which takes us on to step number two mark edits for the algorithm i heard something about mark recently that

[03:21] really surprised me and it's one of the main reasons i wanted to make this video in the first place despite having nearly 20 million subscribers mark still edits and writes his own videos now i've worked with plenty of one million plus

[03:34] worked with plenty of one million plus youtubers and trust me this is very rare so why well let's take a listen to mark explaining why he refuses to outsource these two things i think the biggest thing i probably don't skimp on relative

[03:47] to my peers that they do is probably like the edit right and like the stories like i write all my own stories like i'm an okay builder compared to like other people like i'm actually not that good but the

[04:00] one thing i think that maybe is a little bit of a special sauce is like framing the story coming up with a cool story and just telling that story i'll film out what the most interesting parts of the story was and then i like thread the

[04:14] needle to to create that narrative and so part of that then is also the edit and packaging that together and i i just don't know how i would outsource that okay so mark's really hyped up his

[04:27] storytelling and editing youtube's algorithm as we've discussed many times before rewards creators who can hold the viewer's attention throughout the video so let's take a look and see mark's genius in action starting with the first

[04:39] genius in action starting with the first 30 seconds world's largest and tallest elephant toothpaste experiment and this is a

[04:51] totally different kind of reaction we discovered in all our experimentation called devil's toothpaste which is insanely reactive and super dangerous i'll explain why in a minute but for now here's a hint

[05:08] is that mark delivers on the promise right away when you click on this video you're clicking for explosions and guess what in the opening section seven of the first 15 shots we see are explosions this instantly rewards the viewer for

[05:23] choosing mark's video secondly the edit frequency is very intense in fact just in this intro there are 16 separate cuts the average length of a clip is 1.8 any part of the video that should be fast paced it's the intro these tactics

[05:39] grab your attention from the first second what happens next is even more important [Music] this is fletcher and this is also fletcher a year before this call but

[05:54] unbeknownst to everyone at the time also pictured here under all that amazing hair was a fast-growing brain tumor i secretly vowed that if he made it to 13 years old i would fly him and his family out and surprise him with just the

[06:07] dopest birthday party ever and not long after i texted fletcher this picture so he knew we had closely matching hairstyles but what he didn't know is that plans were already underway for him and i to take back the record for the

[06:20] world's largest elephant toothpaste mark always gives his videos a strong why and i think this is often missing on youtube most people would just take this idea toothpaste explosion but by adding in this underlying story mark gives the

[06:36] whole video purpose he's also blending two viral video concepts into one now the video is not only a world's largest video but it's also a wholesome surprise mark is making viral videos within his viral video however the first difficulty

[06:50] comes after this point and it's where a lot of people fail the build up phase compared to the excitement of the intro and the emotion of the why mark actually building the experiment could seem boring but he keeps this part

[07:03] interesting using a storytelling structure problem discovery explanation he uses this pattern in the building section of every video it's a perfect example of show don't tell when it comes to youtube and then comes the most

[07:16] important parts of the video mark has three separate payoffs picture i snuck up right behind him and took off my mask

[07:28] cool what do you guys want to do next what do you guys want to do next what should we do

[07:51] algorithm has changed to favor what they call viewer satisfaction they want to entertained and leave them feeling happy and fulfilled think about it people explosion and they actually ended up getting two huge explosions and a

[08:06] heartwarming surprise to really succeed on youtube you need to over deliver for your viewers but for mark's formula there's still a vital part missing which takes us on to the next step mark uses perfect packaging

[08:20] this point would be useless if he doesn't get the thumbnail and title right how you package your video is arguably the most important thing the title is it's very concise 44 characters to be exact data shows

[08:36] that the best performing viral videos have titles under 55 characters long as we mentioned earlier world's largest emphasizes that extreme aspect even using the word explosion instead of experiment adds to the excitement and

[08:49] danger that mark is trying to communicate however i think the real first of all the colors of the devil's toothpaste immediately grab your eye background of the thumbnail washed out with neutral colours the contrast makes

[09:04] it jump through the screen the same is true of mark himself his white clothing t-shirt here he would be much harder to recognize also notice how mark is used to show the scale the small human body beside the

[09:18] massive explosion makes you realize just how insane this video is going to be to add to this the thumbnail is in action mark running away makes it look like a screenshot from the video this emphasizes the danger and urgency you're

[09:30] clicking for that exact moment it also follows what i like to call the three element rule a good thumbnail is a simple thumbnail there are three main elements at play here the explosion the arrow and mark himself having too many

[09:42] elements in one thumbnail adds unnecessary complexity my friend dan thumbnails if he's not seeing results with all my clients i use a tool called a b testing in tubebuddy to do this automatically it can switch between two

[09:56] thumbnails and pick the one getting the best ctr and views i honestly have no i've left a special link in the description below for you to give it a try mark certainly inspires me to be a better youtuber if you found this video

[10:09] helpful or interesting in any way all i ask for is a subscribe for now though ask for is a subscribe for now though i'll see you in the next one